pup

i am just planting a couple acres of clover and alfalfa in small patches around my propery. i have a tractor and a plow and disc but how do i fertalize and lime these small plots do i do it by hand or what? i am just curiouse as to how i am going to do it.

Ballistictip

First off, pelletized lime is much easier to work with and can be easily spread with a hand spreader on small areas. If the area is large enough a pull behind spreader works good. I prefer to use pelletized lime on established food plots. The down side of pelletized lime is that it can take up to 6 months to raise the pH level and costs about twice the price of pulverized.

When first starting a new plot I use pulverized lime. I can get it for about $50 to $60 per ton. It' s a little bit harder to spread. What I do is tear open the bag and start slinging it out. After I get all the lime out I disc it into the soil. Pulverized lime will only take 2 weeks to a month to raise the pH level when disced in with enough moisture in the soil. I' m not sure about your area but here in the south it will normally take about a ton per acre for most clovers and alfalfas. Make sure you do a soil test to determine how much you will need. The down side of pulverized lime is that it does not work well on an established food plot because my way of putting it out leaves piles of lime on the ground unless you disc it in. Go to my website below and click on the food plot pics button. There are some pictures there to show you how I spread the lime.

The fertilzer is fairly simple. A hand spreader will work just fine. You will probably want to use a 0-20-20 fertilizer. In my area the closest fertilizer I can find to that is 4-24-24. Just make sure you get fertilizer that is as low in nitrogen (the first number) as possible. Clover and alfalfa will make there own nitrogen. Also, make sure you inoculate the clover and alfalfa with the proper inoculant for each. The inoculant will run about $5 to $8 for enough to do 50 pounds of seed.

Hopefully this will get you started. Good luck!!!

Shane

pup

what is inoculater[]

greg-dude

An inoculant is spores (I believe) from a bacteria that is added to legume seeds. The bacteria lives in the legume roots in a symbiotic relationship and it is what " fixes" nitrogen for the legume plant. The term " fix" means that it take atmospheric nitrogen in the soil and transfer it to a form that can be utilize by the legume plant and other plants as well (hopefully I am remembering this correctly from some of my classes many years ago). The bacteria is naturally found in the soil, but is generally added to legume seeds for extra insurance, since the cost of it is relatively cheap compare to the cost of nitrogen if it had to be purchase in a fertilizer form. There are different strains of inoculants for different species of legumes. These generally can be purchase where legume seeds are purchased. Some of the blends of seeds (like imperial clover) for foodplots already has the inoculants added to the seed. Generally, the inoculant is added to the seed by apply a small amount of some adhesive type substance (it can be a sticky soda like a coke or even sugar water) to the seed and then mixing in the inoculant. Class is over.

pup

i am going to plant imperial clover and alfarack do both of them come already with this done to them? or will i need to do it?

greg-dude

I am almost positive that imperial clover has an inoculant in it. I would be surprised if the alfarack did not have it. Check the label on back or somewhere on the package. It may be listed in its scientific name (genus species probably in italics) which I would not know what it would be off hand.

Russ otten

Ballistictip,
I noticed you were buying Pulverized lime by the bag. Our local Coop has pulverized in bulk at $25.00 a ton. I just go and have them dump a small load
in my pickup (600-800 lbs.) and then transfer to a small trailer for my ATV and
move it to the site. One work of warning; the darn stuff is extremely heavy.
I didn' t stop the loader in time on my last purchase and due to the fact it was wet,
ended up with 1 ton on my pickup. But I made it home ok. It didn' t look like that much, but their scales is ceritfied so I guess that' s what I had. Ended up with enough to cover 4 small plots. (Being a regular customer, the dealer give me an adjustment on the price due to the high moisture content.)

lunchbucket

Do soil samples... The Imperial Clover requires a good quality sandy loam at least with a soil pH of 6.5 or better...