HunterOpel

I am trying to figure out what went wrong. I have a 1 acre plot I wanted to plant in oats, Day 1- I sprayed it with round up to kill all weed.
Day 8-Burnt off all the dead grass.
Day 14- Disced it all under.
Day 16- Put down fertilizer and tilled it all in.
Day 17- Broadcast seed and drug the whole plot.
Day 23- oats are 4-5" tall, green lush..
Day 30-oats are 8-10" tall, green lush, deer seem to be in it pretty good and alot of turkey's.
Day 35- half of plot is turning brown and look bad, other half look great.
Day 42- Whole plot is dead, some places there is no growth only bare dirt.
We had good rain fall

So my question is did I do something wrong or did the deer and turkey's destroy it??????

hossdaniels

First, what the heck is that in your avatar, a giant carp? What ever it is, its a biggun.

I do not know, I have seen wheat germinate and dry up in two weeks, but have only seen that once in 20 years. That was very dry year, finally got .3" of rain to germinate, then it quit again.

I've seen deer eat it to the ground, but never turn brown and die like that without very cold temps.

Did you spray only roundup? How is the drainage? Is it worse in high spots or low spots? Possibly a fungus or insect problem. Have seen lightning kill spots out of a field, but that's a long shot.

Pics?

Soilman

When did you plant the oats? Was anything else sprayed in the plot? Did the oats look like they were being grazed/plucked, or where they turning brown and shriveling up? What, if any, weeds do you still have growing?

It could very well be that deer and turkeys ate the whole plot, especially if you do not have other food sources in the immediate area. Sounds like you did things just fine, and oats are rather easy to grow.

gregrn43

Thats kinda of a strange problem, I grow oats every year and most of the time they do great. The only time I have had problems is with very low rainfall. I havent planted any of mine this year because of low rainfall, planning on planting mine the 2nd weekend in sept. I could understand the deer eating it down, but that shouldnt have turned it brown. Do you have someone close by who doesnt like you? Sounds like someone might have sprayed it with roundup for you.

HunterOpel

Round up is all I sprayed.
Drainage is good.
There were no other weeds in plot.
It looked awesome for a little while, I also thought of someone may have sprayed it, dont think so though.
On some of the plants it did look like something like a bug was eating on it.
we did have a 2 week spell with no rain after it was 8" tall or so, would that kill it???
Seemed like the parts in the sun died first, then the other half that sees more shade died, we did have several 100 degree days in that time frame..
The pic in the avatar is a bighead carp-92#

hossdaniels

No, by the time it is that size, two dry weeks is a cake walk. It isn't by chance on a powerline is it? Power company could have sprayed it depending on the individual crew.

Take some pics if you can, I'm stumped.

timbercruiser

I don't know, anybody know of any soil diseases that would do that? Maybe plant another type of oats this year, are there any hybrid varieties that would be more disease resistant?

keyshunter

Oats are very prone to residual herbicide damage. Heavy applications of some herbicides, particularly in heavy soils, will kill oats for several years after application. Damage is about as you describe. Don't ask how I know!

falcon

+1

i refuse to use herbicide on food plots. This year we will plant oats and wheat on about 15 acres of food plots on three widely dispersed places. We plant our oats after the grass has turned brown and after a decent rain. i like the ground to have a lot of moisture when we plant. The old Okies call it "mudding in oats".

hossdaniels

Which herbicides have caused issues?

Obviously something like Pursuit or Treflan could do it, maybe atrazine?

I'd like to know so I don't screw any up.