thanks for the info. hoss, there is a VCE office not even 3 miles from my house, might as well go ahead and get a sample and see what happens

at that close they might have it on file already...or ask the farmers they know already

Soil changes over time, and sandy soil changes rapidly. Last years test would be wrong on amended soil. PH drops to the original level, nitrogen and potash is leached out of sandy soil, only phosphorus tends to stick around, and even that is not guaranteed. I laid out a woods plot near jarratt (lil' north of emporia) this spring that came back at a pH of 4.2 (terrible) and needed 260 lbs (A LOT) of phosphorus/acre. That's the closest I've ever been to SE VA for food plots. The test will tell you what you need to know.

there is no farms near my house,(google seaford, va 23696, thats where im located) i actually live almost at the chesapeake bay and im only about 250yds from a creek that goes into the bay, so i have a lot of saltwater around me.. but my house is surrounded by about 630acres of woods and thats why i want a food plot in my yard, try to draw the deer into the woods that i am allowed to hunt in.

also, like i said ive never done this before and i have many many questions, but one that i was just wondering is, when i do plant the seeds, do i spread it just like grass seed? and then spread the fertilizer and lime right on top or will that burn it up? and i think im gonna try out oats and some kind of a clover mix, the weather forecast has a lot of rain in it and chances so im gonna try to get something on the ground by saturday evening or sunday if i can.

Best to till in lime and fertilizer. Broadcast the seed like grass seed, then pack or drag to cover clover seeds no more than 1/4" deep if you can. On top is better than too deep. Oats do better deeper, around 1" deep, but covered should OK if that's what you got.

Broadcast the oats on fluffy soil then pack. That puts them deeper. Then broadcast the clover and pack again. The clover seed will not go nearly as deep since it has already been packed one time.

yea im gonna till fertilizer and lime in this evening and try to get some seed tomorrow or saturday and seed this weekend, hopefully by time the rain moves in. hope i will be doing it right, not sure really how to plant the seeds without equipment. not even sure what seeds im gonna go with but im gonna check out a local feed & seed store asap.

dont plant in hopes of rain. mother nature made a fool of us 1 year lol..just because the sky is blacker than a coal diggers hands and there is lightning and thunder, doesnt mean its gonna rain anytime soon.
I am not sure the conditions there, but i would wait until it rains, cause the birds will reap havoc on your seed.
we rented a water pump..$16 day er sumthin...used the whole 3 day weekend, pumped out of a stream, watered as often as possible..it was greenin before we left(a lil, but it was)
didnt ya say it was by the house, cant ya run water hoses?

yea i got water hose's, just as easy to wait on a nice rain storm, that way it will give me a few days to get everything done and i dont want to plant anything to early. i might just get the lime and fertilizer and get that tilled into the ground and find out exactly what i want to plant and just wait til the right time to plant it

right on, check the germination temps of what ever you are putting down..cross reference that with what the weather man thinks (lil boyz who lie grow up to be the weather man)..
you are gonna need more than a rain day to get it going, it needs to be wet and warm fer it to germinate.