What next?

[Reagan]

I have done some plots over the years with limited success. My first year, I planted a brassica plot that was great. Since then, each August has been a drought so brassica did not get enough rain and growth before temps dropped. I switched to rye with clover and around a labor day planting and have had good success. Rye grew well and clover was OK the next year but not so good that I kept it. I usually disk it in and started over.

Our first frost is usually around Halloween. I only have an ATV disk and a tank with a wand sprayer. This plot is on my Dad's property so he is somewhat narrow minded on what he wants to do habitat wise. He does have a tractor and brush hog.

Last year I could not locate rye so I went with wheat. This time the August drought went deep into September so this plot looked mostly like dirt all season with a little wheat showing. I think what little growth we achieved, the deer hanmmered it to the dirt.

I got back to see the plot last weekend. More wheat than I expected grew and produced seed heads. The turkeys are hammering it right now and most of the wheat seed is gone. The clover is better than i expected and we have some weeds spread around.

Our bowhunting gets serious in late October and November. We like to have some green going into that time and beyond. Clover typically peters our before we hunt much. What would you do with this plot?

My thoughts:
1. Mow it high with a brush hog to nock the weeds down.
2. Broadcast rye and maybe some turnips right into the clover sometime in August if we have any rain in the forecast.


Before laying eyes on the plot, I was expecting dirt with some weeds and had planned to start over again this year with rye. But now it seems like a waste to disk in all of that good clover. Do you think rye or even a brassica could compete with the standing clover? Should we seed before mowing anything? We planned to keep the brush hog high so we don't cut much clover and just nock the weeds down before they go to seed.

I'd like to get a rotation going where I don't spend my limited free time spraying and disking. (Dipper rotation?) I considered seeding rye ASAP, mowing right after and hope it survives the late summer heat and dry weather. Of course this summer has been very wet so far who knows what the weather is going to do.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Mow it and leave it clover. I don't see any way you could get rye or turnips to grow in there without disking it up. That clover looks too nice to disk up. Is there any more space to open up a separate plot for a late fall blend? If he is after a buck is a late fall blend even neccessary? I would think that clover should keep some does around to bring in a buck later.

 

[foggy]

My clover is usually pretty dormant by the time gun season rolls around. Not much draw to clover in November.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

mow it and spray it with a light dose of gly then broadcast cereals and/or brassicas. Clover will get set back from a light dose of gly but not necessarily die. While it is set back the rye and/or brassicas can get established. If you do this knock back your seeding rates just a touch if you want the clover to rebound and add to your mix and be there come next spring. If you mow it soon, you could mow it down to 6" and the clover should fill in nicely....especially with the wet weather. I mowed my rye/clover mix from last fall about 10 days ago...i took down to 3-4" in preparation of spraying and seeding brassicas. that clover came on super thick about 7 days after mowing it that short...we had quite a bit of rain so i'm sure that helped. I'm sure if i had scalped it like that then had really dry hot weather it would have been a different story. Or just mow it and then nuke it completely with a full dose of gly and then just broadcast whatever you want into the dead vegetation. the dead vegetation will act as a mulch and keep the soil moist to allow for germination even with some dry conditions...not mention the OM it will add. I rarely use any tillage equipment, i just mow, spray, seed. it works very well.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Mow and leave it alone. This is not rocket science. Your clover will be a great draw.