The Throw n’ Mow Method
- Thread starter Crimson n' Camo
- Start date
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Please keep posting. The pictures are awesome and its very cool to see these bigger seeds working with TnM.
When trying to learn through reading university extension resources from states like MN and ND, there is frequent mention of excessive residue keeping soil temps too cool and hurting emergence. I gotta think that must not really apply much to most summer/fall plantings for food plots? We are still getting into the 50's at night here in 'sota.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Thatch doesn't really stick around very long on my plots, it doesn't build up. I think it's a product of soil activity and life. I have been known though to put livestock on my plots if the situation calls for it. Cattle will inoculate soil with poo and saliva, plus trample and eat thatch.
I couple of screen shots of forecasts before I planted the summer plots... I don't worry too much about ground temps being to cool for germination.
BrushyPines
5 year old buck +
Have been throwing and crimping for 2 years now. Seeing this thread fire back up this past week had me wondering what the soil looked like in my plot versus on the edge of it. I was so shocked at the difference, I took pics to show you guys! These pics are probably 10-20 yards away from each other.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Curious as to how the soil in your right hand pic gets treated? Is that tillage ground? Ground that doesn't get planted? Basically what's the comparison? It sure doesn't look as good as the other pic!
woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
So I would assume the green cover would have more cereal grains than the Vitalize which is what I figured. I’d probably be fine with either but was just curious if I was missing something.
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BrushyPines
5 year old buck +
All it really is, is the main trail through my property. It has never been planted and is right on the edge of the plot from the left hand side pic. When I started TnM 2 years ago, the plot soil (left hand pic) looked identical to the right hand pic. Amazing how far it's come in just 2 years.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
I'd love to see a side by side of a dig between those 2 spots! I wonder how deep your TnM black soil goes?
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Probably? Would need to get a composition break down of each to know for sure. Al at vitalize has been super responsive to any inquiries and I bet he'd be happy to share his input. All these different companies don't calculate seed mix rates the same way so one could he a little heavier to allow for less than perfect planting execution and to hold up to browse pressure a little better.
I'd really like to get a better feel for how seeding rate impacts results in some of these diverse blends. What species suffer in really high populations? What are the real downfalls of too many seeds? How much higher rate should a guy go to combat browse pressure or less than ideal seed placement? I've definitely planted brassica blends too heavy to where the growth was stunted. There seems to be a sliding scale for how to approach this and it isn't perfectly settled. Just take a look at Paul Knox's classic recommendations for the "Lick Creek" cereal blend, way more seed than is in some of these pre-mixed options:
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omicron1792
5 year old buck +
All these guys giving you great advice.
A simple thought on it. Early you need growing plants and roots. Basically you can’t put too much rye on it. 150-200lbs per acre. Yes throw the other stuff but it won’t do great.
As your soil improves you back down on the grain component to give room for other stuff to thrive. Native Habitat, one of my faves on here, uses like 50-60 lbs of wheat per acre. My thought is that is on year 5 and not year 1 of throw and mow. Early, rye rye rye.
Good thing is deer love young rye. Don’t plant it too early. So in my experiment if all you did was rye and one annual clover you would have a great plot that deer love.
BrushyPines
5 year old buck +
Next time I'm there, I'll see what I can do! I don't think it's too deep with only starting 2 full years ago, but I could be wrong and hope I am!
woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
Here’s what I got so far. First is the vitalize mix and other 2 are different mixes (peas, beans, sunflower, millet, sorghum, buckwheat). I’m pretty sure I’m doing the vitalize again on the one field, may add some extra rye later on.
Rye and clover is exactly what I was thinking for most of the other spots. I’ve been eyeing a mix that’s triticale, oats, peas, 3 different clovers and chicory. Thinking about doing it on our biggest field and add rye unless y’all can think of a reason not to.
Planting wise I was going to do just straight broadcast before a rain and hope for the best. I could bushhog the summer crop down but I don’t know if it’s necessary I guess.
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fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Catscratch you inspired me. I had this little clearing in front of my wife’s stand so I used a 4 wheeler with a snow plow to push off most of the excessive leaf litter and ferns then I threw out a bunch of seed. Seed was a mix of pinto beans, sunflower, some leftover PTTs, forage seed she got off the dollar seed club and a bunch of perennial seeds she harvested from the flower garden. I then covered it with an old wet rotten bale of clover/alfalfa hay.
I don’t have any expectations in this micro plot and will probably cover it in WR at the end of August but we’ll see what happens. I did throw a fence around part of it to keep the deer out
I don’t have any expectations in this micro plot and will probably cover it in WR at the end of August but we’ll see what happens. I did throw a fence around part of it to keep the deer out
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
If not using a drill then I think doing a true throw and mow works so should mow summer crop down on top. Some plan two mowing passes to really chop up the thatch, and the mower tires push the seed down for good soil contact.
Here’s what I got so far. First is the vitalize mix and other 2 are different mixes (peas, beans, sunflower, millet, sorghum, buckwheat). I’m pretty sure I’m doing the vitalize again on the one field, may add some extra rye later on.
Rye and clover is exactly what I was thinking for most of the other spots. I’ve been eyeing a mix that’s triticale, oats, peas, 3 different clovers and chicory. Thinking about doing it on our biggest field and add rye unless y’all can think of a reason not to.
Planting wise I was going to do just straight broadcast before a rain and hope for the best. I could bushhog the summer crop down but I don’t know if it’s necessary I guess.
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Try lots of different mixes! That’s the fun part.
woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
Sounds like a plan. I’ll probably do half mow half not just to see the difference on some spots. If anything looks spotty I’ll just make sure I have rye to fill things in. Then I get to figure out what to do in the spring again.
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Oh hell, I hope it works for you!
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Well after a week it looks like the trash pandas enjoyed it. I could see where they were rooting around eating up the sunflower and bean seeds. There is a bunch of stuff sprouting so we’ll see what happens.
Today I tackled my gas line plot since there was rain in the forecast for this afternoon. Plot is mainly natural growth forbs and such although I try to throw rye and some clover in every year. This year one of my boys bought me a 10lb bag of mixed seed . So I soaked another bag of pintos and threw them and the mix into the standing growth then proceeded to run my Dr mower… Before
After
Just picked up around an inch of rain as I sit here enjoying a cold beverage
Today I tackled my gas line plot since there was rain in the forecast for this afternoon. Plot is mainly natural growth forbs and such although I try to throw rye and some clover in every year. This year one of my boys bought me a 10lb bag of mixed seed . So I soaked another bag of pintos and threw them and the mix into the standing growth then proceeded to run my Dr mower… Before
After
Just picked up around an inch of rain as I sit here enjoying a cold beverage
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
Got the first stage of my plots in this past weekend. I've been experimenting but I've narrowed it down for the most part to PTT, clover, and chicory. In my main plot I put down some various store bought beans to see if I could actually get them to grow. Mowed what thatch I had down on top of them with a push mower. Now doing a rain dance. It rained almost every day for 2 weeks prior to this. Now it'll probably be another drought til September like last year. Late August, early September I'll throw down the 100 lbs of oats and probably a bag or two of rye yet.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
A little update on my TnM summer mix. The pinto beans, sunflowers, collards, and milo are doing well. We had rain and I timed it perfectly. Couldn't be prettier 
at the moment.
at the moment.
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
I threw a mix of store bought beans in mine this year following your plan. Pinto, black eye, kidney. They didn't have any large bags of one single bean so I thought I'd try a mix of a bunch and just see what happened. We've gotten quite a bit of rain so hopefully in a couple weeks when I make it back, they'll be coming up. They could easily get nipped off immediately for me though.
