chef#1

am planting a whitetail institute plot this year for the first time. I am using No Plow and CLover. Has anyone ever used these prducts and how were the results? Any info would be welcome.

Thanks,


Hunt on Hunt Hard Eat well

wigmap

chef #1,

I planted about 2 acres of Institute clover Memorial Day 2002 along with 2 acres of Biologic and some buckwheat. I have been very please with both the clover and the Biologic. The clover is slow to come but by Mid to late July we had a stand approximately 10" high. One evening in August we counted 35 deer in our filed. This spring it is starting to grow and was about 2 inches last weekend. We plant to spray for weeds to help extend the plot life. Overall I am very pleased.

lawnfarmer

I have tried test plots with no plow and clover with disappointing results. The advice I can give is, it didn' t work out for me. You may have better luck. There are a lot of variables. I would not do anything without a soil sample. The dry weather last year was not good for anything that grew. My alfalfa, ladino clover looked great in the fall and this spring it looks even better. Am putting in an acre or so of corn and hope to get at least 100 bu.acre. I am not too excited about using the expensive buck on a bag seed. But whatever you plant you have to do it right.

wigmap

I agree with lawnfarmer. We spent a significant amount of time getting our plot ready before we planted it. Actually started in March did not plant until Memorial Day, but we did plant 5 acres. This included clearing the field with a bulldozer, note this was not overgrown but only a grass field. Due to rocks we could not simply plow. Then we took several large rocks off the field. We disced for hour upon hour to rid the field of any large sod pieces and did some leveling with the bulldozer. Also put 15 tons of lime on the field at 3 ton per acre. Our soil sample indicated a ph of 4.9. Then we fertilized and finally planted.

You may plan to do all of this, but to just rake up an area and throw down some seed will not in my opinion produce satisfactory results with the institute clover. Above all after you plant you must have rainfall or a way to irrigate. Hope this helps.

JKT

wigmap,

When you say you agree with lawnfarmer, are you saying you had disappointing results with Imperial Whitetail Clover, or were you agreeing with the need for good plot preperation? I assume you planted Imperial Whitetail Clover, if so how does your plot look now? Also how many pounds of seed did you plant and how did you spread it? I ask about the pounds of seed for five acres because that is about the size of the plot I will be planting in late August, I am almost sure I am going to plant Imperial Whitetail Clover, I had 13.5 tons of lime spread last week as per the soil test.

Thanks,
JKT

wigmap

JKT, I agree with lawnfarmer in the fact that preparation is a must. The 5 acres that we planted 4 imperial whitetail clover and 1 buckwheat. We have had very good results with our plot. By August our buckwheat was gone so we planted some imperial alfa-rack on Labor Day weekend where the buckwheat was. No rain for two weeks nights get cooler and days shorter. The Alfarack did absolutely nothing. My experience is the best time to plant is in the spring, but I have only tried the fall once.

Also, when I say we started in March and did not plant until Memorial Day that only included Friday' s, Saturday' s and some Sunday' s of work. Big plot lots of discing, lots of rocks, bad weather, snow in April, etc.

As far as pounds that we planted we added the # of lb' s to get to 1/2 to 1 acre more than the bag says. So if the bag says plants 3 acres, we used enough lbs. of seed to plant 3.5 to 4 acres.

You asked how it looks now? It looks great it is starting to grow with the warmer days and is about 3" . It was slow to grow after we planted it last year but it reached 10 to 12" . We do have some weeds and plan to spray. Unless something changes I have been very satisfied.

JKT

Thanks for the info wigmap, I hope I have as good results.

JKT

Ballistictip

I' ve planted the Imperial No-Plow and the Imperial Whitetail clover and was very pleased with both. However, I' ve had the same results using a mix of Ladino and Arrowleaf clover purchased from the local feed store for alot less $$$. I' m not slamming on the Imperial Whitetail stuff because like I said, it did very well. I just saved alot of money at the local feed store.

WV Hunter

I planted my only plot with IWC. Fall 2001. It did fantastic last year, and is booming right now. The whole key to food plot success, is taking the time to do it right.
Yes IWC may be more expensive than other clovers...but you gotta take that for what it' s worth.
Example: a 1/2 acre planted with IWC costs around $30 (seed only)...the same 1/2 acre with co-op brand clover, roughly half as much. So...assuming you did your homework before planting, did your soil testing, and worked up your plot accordingly...you should expect to get 4-6 years out of your clover plot (with routine maintenance). Lets round that out to 5 years. You saved roughly $3/year to use the co-op clover.
As a rule, you will have much more money invested in your plot prep, than the seed will cost.

Good luck Chef...I' m sure you' ll like it ...so will your deer

lunchbucket

We no longer sell the Imperial Whitetail products...