craig

Not so much the cooler temps you need as it is rain.

This is the sort of crap shoot that farmers have to deal with all the time.

The old saying is that a wet year scares a farmer to death.........but a dry year kills him. You may have issues with getting in your harvest in wet years, but in a dry year there is nothing to harvest.......

I'd suggest waiting until you've a strong forecast for rain within 3 days & then plant. While you don't need to worry in regards to harvest you do need that rain to get a strong uniform plot growth.

MZS

Good advice. Rain passed by to the north 20 miles and to the south 10 miles today. Looks like next weekend will be the time to plant unless the forecast changes.

hossdaniels

Actually the saying is the other way around. Dry years will scare you. Wet years will break you. Dry years usually mean a slightly reduced yield, but not a total loss like wet years can be.

MZS

Looking like I will be getting my teen out there to haul up buckets from a nearby creek as I water with watering cans. That or get a generator. The plot is small, so I think we could do this. Rain is not in the forecast for a while now. Only fair to the teen - he will mostly be the one hunting over this.

UPDATE: Two nights of heavy rain and some sun after I planted 3 days ago - Looking good!

MZS

Shown below is the small plot as of tonight, 7 days after the rain came. Not too bad for a by-hand plot in our miserable clay soil. Deer are starting to nibble at this - there have not been a lot of deer in this area so I am hoping there is still some of the rye left into the later season. Bow season starts in a week and 5 days. At any rate, before the plot grew up there were virtually no tracks in the tilled area.

North22

I'd get it in ASAP. I'm in northern WI as well. The seed will be fine until the next rain. You want it in the ground real soon. Depending on the fall we have, the window of opportunity could be closing really fast for fall grains... Also, with night temps dropping, the ground gets damp enough from dew to at least germinate the seed.

North22

Sorry about the last post. I only read page one before I posted . Looks like you're way ahead of me. Plot is coming in nicely. Good luck!

deernutrionist

In many areas of Wisconsin we have extra phosphorus in the soil. I always suggest a soil test for all food plots. I tend to push a 9-0-26 mix which is basically 1/2 ammonium sulfate and 1/2 potassium. This mix has a high sulfur level. Many areas of Wisconsin suffer for sulfur deficiency due to us cleaning up the power plant emmitions. Many "stunted" hay fields are due to this deficiency. I always say "feed the plants and not the weeds" If you need some phosphorus in your area, i'd go with a mix of 10-5-20 or a spec like that. We want around 40 units of nitrogen per acre typically.