Thoughts/comments on my intentions for No till

[eclipseman]

All,
I have been reading and reading about no-till food plots and it sounds interesting and kind of scary all at the same time. Last year I converted 2 old fields into my first food plots. These were over grown hay fields from, years ago. I brush hogged, sprayed, and tilled everything up 2 weeks later and planted. Everything grew nice with almost zero weeds. Turns out I did not fertilize enough and my brassica yellowed a bit. Fast forward to this year and everything I read is tilling is bad so I'm thinking of not tilling this year. Each plot is split in half of which I converted to clover and those areas are going decent. The other half are untouched from last year. Those halves were oats and rye last fall but now are over grown by weeds. I can see some soil but I also see grasses and such when looking near the ground. My fear is even if I spray everything well and kill everything, that the seed will not have good soil to seed contact, but I am thinking ill still give it a shot. This is my process below. let me know if I should change anything:

1. Parts of the fields are waist high so I think I'm going to brush hog everything first (I can set the brush hog to be about a foot high so I still get an ok thatch layer), and let the weeds regrow for a week and then spray. I am afraid if I do not mow that I may not get lower weeds with the spray.
2. After Spraying, I will then broadcast seed and fertilizer (I already limed earlier this spring).
3. I will then run everything over with the cultipacker (or should I mow again and then cultipack?)

Anything else to consider?

 

[IkemanTx]

Spray first, then throw seed, then mow.

That would be my recommendation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[eclipseman]

Spray first, then throw seed, then mow.

That would be my recommendation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thanks. How much time do you allow between when you spray, to throwing seed, to mowing?

 

[IkemanTx]

Some guys throw seed a few hours later, some a week later. There is a HUGE throw and mow thread you might want to look at for more detailed info.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nova]

I plant brassica into oats or rye and never mow. Here is how I have done it and had good luck.
1. spread fertilizer
2. spread brassica seed
3. cultipack to get seed to soil and lay down weeds and oats/rye
4. spray with gly.
This can all be done one step right after the other, now waiting between steps. When you cultipack you lay down the tall weeds and grain plants so that when you spray you get good spray right down to the lower level/ soil.

 

[eclipseman]

I plant brassica into oats or rye and never mow. Here is how I have done it and had good luck.
1. spread fertilizer
2. spread brassica seed
3. cultipack to get seed to soil and lay down weeds and oats/rye
4. spray with gly.
This can all be done one step right after the other, now waiting between steps. When you cultipack you lay down the tall weeds and grain plants so that when you spray you get good spray right down to the lower level/ soil.

When you say you plant into Rye/Oats, are you planting those in spring? What would you do if you were planting into a bunch of weeds?

 

[Nova]

When you say you plant into Rye/Oats, are you planting those in spring? What would you do if you were planting into a bunch of weeds?

Rye I plant in the fall then do this the next summer, Oats I plant in spring and do this the same year. I don't think the process would be any different planting into weeds assuming the thatch isn't super thick. Brassica seed is tiny and will fall thru the weeds/thatch, Radish might be different because it's quite a bit larger, but turnip and rape seed is tiny. You are smashing everything to the soil with the cultipacker anyway.

 

[eclipseman]

Some guys throw seed a few hours later, some a week later. There is a HUGE throw and mow thread you might want to look at for more detailed info.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Rye I plant in the fall then do this the next summer, Oats I plant in spring and do this the same year. I don't think the process would be any different planting into weeds assuming the thatch isn't super thick. Brassica seed is tiny and will fall thru the weeds/thatch, Radish might be different because it's quite a bit larger, but turnip and rape seed is tiny. You are smashing everything to the soil with the cultipacker anyway.

thanks. I’m planting ppt, ground hog radish, Essex Rape. What I may do is till half and do the other half as you suggest. This way, if one fails the other will likely survive.

 

[scott44]

You can do a throw and mow/roll on grasses and weeds just like you do with oats/rye. In 2015 I did a throw and roll on grass with a sorghum mix and it turned out good. I broadcast the seed, rolled it and sprayed.
Before

After

2 weeks later with a good burn down

2 months

 

[Rit]

Spread the seed before you do anything else. The more passes you make over the area will force the seed towards the soil. You would be surprised how much seed makes it to the ground when broadcasting into standing vegetation.

Depending on planting timing fall weeds may not even be an issue. I didn’t spray at all last fall (I planned on spraying but had equipment issues) Here is an area I broadcast WR into. It was almost 100% 4-5’ weeds. Photos are from July, September, and October.

 

[eclipseman]

I plant brassica into oats or rye and never mow. Here is how I have done it and had good luck.
1. spread fertilizer
2. spread brassica seed
3. cultipack to get seed to soil and lay down weeds and oats/rye
4. spray with gly.
This can all be done one step right after the other, now waiting between steps. When you cultipack you lay down the tall weeds and grain plants so that when you spray you get good spray right down to the lower level/ soil.

This is likely the process I am going to follow but I do have a concern with it. If you spread the fertilizer too soon, cant you end up losing some of the nitrogen to the air? I typically would till in my fertilizer to prevent this from happening.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

This is likely the process I am going to follow but I do have a concern with it. If you spread the fertilizer too soon, cant you end up losing some of the nitrogen to the air? I typically would till in my fertilizer to prevent this from happening.

Yes you will but when planting anything you target a time when there is a high chance of it raining. Another reason many people dont use any N when planting and top dress the plants a few weeks later when rain is a bit more predictable. Or just use AMS instead. Make sure you have good ph though because sulfur reduces ph. In my case my soil is naturally 7.6 so I need some sulfur.

 

[Nova]

This is likely the process I am going to follow but I do have a concern with it. If you spread the fertilizer too soon, cant you end up losing some of the nitrogen to the air? I typically would till in my fertilizer to prevent this from happening.

The fact that you are covering your fertilzer with thatch, rolling it in and spraying liquid over it(g;y application) will help with N evaporating, but the closer you can do it to a good rain the better. Gly will hold up if it has 30 minutes on the plant before a rain and 4-5 hours is even better. A nice rain the day after you do this would be perfect.