Semisane

I get a soil test every five years or so, and throw 4 or 5 bags of lime on each of my small plots each year, usually during the summer. With that, the pH has been in the low 6's every time I've done a test. Plots are 15+ years old and were disced each year up until three years ago when I went the no till route. The soil is fine sandy loam with an average annual rainfall of 63 inches.

mrbb

well lucky you, I could never get away with that up my way, first time I did a soil test I needed like 3700 lbs of lime an acre, second yr I needed almost as much. and every yr I tend to top dress about 1,000 lbs an acre to maintain things
soil from one place to another can be drastically different, that is why, so many say its foolish to SKIP a soil test when spending money on seeds and such, not to mention all the time invested
YES some folks can and do have great soils, but I would bet way more DON"T than do!
I plant food plots in 5 different county's in my State ( PA) and not a one has any good soil on it LOL

YTCLT

I’m in southern Virginia and 2 years ago I opened a new 3 acre field. After having it stumped and aggressively disked I had 16 tons of lime applied. Then I disked that in aggressively. 6 months later I had 8 tons applied disked aggressively and 6 months after that I tested, because I figured it all had enough time to absorb and adjust the PH...and the test came back that I had to add 8 more tons because I was still at 5.8. I envy anyone who has well adjusted soil because in the south it’s acidic and shockingly so!

I also agree with the comments about knowing which variables are contributing to your success or failure. Had I not tested and had I had a crop failure I would have blamed weather, the seeds...whatever...and assumed incorrectly that my PH had to be good because of all the lime I’d dumped on the field. And I would have been wrong...

TN Lone Wolf

We got more rain last night, and it's still coming down this morning.

TN Lone Wolf

One week after planting. The west plot is doing great. I couldn't be happier with its progression. The top picture doesn't do the plants justice. The wheat is quite thick even in what look to be bare spots.





The east plot isn't quite there yet, and it looks bad in the first picture. However, once you look closely, you can see that even though it might not get quite as thick as the west plot, it'll probably be close once the wheat grows a few more inches. I didn't see nearly as much crimson clover in this one, however.

Semisane

Looking good Lone Wolf. One more rain event and that east plot will probably really take off.

TN Lone Wolf

We got another rain this morning. Not much, but definitely enough to remoisten the thatch.

TN Lone Wolf

Here's a slightly better picture from the west plot I took this evening:

TN Lone Wolf

The east food plot is coming up pretty well. Again the pictures are a bit misleading, as even in the seemingly bare areas there's plenty of wheat. It's really coming up thick toward the rear of the plot.



I noticed the red clover has finally begun emerging. I thought the thatch turned out to be too thick for it to get through, but I was wrong.

TN Lone Wolf

Three weeks since planting:

West plot:


East plot:


Both are doing phenomenally. I've finally had some trail camera pictures of some groups of does browsing in both of them. With the rut quickly approaching, hopefully the does will draw in the bucks.