What to do

[DDC]

I recently had a guy come in and clear me two separate foodplots about 3/4 acre a piece. I live in NW Wisconsin and the area is surrounded by ag. The ground is old pasture land (60 years ago) and I have yet to do a soil test. My dilemma is this. I have 100 pounds left over of rr soybeans that I could plant in each or wait until August and do the lc mix. I hate having the ground just sit there barren. thoughts???

 

[H80Hunter]

If you already have the beans, plant the beans, broadcast rye/clover/radish into it when the leaves yellow in late August. That should feed them all fall/winter and the clover will pick up the slack in the following spring.

 

[H20fwler]

Agree, use up your beans then broadcast brassicas/clover over them.
I would broadcast around the third weekend in July for as far north as you are, I plant brassicas in early August here for a good fall stand.

 

[DDC]

My thoughts too as if they wipe it out by August, I have lost nothing other than some left over seed.

 

[northernpotter]

mow short , spray it with round -up, lime it plow it under. get soil test.then I personally would plant either clover or alfalfa

 

[John-W-WI]

I'm with the bean planters.... Throw them down. Not much risk.

Depending on your soil (light, rocky, wet, etc.) lime would be high on my list but I wouldn't put off planting for lime. Heck, I'd even plant now and lime while it's growing if I had to.

-John

 

[jsasker007]

Expect them to be wiped out---if they don't wipe out the beans something's wrong.

 

[BobinCt]

That's not much of an area for Beans. I'm with JSAKER, I think they get wiped out, too. I personally would soil test now and get the results and add lime if need be. I personally couldn't plant not knowing the PH, but everyone is different. Take your time doing the plots and don't cut corners. You will be better off . I like the idea of the LC mix .

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I understand where you are at with wanting something green growing all seasons. Being that it is a new plot, If it were me I would just spray the area you are planning on planting your plots now and then 10 days before you plant the LC mix this fall. I would also modify the mix by leaving out any legumes that people plant with it (peas or clover). I would fertilize with high rates of P and K now when you spray and just add N with the fall planting. The P & K stay in the soil for a long time unlike N and any P&K that does leach into the soil will be pulled back up by the cereals and radish for next year when I would plant the beans and the cereals and radish you plant this fall will thrive on the N and use it all up so that there isn't much left in the spring to help the weeds grow and also when there is N available in the soil the beans will not fix it from the atmosphere for your future fall LC mix that I would plant into the spring planted beans come next fall.

Weather or not you have round up ready beans there will be less need for weed control without the added N that a fall planted legume would provide for the following spring. Then over seed your beans in the fall with a cereal, radish, and crimson clover. This way you will have something growing year round and are only sacrificing half of a season of nothing growing in your plot and weed control should be less of an issue in the future. Doing it in this manner MAY even mean that you will never have to add fertilizer again but the future soil test will tell the story on that.

I have learned this past year that fertilizer application can be a tricky issue. For instance I planted sugar beets the other day. I have learned that you wan to put down plenty of N when planting so they grow fast and canopy sooner. But you want them to use it all up and actually be starved of N later in the season because they produce more sugar when they are low on N in the fall. The higher the sugar content the more attractive they will be to the deer. The nice thing about it is like mentioned above there wont be any N in the soil next year when I rotate them into spring planted soybeans.

ADDED: After rereading the original post I would only leave out the legumes on one of the plots and use a perennial clover and add chicory to the other so you have a good clover/chic plot for a number of years. I also wouldn't worry about the deer wiping out the beans in the summer if you have a lot of deer. If they do you will get better germination on the over seeded fall planting.

 

[DDC]

I am fully expecting the beans to get wiped out as my only goal was to avoid having two blank plots for two months. I will keep you posted as to what happens because I have always heard that high deer densities with low acreage for beans equals a wiped out bean plot. But I have also heard that interior foodplots planted in beans when surrounded by ag makes it more likely that they will survive the browse pressure.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I am fully expecting the beans to get wiped out as my only goal was to avoid having two blank plots for two months. I will keep you posted as to what happens because I have always heard that high deer densities with low acreage for beans equals a wiped out bean plot. But I have also heard that interior foodplots planted in beans when surrounded by ag makes it more likely that they will survive the browse pressure.

You wont know until you try but since you are surrounded by crop fields i'm guessing they will browse there a little bit before making their way to the big fields. Once they brown down and the ag fields come out be prepared for high use. I think you'll be ok but like mentioned you wont know until you try.

 

[DDC]

Update.... Both plots are doing well and setting pods. I'm surrounded by ag and that's keeping the pressure off. I overseeded both last week with rye, oats, radishes and clover but so far so good. Browse pressure is minimal at best.

 

[Bill]

Update.... Both plots are doing well and setting pods. I'm surrounded by ag and that's keeping the pressure off. I overseeded both last week with rye, oats, radishes and clover but so far so good. Browse pressure is minimal at best.

Has to be the ag close by. It's great they didn't get wiped out but surprising. Once the farmers harvest they're going to be like locusts on those plots. Good thing you went with the winter greens to.

 

[j-bird]

Lots of ag can grossly help reduce plot pressure then after harvest you have the groceries the deer are looking for. This is how I operate and plan my plotting strategy around that. Then feed the does and let them and the food bring the bucks. It's not an ideal situation but you have to work with what you have.