Texas food plot
09-21-2009, 10:25 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9
Texas food plot
FIRST,let me thank the members for helping me last year with a successfull food plot. Chirory, sorgum, cowpeas. I say it was successful because it brought the deer. unsuccessfull because it was later covered with grass and weeds.
I want a fall plot that will last thru fall, winter, and into early spring. I have mowed down to a short stubble and afew bare dirt areas of less than 1/2 acre say a big 1/4 acre plot. This is sand with some loam and very little minerals. Should the next step be herbicide ??( some suggestions here). I understand giving the seed a non-competitive edge is important. So I kill all the weeds, plow, then disc fertilizer in at the same time. then drag to create a good level bed??? How soon do I seed and what do I seed for fall and winter. sorry I don't have pictures. And thanks in advance
sometimes I get BRAINSTORMS and sometimes just RAIN
I want a fall plot that will last thru fall, winter, and into early spring. I have mowed down to a short stubble and afew bare dirt areas of less than 1/2 acre say a big 1/4 acre plot. This is sand with some loam and very little minerals. Should the next step be herbicide ??( some suggestions here). I understand giving the seed a non-competitive edge is important. So I kill all the weeds, plow, then disc fertilizer in at the same time. then drag to create a good level bed??? How soon do I seed and what do I seed for fall and winter. sorry I don't have pictures. And thanks in advance
sometimes I get BRAINSTORMS and sometimes just RAIN
09-24-2009, 01:52 PM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: a van down by the river
Posts: 8,939
If you are going to be plowing, especially disking, I'd probably skip the herbicide step if your plow or disk can take out most of the weeds.
Beardless wheat is cheap, easy, and very effective. Wildlife will utilize it from September to May/June.
Beardless wheat is cheap, easy, and very effective. Wildlife will utilize it from September to May/June.
09-26-2009, 06:04 AM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: a van down by the river
Posts: 8,939
Depends on the weed. Most are pioneer species, and will re-emerge any time seeds are exposed to sunlight and moisture.
Controlled burning works well for undesirables that are unable to resprout, but most undesirable forbes and grasses will not be killed through a control burn, and will resprout from the base and resume growing soon after the burn if the soil still has adequate moisture. Control burns are really more useful for rangeland maintenance probably than for food plots, unless you have a perennial plot. In this part of the country, we have a lot of prickly pear, tasajillo, and mesquite. Controlled burns can be effective at killing the prickly pear and tasajillo. Although not as effective as spraying, controlled burns are much less expensive, and can be done several times for the cost of one spraying. While mesquite and most of the other brush species in this area will resprout, control burning can top kill or partially top kill many brush species, lowering the maturity level of the brush, and accomplishing a certain level of thinning. Also useful when, after several years, many of the long-lived perennial grasses have accumulated a lot of old growth. Burning off the old growth provides opportunity for light to reach the soil in some places, allowing new plants to establish, and also allowing the established plants an opportunity to receive more sunlight and achieve better growth rates.
Spraying can kill undesirables, and some sprays can actually inhibit germination, although most of those are only approved for certain uses. Since spraying does no remove any existing growth, it probably provides the longest-term weed control because it does not expose the soil to as much sunlight. But it still won't last a long time.
Plowing with sweeps or a disk can provide decent weed control, but since the soil is exposed to sunlight, undesirables will emerge given enough moisture for germination.
Really, the best way to control weeds for extended periods is to simply have desirable vegetation well-established and actively growing. As long as the desirable vegetation is doing well, it is blocking the sunlight from reaching the soil and preventing the undesirable vegetation from germinating. My primary weed control strategy in my farmland is to get the crop in, up, and growing before the weeds have a chance to germinate and get established.
Controlled burning works well for undesirables that are unable to resprout, but most undesirable forbes and grasses will not be killed through a control burn, and will resprout from the base and resume growing soon after the burn if the soil still has adequate moisture. Control burns are really more useful for rangeland maintenance probably than for food plots, unless you have a perennial plot. In this part of the country, we have a lot of prickly pear, tasajillo, and mesquite. Controlled burns can be effective at killing the prickly pear and tasajillo. Although not as effective as spraying, controlled burns are much less expensive, and can be done several times for the cost of one spraying. While mesquite and most of the other brush species in this area will resprout, control burning can top kill or partially top kill many brush species, lowering the maturity level of the brush, and accomplishing a certain level of thinning. Also useful when, after several years, many of the long-lived perennial grasses have accumulated a lot of old growth. Burning off the old growth provides opportunity for light to reach the soil in some places, allowing new plants to establish, and also allowing the established plants an opportunity to receive more sunlight and achieve better growth rates.
Spraying can kill undesirables, and some sprays can actually inhibit germination, although most of those are only approved for certain uses. Since spraying does no remove any existing growth, it probably provides the longest-term weed control because it does not expose the soil to as much sunlight. But it still won't last a long time.
Plowing with sweeps or a disk can provide decent weed control, but since the soil is exposed to sunlight, undesirables will emerge given enough moisture for germination.
Really, the best way to control weeds for extended periods is to simply have desirable vegetation well-established and actively growing. As long as the desirable vegetation is doing well, it is blocking the sunlight from reaching the soil and preventing the undesirable vegetation from germinating. My primary weed control strategy in my farmland is to get the crop in, up, and growing before the weeds have a chance to germinate and get established.
09-26-2009, 05:05 PM
#5
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Comance county, OK
Posts: 11,408
My primary weed control strategy in my farmland is to get the crop in, up, and growing before the weeds have a chance to germinate and get established.
On September 5th we put Chilocco oats in moist soil at one of our places. We have been blessed with some timely rain and they are now 6" tall. The deer are starting to hit them. On the same day we put in Austrian winter peas: They are 5" tall and the deer are after them too. The soil on that place is a sandy loam.
10-10-2009, 08:06 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Posts: 1,401
A little late on this post, but I've had the best luck with discing, then waiting a couple weeks then spraying with roundup and then planting after a week or so. This seems to give me a nice clean field and sets the weeds back long enough for what I planted to get a good start. Of course the rain has to cooperate also.
10-10-2009, 08:09 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Posts: 1,401
P.S. - My big fall plot (13 acres) is a 50/50 Rye/Oats mix with some winter peas sprinkled in. For my little plots (a couple 1/4 acre shooting lanes and a 2 acre field) I used Turner Seed's Fall Deer Mix and added in some extra alfalfa and clover. I'll also be planting 33 acres of wheat but that's really a nurse crop for my grass planting I'll be doing this spring.
10-17-2009, 01:31 PM
#8
Spike
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 15
i made a eal nice one and what i did was spraye it with roundup then disked it to pure dirt. then sowd it with a fourwheeler nd seedsower. the took the disk over it one more time just to turn the dirt over the seeds.... came up very well with no weeds.
