The Throw n’ Mow Method

[roymunson]

Planning on planting this weekend. We've got some rain coming.

Going to put in AWP, Wheat, & Daikon radishes on at T&M basis. Going to mix in some brassicas/purple tops in and around the blinds to give it a little additional "something different"

Also going to plant it into a stunted/failed corn plot, then brush hog the bad and spotty corn for thatch.

Hoping I'm not too early in NE Ohio for my cereal grains, but with the brows and deer numbers we have, I think I'll be ok.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Planning on planting this weekend. We've got some rain coming.

Going to put in AWP, Wheat, & Daikon radishes on at T&M basis. Going to mix in some brassicas/purple tops in and around the blinds to give it a little additional "something different"

Also going to plant it into a stunted/failed corn plot, then brush hog the bad and spotty corn for thatch.

Hoping I'm not too early in NE Ohio for my cereal grains, but with the brows and deer numbers we have, I think I'll be ok.

Only one way to find out.

 

[roymunson]

Only one way to find out.

That's what I'm afraid of...
I'm trying to go up against the guys I hunt with and convince them not to till everything up every fall... if it flops, they'll be tilling forever.

 

[Catscratch]

What do y'all have against "weeds"???...Don't they repair soil and produce biomass??.....My deer don't seem to be nearly as bothered by them...

I'm good with weeds except Johnson Grass, Pigweed, and Marestail. I work at keeping them in check. Everything else can have their day in the sun while improving soil and herd health.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

That's what I'm afraid of...
I'm trying to go up against the guys I hunt with and convince them not to till everything up every fall... if it flops, they'll be tilling forever.

I was referring to it getting put in to early.

If there is plenty of "standing thatch" to plant into before you mow and or roll, and you get the rain, it WILL grow. My TNM and TNR brassica plots havent seen shit for rain and are growing just fine with the dew that the thatch is holding in.

 

[Tap]

What do y'all have against "weeds"???...Don't they repair soil and produce biomass??.....My deer don't seem to be nearly as bothered by them...

I'm good with weeds except Johnson Grass, Pigweed, and Marestail. I work at keeping them in check. Everything else can have their day in the sun while improving soil and herd health.

The topic of "weeds" drives me nuts on these forums. Weeds...what's a good weed or what's a bad weed?? It all depends on your goals, how an unplanned "weed" effects your goals, and wildlife value of the weed in question. I have several that are just fine in my plots and in some cases, deer actually prefer the weed over the crop. What is considered a useless weed by one herd in one area is a highly preferred by another herd in a different area.
Then there are the others...canada thistle, for example...left unchecked, it will become a useless monoculture that spreads well beyond your property lines.
I know very few of us on this forum that can ID plants like native hunter or magnus...just to name a couple. But I really wish guys would be a little more specific than to just use the broad-brush term weeds".
Too often, we give well meaning advice to a newbie (or experienced plotter, for that matter) about dealing with a weed that just doesn't apply to an area even as little as 10 miles away.
For wildlife habitat discussion, the term weed is too broad brush.

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[yoderjac]

The topic of "weeds" drives me nuts on these forums. Weeds...what's a good weed or what's a bad weed?? It all depends on your goals, how an unplanned "weed" effects your goals, and wildlife value of the weed in question. I have several that are just fine in my plots and in some cases, deer actually prefer the weed over the crop. What is considered a useless weed by one herd in one area is a highly preferred by another herd in a different area.
Then there are the others...canada thistle, for example...left unchecked, it will become a useless monoculture that spreads well beyond your property lines.
I know very few of us on this forum that can ID plants like native hunter or magnus...just to name a couple. But I really wish guys would be a little more specific than to just use the broad-brush term weeds".
Too often, we give well meaning advice to a newbie (or experienced plotter, for that matter) about dealing with a weed that just doesn't apply to an area even as little as 10 miles away.
For wildlife habitat discussion, the term weed is too broad brush.

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The best definition I've ever heard for "weed" is a plant growing someplace you don't want it. For farmers, weeds are pretty much anything growing in his field that he did not plant. That is certainly not true for deer managers. But you are right, most of us are lazy. Instead of increasing our breadth of knowledge of plants and how they related to deer and other wildlife, when we don't recognize them as a crop, we immediately start looking to remove them. You are spot on when you talk about how deer related to them differently in different areas, and this is true for many of the crops we plant as well.

