Koggie

I want to plant a clover food plot for Hunting in October-December. How late can/should I plant it?

Also, If I use roundup on the area now how long should I wait before planting the clover?

Thanks.

1sagittarius

It would help to know where you are.

Northern US, Around labor day to take advantage of cool weather, fall rains, with a cover crop of winter wheat.

You can broadcast seed as soon as the roundup dries, but wait two weeks, disk, then broadcast seed.

farm hunter

I'd plant a clover plot 1 year before you expect to be able to hunt over it. In most marginal to medium nutrient soils - it takes a full year of Clover growth the become full enough to hunt over.

I like Fall plantings for clover (for next fall) - but a spring planting can work if the soil is good.

FH

Koggie

Thanks for the input. Good to know.

I live in Jackson, County Michigan (about 40 miles north of Ohio).

So can I use Roundup on the weeds and grass that is there now? If so, how long should I wait to plant. I plan to till the soil after the weeds are dead.

Thanks.

PopGunWill

I hunt in Michigan, you can plant much earlier than Labor Day, in fact that's too late from what I've read. August 1st will be the earliest datebut the end of the fall planting window is the end of August.

Get your soil test done now and add the lime called for. A neutral pH is required forclover to develop and last.Remember to thoroughly diskthe limeinto the soil. Lime additionis what I have found to be the most important thing when clover is planted. I didn't add it for two years in my first attempts at planting clover and I failed. The first year we added lime, it grew well. It amazing, whenI follow directions, things seem to work better.

You can also hunt over it the first year if you use a blend and Mother Nature cooporates. I planted the Imperial Clover, about an acrewith 35 pounds of winter oats. I got rain and it established quick.

The deer didn't fool with the oats to much but I addedthem in case we were short on rain.They would have probably been used more if the clover hadn't done so well.

Killed a decent buck the first season. If I remember right the clvoer was about 5-6" tall by the first good frost. The next spring I cut the oats before the made seed and the clover was awesome. Still is.

We've been hunting over this plot for 4 years. Still looks good, real good this year with all the rain.

POP

1sagittarius

Yes, highly recommended

In theory,you can plantsoon as the roundup or generic glyphosate dries.

good, plant after tilling.

Criggster

If you spray and then till you are defeating the purpose of spraying! You will till and make a great seedbed for all of the weed seeds. If you want a weed free seed bed just till everything then wait three weeks and spray, wait a week and then plant. If you haven't got a soil test then do so right after tilling. It is already too late for the lime to be effective in raising your ph level for fall.

Koggie

I need to spray the area first because the spot is currently chokes with weedes and grass and my tiller will not be able to get through it.

I can spray again after I till if you think that woudl help.

fshafly2

Ditto the above posts, don't plant fall clover with the expectation of hunting over it in the fall. (Try winter wheat if you want to get a quick food plot going - there are a lot of other choices).
One reason to consider spraying roundup before tilling is the timingto kill off certainweeds.Some perennial weeds (e.g. horse nettle, johnson grass, bindweed, canada thistle, etc) are betterkilled with roundupwhen they are in a later stage of life (in a boot stage or flowering or going to seed) - the herbicide will gettranslocated (moved)to deep roots and kill them.You can spray roundup again to kill off the new flush of weeds after tilling; I'd recommend waiting a few days before seeding ("when dried" per above, roundup works through the leaves, and is inactivated by contact withthe soil).
-fsh

Koggie

Thanks for the info. I'm not worried about hunting over it this year. I just bought the property this year and I'm trying to make it a deer haven. The first two plots I put in are doing real well and the deer are tresting them like a bed and breakfast. I had two nice sixes in my mixed plot last night.The rabbits, turkeys and pheasant love the clover plot.