WHat do you mean "water bar type things"?

You can do a lot with a small disk -especially with small seeds (clovers, brassica, chicory - even oats / wheats)
but the key is really to have a good spray regiment. In food plotting - Weeds are your ememy - and they WILL win, its just of matter of WHEN.Grasses are ENEMY #1 since they are perennial, will dominate, anddeer do not use them at all.

A backpack sprayer is all you need, but be patient - and spray 2x if need be to get a total kill. Use 41% glyphosateand apply at the rate ofup to 1 quart per acre. There is no hurry to fail - and not getting a handle on the weeds is a sure way to fail.

Schuyler NY is a nice area - probably you are upland more than the Mohawk River area - so your soils are thin, maybe rocky Trust me - not many soils are worse than mine were 15 years ago. I still struggle to get Ph over 6.0.

If someone hasn't already told you - a soil test isnice to have so that you have a base line the go from. I haven't tested in 4-5 years - but probably should again (it'll just tell me to add lime!).

FH

by water bar type thingsi mean little ditches and drainage type areas with little mounds and stuff.... kinda hard to explain. yah, ive heard testing the soil is very important so im going to get a test kit from cabelas to do that first thing in the spring...canI spray with roundup BEFORE the weeds really start growing (april maybe?) to keep them from growing or stop them (so this way i can get an early start on working on the food plot and disking and stuff)? thanks for the help! i will have more questions for you if you dont mind!
Mike

I cut my teeth on clovers - and I do not have too much bad to say about them (white clovers - not Alsike or Red). When done right, they last for several years (you will have to mow 1 or 2x per year though to make them last).

Clovers can do it all - and make a good 1st serious plot for most people - thats what I would suggest.


For hunters that just want a plot to hunt over and/or around - I suggest Rye often - planted around Labor Day in NY. Its a hardy green plot - High in carbs - and not bad in protein. It will attract deer in Bow season and on into Gun Season in NY as long as the snow is less than 1 ft. It will winter overand be green in May - but will Bolt to seed heads 3-4 ft tall by the end of May. It has no nutritional value once it starts to grow fast in the spring - and must be mowed/and re-planted every late summer.

Fall Planted Rye Field


May Rye Field (foreground - starting to grow fast)


Hope I helped you some -
FH

Roundup ONLY kills actively growing plants. It kills by stopping Photosynthesis - so if a plant is dormant (like sometimes in early spring) - it won't give you a good kill.If you spray a field with a lot of berry bushes - even if the grass is green& growing - if the blackberrys are stillnot budded yet - andif you spray - you mightkill the grass - AND make it a perfect area for the berry bushes to thrive.

Its the same with spraying a mowed field. If you mow - you should wait till it starts to "green up" before spraying with Glyphosate.

I like to wait until Mid May in NY to spray.

FH

so, it does not like i will have time to plant in the spring considering all the stuff i have to do to the field early on.... i dont think i could finnish it all before the clover planting dates. so if I plant it in the fall what should i expect?

farm hunter- where can you get a disk that big for an ATV?? i have been looking and I can't find one that big. They are all rea lsmall and I have about 10 acres I want to do..

Thank you very much.

Brandon

wow nice looking plots

outdoorsman4life_103

We don't use a 4 wheeler to disk - even with a small set - its HARD on a 4 wheeler.


We use an 8 ft set pulled behind the tractor. They pull plenty hard, and you couldn't do it with a 4 wheeler - not on our heavy, rockysoils.




A poster on another forum made a set - that I though was pretty neat - and I saved a picture of it.
I cannot say how well it worked - but it looks like it could.



I got to tell you though - disks pull HARD, especially on moist soil. One year, I had a 1/2 set of an 8 ft set of finish disks, (the 2 front sections) - and I pulled it around with my jeep - to finish the plots - while a buddy pulled the 8 ft set with the tractor. I overheated, and was genuinely worried about my transmission.

FH

bigwhitetailbuck -

If you fall plant clover - you cannot expect a whole lot to hunt over that year. Some guys mix in oats or winter oats - so there is some fall attraction..................but a fall planted clover plot will flourish the following spring if all its conditions are satisfied.

Fall planted clover plots are generally more weed free - because the dormant weedseeds germinate - and many many of them are annuals, and die back before they can ever drop more seeds. All this adds up to a more weed free field in the spring when the clover takes off.

Us hunters are an impatient lot......... and fall planted clover plots are tough to do because we like to hunt around them that first season. If you can be patient (don't mix in a lot of other stuff that will haunt your clover plot the next years) - then its a good plan.

Lastly - In some areas - you can plant clover in the summer and do well. Granted - you probably cannot get away with it in south Texas or Georgia - but in the Northeast for example, where we get 4" of rain in July many years - clover can do just fine. Sometimes I July Plant with Brassicas.

FH