I get PMs from new folks all the time asking for help. If there is no private information involved, I always try to get them to post the question to the open forum instead and just PM me with a link if they specifically want an opinion from me. The reason is exactly what you point out. New folks are much better served by reading multiple threads and seeing opinions from multiple perspectives. We often use broad brush terms like "weed" and someone chiming in on the thread will ask a pertinent question that the rest of use just made an assumption about.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[roymunson]

Could I refer to the coons clobbering my standing corn as weeds? Because, I'd love to see them gone, or at least tell em to quit ruining my life

 

[Tap]

Could I refer to the coons clobbering my standing corn as weeds? Because, I'd love to see them gone, or at least tell em to quit ruining my life

Duke Dog Proof...best coon traps going.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Duke Dog Proof...best coon traps going.

I couldnt possibly disagree with this statement any more than I do.

 

[roymunson]

Duke Dog Proof...best coon traps going.

I couldnt possibly disagree with this statement any more than I do.

oooohhhhh,.,.... this might get interesting

 

[roymunson]

for the record, I work and live about 55 minutes away, so traps aren't a great choice as I can't check them every day.

 

[Bill]

I couldnt possibly disagree with this statement any more than I do.

Bad experience with them?

I don’t use them often but mine always seem to work.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I like the Z-traps the best......I've got Dukes as well. I just like the push, pull trigger better. The Z-traps also have an extra swivel on them and a better stake for holding them in the ground.

 

[Tap]

I couldnt possibly disagree with this statement any more than I do.

I didn't quite understand your point. Do you not agree with trapping, or do you just not like Duke traps? I've had bad luck with coon issues and good luck with duck traps. Bait them with a marshmallow and pour a little maple syrup into the trap for a little scent attractant. I've caught coons only with it. Never any non-target animals.

 

[Tap]

for the record, I work and live about 55 minutes away, so traps aren't a great choice as I can't check them every day.

Looks like plan B, then, but I won't go into the details

 

[Rit]

I am getting ready to TnM into standing Buckwheat and Spring Triticale that has went to seed. I hope to get some volunteers from the seed. By letting the buckwheat go to seed do I lose the soil benefits from the crop?

 

[35-acre]

Don't you just love the Buckwheat for all of the bees it brings? It really makes you feel like you're building your own little ecosystem.

To give you input on your question (I don't want to say it's an answer), based on my limited experience, the volunteers that you will get from the Buckwheat and grains going to seed will not have that much of an impact. However, I'm in New York so my experience may vary a bit from yours. In my case, those volunteers in my plantings barely get established before the get stunted by other things and then by cold weather.

Something to consider...
Are you planning to mow or spray your current crop? I would recommend doing some form of that. Whether you decide to do things in strips or sections to avoid knocking down everything you've worked so hard to get going, spray/mow will really help your next seed established. I'm going to go with this method next year (strips instead of knocking down my entire field). I did something this year, that looking back on it was really dumb. I had a great stand of buckwheat and cereal (like you have now) and I knocked the entire field down which was being heavily used. And to make matters worse, I then only planted sections of the field with my "fall plantings" over the course of the last two months (June - this past weekend). So essentially what I did was take something that was beneficial and destroyed the value of it for a potential fall and winter payout instead of leaving sections standing to provide the holding value to the field while slowly replacing it over time.

Anyway - back to the "spray or mow" point I was getting at before I went off on that tangent, if you look at my last post and the photos I posted you can see that is makes a HUGE difference to germination success.

Good luck - keep the photos coming!

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Don’t take this the wrong way but when I look at your pics the first thing that jumps out at me is the amount of bare dirt and the cracking of the soil surface. This is where we lose focus sometimes in worrying about things like buckwheat. You’ve got much bigger issues to address right now. You need a heavy grass crop and small frequent additions of nutrients. Something like millet or even natural crabgrass would be a better choice than buckwheat in your situation IMO. Your soil surface needs to be covered over and the entire top layer of soil stabilized…. that needs addressed first and foremost. People always hack on "weeds" but they accomplish this job of soil rebuilding in really crappy conditions better than just about anything we can plant. That's what they're designed to do. That's they're job.

 

[roymunson]

Looks like plan B, then, but I won't go into the details

I'm well aware of plan B... But, like you, details were being kept on this side of the ol' interwebz... Maybe they'll have a golden sunset out there...