bowbow

Like many others, I've been planting for years. Small equipment, 1 to 2 acres. I stepped up to 4.5 acres this year still with small equipment and learned some valuable lessons.

First, corn likes to be planted deeper than beans. Huge trick works great for 🌽 but only half the number of beans germinate with this method. Hook a chain behind the cultipacker but drop the chain for planting beans and only use the cultipacker.

My process
1. Fertilizer and lime.
2. Till the soil, I bought a 4' tiller for my 15hp tractor.
3. Spread the corn on top of the ground then cultipack with a chain dragging behind it.
4. Spread beans over the corn, cultipack again without the chain.

Cultipack with a chain.


Without the chain, corn did poorly but beans were awesome.


With the chain, the corn did awesome, the beans were sparse.

Topgun 3006

Your pictures don't work and it would be best if you deleted your post here and moved it down to the bottom of this section specifically labeled for Wildlife Management/Food Plots.

PS: I messed around on my computer and was able to open the images you posted by right clicking on them and then clicking on the resulting URL to look at them and see exactly what you're talking about using or not using the chain--very interesting! It looks like you have some nice hunting land along with those food plots to keep animals in the area.

RonM

Corn needs to go in the ground at least an inch or inch and half depending on th weather, mainly the ground temperature

mrbb

I think you left out one of the biggest things>

ALL folks should do a soil test first< , 10 bucks, cheap to do and can save you a LOT of money with its REAL results of what the soil is
you can NOT have a proper PH and many things will NOT grow or have very poor takes,
next will be , adding the correct amount of fertilizer, as this stuff isn't cheap, no need to add more than you really need!
NOT spending the 10 bucks on a soil test is rather silly when you look at the amount of time and cash you will invest in a food plot!
a plot done right, will last a lot longer too, so, its a crazy step to skip, all the more so if your doing plot on land that hasn't been used before
Even on sites that have had other crops on, a soil test is a big plus, as all crop add's take nutrients out of the soil, or add some, , so things change all the time, why gamble with your money and time??

Topgun 3006

Very good comments mrbb!

mrbb

I will also note, sine many guys don't have a tiller for making plots
you can disc corn and soybean seeds in and get very good takes that way too
been doing that for about 15+ yrs
I actually have a cultipacker, so can use that, but all sorts of drags can eb made rather easy
if you have any fencing companys about, most will give you FREE chainlink fence they get off of jobs, some 8 ft tall or even 6 ft, folded over a few times and adding some weight in the middle, be it a few pallets, or old telephone poles/railroad ties(which also can be had free if you look for them)

and then drag that over things

but to be honest, corn and soybeans can just be disc'ed into the ground and no packing at all, and will grow rather well most times

IF you JOIN the NWTF, national wild turkey federation, they will sell you discounted seeds in the spring time, many times being round up ready corn and soybean, can get 300-350 buck bags of seeds for like 25 bucks a bag
, there a yr old, but I have never NOT had them grow on me, I add added inoculant to them( its cheap too) and that always seems to add a boost to things??

But the deal is, you have to sign an agreement with the stating its for WILDLIFE ONLY< not for harvest

but a huge way in saving $$ buying seeds for food plots!
and at like 25 bucks a yr, and a good organization too boot< its been a win win deal to me!