Good morning and thanks for allowing me to join your group. I am fairly new to food plots, especially good looking food plots. I have a fall plot that has really turned out great, especially the clover. The plot is about 1/3 acre and consists of 3 kinds of clover, oats, wheat and rye. My question is do I just let everything mature and re-seed itself, cut it high before it matures, spray with light mixture of Gly, etc. My goal is what to do that will not hurt the clover if that makes sense. Thanks
What To Do?
- Thread starter Barrycuda
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Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I'm no expert on the timing of spraying & mowing - I'll stand aside for the AG guys who know more. But your plot looks great!! I'd be happy with that at our place.
T-Max
5 year old buck +
Its gonna be hard to hit the right maturity on all of those, but if it were mine I would mow as low as I could without creating a smothering thatch on the clover. I'd try to hit it when the thickest of those cereals hits the dough stage.
davidhelmly
5 year old buck +
If it were mine I wouldn’t touch it, just let the cereals die on their own and help feed and protect your clover from the summer heat and sun that is coming.
Bill
Administrator
Do this ^^^^. It works great.
Double Creek
Yearling... With promise
I’d let it all go to seed over the summer. In the fall I would spray it with gly, come back a couple weeks later and spread a little more seed and mow it down.
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
I would wait until things are seeded out and then mow. Avoiding a thatch layer that is too thick and smothers out spots of the clover would be the only concern. I've never sprayed so that's not in my wheel house to recommend. Lots of guys do it with success but it's just not something I've done. Also chicory is a great companion for clover. Clover and chicory feed off of each other and if you get any hot dry spells is when the chicory keeps producing while the clover is dormant from the summer heat. jmo
JoshAnderson
Yearling... With promise
You have a beautiful plot there, I wouldn't spray with gly as that would kill the clover, and I hate the "half rate" of gly because that's how we get roundup resistant weeds, I don't see many broadleaf weeds there anyway, I'd probably wait until the grains seed out. Then mow
I plant wheat and clover in the fall. The wheat does not get as tall as rye and doesnt tend to smother the clover. A month after wheat ripens, it just goes away. My deer eat awned wheat no problem, as do the birds, squirrels, and coons. Hogs will too. Rye seed does not get fed on down here like wheat seed.
