SD51555
5 year old buck +
That’s shouldn’t hurt it at all. Did u have ticks in your rye ? I’ve never seen any in/on the rye.
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The Sweet Clover Thread
- Thread starter SD51555
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That’s shouldn’t hurt it at all. Did u have ticks in your rye ? I’ve never seen any in/on the rye.
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matinc
5 year old buck +
SD. Thank you. I got four ticks in one day on me on mother's day weekend. Brushed one off my pants and another off a tool in the woods. That was going thru the woods clearing trails and cutting wood. The next day I pulled a stump on edge of rye field and did not get any
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Are they browsing the balansa?
I went out with the yard stick today. This may turn into a balansa thread from here.
The chicory is over 3’ now. Looks to be a huge chicory crop coming again.
There is total blackout now. I forgot to peel it open to check residue.
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SD51555
5 year old buck +
A little. That clover is thick enough that it leaves a trail where they walked thru, and they nibble a little as they go by.
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SD51555
5 year old buck +
Chicory can regularly go north of 6' if it can get past the deer. I can get mine to almost 7' across the board. I pulled one out of a spoils pile that was over 8' last year.
If you've got any perennial plots on the horizon, add it. It doesn't take much. 1 pound will get you 425,000 seeds. That's nearly 10 per square foot in an acre.
I've had a ton of rain. I went from deep prolonged drought to off the map in 6 weeks. Ponds are full, and the land is sucking in carbon and giving out abundance like crazy. I mean everything is yielding. Soft mast, browse, grass, confiers, clovers, forbs, flowers, bugs, frogs, deer, grouse. I saw a grouse hen with 6 chicks on the road yesterday. I stopped and shoo'd them off the pavement.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I think I'm gonna try rolling that balanse if it holds canopy to late July. The green cover site says balansa crimp kills easily. I'm game to try it.
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
How are you going to roll it??
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I'll hit it from two directions with my cultipacker.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Love it! I've got a clover crop like I've never had as well. I really wonder if that mild winter let a lot more balansa live than a normal winter does.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I'll never fully understand balansa. I went back and watched the segment of the Rick Clark video where he was talking about nutrient accumulation in balansa, and I could swear he'd mentioned fall planting balansa like a biennial. I had a thick crop of balansa show last year after I mowed, and I'm about positive, I hadn't spread a seed since August of 2022. I didn't even see any balansa last year when I mowed because between the rye, sweet clover, and chicory, the whole damn plot was 7' tall.
Side note, farmers will apply up to 2 lbs/ac of boron to a corn crop if their test shows low to none. Balansa accumulated 35 lbs of boron in Clark's test.
If I had to decide today what to do, I think I'm gonna throw in a 2/bu rate or rye and roll it down. The sweet clover seed bank is charged for the next 50 years, but I don't know what it'll take to get that hard seed to germinate.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I don't know enough about balansa to tell you to go for it. I've just stumbled into what I have and cannot explain it. If you wanna try it, I'd go about 1/3 ladino, and 2/3 balansa with your rye. The ladino should fill in if the balansa is a flop. You can still get admirable tonnage with ladino if it's comes in healthy.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
@matinc, Not that it’s the right answer but just my thought process- I try for fixation as the largest component of clover in my blends with a medium red variety to pick up the slack if winter kills the fall fixation planting. Last year I got very little fixation balansa through the winter, this year it seems to be thriving. @Foggy47 ‘s and @SD51555's experience with thick perennial clover being gly resistant and outcompeting brassicas and other annual plants has kept me trying to have a higher component of easily terminated annuals in my blends that are going to be cycled/replanted annually. If you want a perennial plot then a ladino variety sounds great.
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Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
Mine rarely makes it past 8-10 inches and usually gone before spring time. The deer hammer it.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
You deserve a nobel prize for finding that information. I'm going to add that to the soils fundamentals library and credit you. That is an excellent catch.
