arkansasbowhunter

hey guys, new to the posting here. I have bought forty acres around clinton arkansas (mountain area). I have a long narrow road behind my cabin. I went up yesterday and broke the ground with a blade 4 passes, trimmed as many roots from the trees as possible, then pulled a tiller about 6 passes on it. the ground looks very good and broke up to me. Rough measurements are 8ft wide and about nearly 250 yards in length. in some areas the road has a fairely onen canopy and some places not so good. I limed it with a pretty good coat of lime (about eight 50lb bags worth), however didn' t till it in. my plans are to go back the middle of august to plant. Is anyone from this area that would have suggestions on what to plant. I bought some biologic full draw and some biologic green patch plus on sale in january at the local walmart. i also bought the biologic fertilizer.

without having a soil test done, should i re-lime again in august when i inted to seed? Can you lime, fertize, and seed all in the same day? Any suggestions on seed for the rocky partially shaded road plot?

also, tried to pull my whirley bird spreader behind my wheeler to distribute the powdered lime but didn' t work well. ended up spreading most by hand. any suggestions, here. thought about drop spreader.

thanks for any help

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Dan O.

I would have tilled the lime into the soil. It needs contact to raise the pH.

You need at least a pH test to see what your lime needs are. You can overdo a good thing.

You' re best bet on a plot in that situation would probably be clover (red or Ladino). Get a good plot in and then experiment with other plants.

Dan O.

Ballistictip

My guess is that you will probably need more lime but like Dan said, there is no way to know until you get the soil test. It should be less than $10 and will take all the guess work out. Definately till it in. It will work much faster. The powdered lime is a lot cheaper but is harder to spread. It will also raise the pH quicker than pelletized. You spread it the same way I do. Just tear the bag open and start slinging. Tilling it in will take care of the heavy spots. Once the plot is established use the pelletized lime when it is needed. I' ve planted Ladino clover in a situation real similar to yours and it did good. I' ve never used any of the Biologic brand stuff so I' m not sure what to tell you there.

arkansasbowhunter

is there a ph test that i can buy and do it on the site. my cabin is 100 miles from home which makes a little hard to work on as i have to take everything thinkable up there b/c it is out in the sticks. CAN you overdo lime for most plants???

Ballistictip

Yes, you should be able to buy a soil test kit from most lawn & garden supplies or a feed/seed store. They will range from $8 to $40 dollars in price depending on how elaborate the kit is. It will also tell you what type and how much fertilizer you need. You can overdo lime. If your soil is like mine that would be pretty hard to do but some soils already have a decent pH. Most anything you will grow in a food plot will do fine with a pH level between 5.5 to 6.5 except alfalfas where 7.0 is better. With the powdered lime you' re using it will take up to 2 months for it to raise the pH depending on soil moisture and how well it is mixed into the soil. If you decide to go with some type of clover make sure you use the correct innoculant. A package of innoculant will run $6 to $8 and is enough to do 50 lbs of seed. Trust me, I spent a lot of money doing it the wrong way only to have my plots come up and then die.

Uncle Al

I also would stongly agree with the soil test. I also have 100 miles to our land. So I' ve tryed the soil test from the local farm store, it' s results were not very acurate compared to the soil test I sent to the local ag dept. They also will tell you how much lime to add. Ours was 9-12 tons per acre. See the post " How much lime" . Thats alot of bags. about 100 bags for our little 1/4 acre. This is our first attempt at a food plot also.

Good luck!

" Plant it and they will come" . I hope so!

arkansasbowhunter

what is inocullant?

Hi-wall

Innoculant is the bacteria the clover seed needs to germinate. If you buy your seed at a farm store ask for it. It is also cheaper there, for seed, than by the bag from these Food plot co. Just get white landino and crimson

Dan O.

arkansasbowhunter; some of the soil near my property has a natural pH of over 8.0 because of the limestone bedrock in the area. Some of the plant/tree growth is pretty sad in these areas.

Dan O.