Where to Find, Fertilizer and Lime

[MRBB]

Hate to argue .... but when you tell a newbie to measure their soil chemistry, you are creating the conditions for anxiety, second guessing, and those that want to convince them that something is missing.

no arguing here
but NOT telling a newbie to do a soil test is NOT helping them at all
all the more so if there planning to spend a bunch of $$ on brand name seeds , fertilizer/lime and put in a lot of hard work that might fail, due to NOT doing a 10 dollar soil test!
a soil test is the cheapest and easiest part of doing a food plot!
foolish to NOT do one, all the more so on land that has NOT been planted for a long time
PLUS a newbie, can also tell the tester what seeds he wants to plant and be told what it needs exactly, and NOT a guess
clover is something that in my 30+ yrs of growing it, is more picky than a LOT of other plantings
so if that is on his list, as it seems,
knowing the PH for sure will save him time, money and effort and hope, and make it more of a known deal!
I'm not saying I am any expert here, but I have been planting food plots JUST for deer for over 30 yrs, in soils that are FAR from good, many needed 2+ tons of lime per acre for YRS to get good!
yet a LOT of other crap grew in the spots for yrs
I also wasted a lot of time, and money planting without soil tests to have poor to NO results on planted seeds lasting more than a few weeks before being over run with other things that grew in poor soil make up!
so IMO< a soil test is nothing but GREAT advice to a newbie, or a long time planter when going in on NEW top YOU ground! don't care where it is!

 

[cavey]

I broad cast a mix of winter wheat and winter rye in the fall into my standing corn and standing soybeans just as they start to yellow up. Cool part about winter rye and winter wheat is that in the spring when everything is brown, its already green and gives them something to munch on... its green late into the fall/winter too - especially if its late fall planted like its intended to be. If you can get bin run ww or wr - super cheap - you can get a pickup truck load of it for a case of beer and $20. All you will ever need. Its great for any open spots that you get - from cutting wood, clearing land, or just rutting around.... toss it and it will grow/

Still nothing beats corn, soybeans and alfalfa.... back when that is all that was planted we had tons of deer... clover too - if you keep it simple you will have deer, give them browse and soft mast and water and cover to bed and you will have deer, dont over pressure the land unless you just plain love to be on it then just deal with it.

If the ground has not been worked in 20 years you have all the nutrients you need. Broad leaf Weeds may not be much of an issue as after 20 years its likely all solid grass assuming it wasnt over taken by trees.

For that split ground ... Look to your local chapter of pheasants forever for free or cheap seed mixes ... they will also often have contacts for free seed too that you can get as long as your planting it for the wildlife.