In sharp contrast to the twice weekly rains we got throughout the spring and much of summer, this past month has been completely dry, ruining my desire to get my food plots planted earlier this year. Looking at the extended forecast last week, though, yielded a glimmer of hope - a small chance of rain Sunday night, and a much larger chance Wednesday evening through Thursday morning. If I was to get my plots planted in time for season, this weekend was going to be the best opportunity.
Saturday morning, I drove to my local farmer's co-op to pick up the seed. I've learned a lot the previous two years about what plants do well with this no-till method, so I decided to use a diverse blend, including:
-Winter wheat and forage oats - quick growing grasses to attract deer to the plot prior to season
-Austrian winter peas and crimson clover - slower growing but vigorous legumes that attract throughout season
-Common red and ladino white clover - not as quick growing prior to or during season, but the red clover grew thick through the spring and early summer, while the white clover sprung up after I mowed the plots last month.
Additionally, I decided to test the following:
-Sunflowers - definitely the odd one out, but I've found the deer will browse sunflowers when they're young. The cold will kill them before they get too tall, but their stems will provide a surface for the peas to grow on.
-Chicory - something I used to plant when I used Tecomate blends. It's fairly expensive, so I didn't add much. Still, I want to see how much if any comes up.
-Purple top turnips - I've used Evolved Harvest ShotPlot brassica blend in the past to varying degrees success, but it's about 2/3's rapeseed, with the remaining percentage divided among other brassica species. I've always heard good things about purple top turnips in particular, especially if it turns off really cold, so they ought to be good insurance if we have another colder than usual season like last year.
In preparation for planting the plots, I had mowed the two plots over a month ago to knock down the worst weeds, then sprayed the plots last weekend to kill off the remaining ones. In a monumentally stupid move on my part, I sprayed the plots with an herbicide blend that would kill off everything. Had I realized just how much clover was still present and thriving, I would have used something that would have only killed the grasses. At least I'll know not to make the same mistake next year.
A week later, and the plants in both plots were thoroughly dead, so the planting commenced:
East plot:
West plot:
New/South plot:
First, I broadcast the larger seeds using a tow-behind spreader:
Wheat, oats, winter peas, and sunflowers
Then, I used a bag spreader to broadcast the smaller seed on foot.
Clovers, turnips, and chicory (crimson clover not pictured)
Lastly, the dead vegetation got mowed down. This ensures that, in lieu of a disked seed bed, the seeds are covered under a moisture-retaining layer of thatch.
East plot:
West plot:
New/South plot:
Nothing to do now but wait for rain. Sunday night didn't yield any, but the rain chance for tomorrow evening has risen drastically, with thunderstorms predicted throughout the night.