Late last spring or early summer my tractor cracked a block. So, being the thrifty dude that I am, I tore it all apart myself and took almost three months to get it back to work again. While I was busy so was the weeds in one of my food plots. By the time I got down there with a brush mower the weeds had all gone to seed. In late October I used my plow to turn the field over in prep. for spring planting. Well we all know that if I plant my usual red clover and alfalfa in April the weeds are going to take over by June.

My question is this - what's the best way to get the food plot growing without the weeds. If I use a pre-emergant then my good plants won't germinate but neither will the weeds. If I let the weeds grow and then use round-up then I'll miss the growing season for the food crop.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Use a selective herbicide such as Poast or Venture for grasses and Caliber for broadleaf weeds. Personally, I would just let the weeds start to germinate and then disk them under. Then plant the alfalfa and clover. This can be combined with a roundup spray before you disk. In Ontario you can seed forage crops up to mid August if there is adequite moisture.

Dan O.

We do a lot of this... Let the grasses and weeds green up and then spray. Wait a few weeks and hit the area again if it greens up. Burn if possible. If not, then float disk your lime in and cultipack. Weeds are usually maintained by mowing. Grasses need to be sprayed. Your planting season is March 20 - May 15, so there is plenty of time. Don't be in a hurry to fail... This is the area where most folks miss the boat... Soil prep is the most important aspect. Waiting until the fall planting season is not the end of the world.

Thanks guys. Dan how soon can forage crops be planted after the application of Poast, Venture, or Caliber?

lunchbucket - I'm not sure what cultipack is. Can you explain?

L.C.

A cultipacker is a device that kinda looks lile a roller with disc's. It packs the soil into a firm seed bed. That's a simple version, you should go to a farm store and look at one. Some of the herbicides you may plant at the same time as you spray. We suggest against it...

With those herbicides you plant before you spray. They won't kill the clover or alfalfa seedlings, just the grass and broadleaf weeds. With Roundup, pretty well everything you spray will die off. So you spray first, let the plants absorb the herbicide and then plow everything under.

Dan O.

For a spring planting you might want to consider planting 40-60 lb/acre of oats then overseed with the clover. I've done it both ways, and each works. I've read that oats or rye physically and chemically surpress competition of weeds. I'd suspect it also somewhat slows clover growth as well, however by the time the clover really gets going, the oats will dye out, and the clover is left as the dominant crop. They also provide good cover to protect against drought and other weather conditions while they grow, all the farmers around here plant oats and overseed with clover or alfalfa for next years hay.

You should spray 1st prior to plowing. Again, done it both ways, you can get by without spraying if you cut the clover three times a year to thicken it up - once the oats are off. You will still get some weeds, but remember its a deer plot. We then broadcast the oats, fertilize and/or lime, and lightly disc them in. Next we broadcast the clover and use an old cultipacker to firm up the seedbed.

Farm hunters right about planting the oats as a nurse crop for the clover. You actually get 2 crops that the deer like.

One thing to remember: The deer were eating the weeds before we planted clover and did just fine. The deer don;t mind weeds in the clover field. In many ways they supply nutrients that the clover doesn't.

You might like hamburgers, but wouldn't you like some fries with your burger?

Dan O.