What to plant?
10-27-2004, 08:10 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 86
What to plant?
I'm to late for this year, but i'm already starting to get stuff around for planting my food plot next year. I am trying to come up with a mix of seeds that will be good from early fall all the way through to tough winters up here in PA. I have no idea what to plant though. I was thinking of a clover and brassica or clover, rye, and brassica mixes. But i'm not sure, so i'm open for suggestions. I am also thinking about planting a row or so of carrots (lol) or something along those lines because the deer around here love them. So if anyone has any suggestions for something to plant that will last into the winter i would really appreciate it....thanks
10-29-2004, 03:41 AM
#3
Fork Horn
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 219
RE: What to plant?
Any clover or alfa alfa will be good. Do your self a favor and stay away from the market brand. I found a company online that has the contract for clover and other seeds for techamante and they were half the price. I bought 25 punds of seed for about 80.00 plus some change and this included shipping. this is the second year of it being in the ground and is in great shape. This will save you a lott of money and it is the same seed.
But clover and alfa alfa will still be green and the deer feeding on it during winter.
Sorry I don't have the link anymore to the place I ordered the seed from. Just do a search on New Zealand White clover and you will find a lot of sites to order from.
But clover and alfa alfa will still be green and the deer feeding on it during winter.
Sorry I don't have the link anymore to the place I ordered the seed from. Just do a search on New Zealand White clover and you will find a lot of sites to order from.
10-30-2004, 01:14 PM
#4
Typical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: NC
Posts: 845
RE: What to plant?
ORIGINAL: slobbyrobby33
Sorry I don't have the link anymore to the place I ordered the seed from. Just do a search on New Zealand White clover and you will find a lot of sites to order from.
Sorry I don't have the link anymore to the place I ordered the seed from. Just do a search on New Zealand White clover and you will find a lot of sites to order from.
10-31-2004, 02:59 AM
#6
Fork Horn
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 219
RE: What to plant?
Guysa I just posted 3 links ( and they all work) to seed companies that have several varities of clover and more. I ordered my New Zealand white from Oustside Pride and paid between $80 and $90 for 25 punds including shipping. this is a lot better than paying the price for the name brand stufff when it is the exact same thing.
Go to your sporting good store and look at the seed sticker that is required on all seed sold and then go price the same stuff with these guys and tell me what you think the best deal is.
Go to your sporting good store and look at the seed sticker that is required on all seed sold and then go price the same stuff with these guys and tell me what you think the best deal is.
10-31-2004, 05:53 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Delhi, NY (by way of Chenango Forks)
Posts: 1,706
RE: What to plant?
one word: CLOVER
not Whiteltail Clover or Biologic or any of the other over priced over-hyped seed mixes
IMO you are better off with regular Ladino clover you can get at the Ag store. Deer love it and eat it up. Mix in the other thing as you like. You may want to split the plot with clover in one section and the brassicas in another - they grow at different times and have different nutritional values. Just a thought.
As others said - you need to soil sample and apply amendments as required before you plant anything.
good luck
not Whiteltail Clover or Biologic or any of the other over priced over-hyped seed mixes
IMO you are better off with regular Ladino clover you can get at the Ag store. Deer love it and eat it up. Mix in the other thing as you like. You may want to split the plot with clover in one section and the brassicas in another - they grow at different times and have different nutritional values. Just a thought.
As others said - you need to soil sample and apply amendments as required before you plant anything.
good luck
11-04-2004, 08:35 AM
#8
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 1
RE: What to plant?
Mount Dave,
This is really an easy question, an easy answer is to plant whatever you want to plant.
When you have more information gathered from your person experiences, you can make a great decision. but plant SOMETHING and keep track of the results...
I was in your position about 10 years ago when I started this on our 360ac farm in Missouri. I started out with the Biologic in a small 1/2ac food plot, smack dab in the middle of an 80ac old brome grass field. I used a cattle panel to make a circle so I could see if the deer were using the plot.
Well they did and they ate it down pretty good, but some portions of the field did not grow at all!
I was concerned why some portions of the field did not grow well. I did some research and spoke with my elderly uncle who owned the place. He said since this field hadn't been planted or fertilized in 20 years that I needed to grow some nitrogen fixing plants in order to get some nitrogen back into the soil. He suggested planting forbs and legumes to establish the plot and return some nitrogen back into the soil. Well I planted korean lespedeza that was given to me by the Quails unlimited people. To my amazement this grew knee high and flourished. I had a nice green food plot, but were the deer using it? I suspected so, I would see deer in the plot on occasions. I left this plot in Lespedeza for a couple years and it began to die back. So I over seeded ladino clover in the plot and the following year the clover just took off. I began to see more deer than ever in my food plot. I started another food plot closer to the timber and found that with the location closer to cover and the crop selection, I had hit the motherload. In this plot, I planted a mixture of Ladino clover and winter wheat. And mind you all of this is from the local seed company and the seed costs about $20 per acre. The winter wheat was planted with the ladino clover so that in the fall, the deer would have great green browse before the clover came in the following year. I would mow yearly to help the clover overcome competition. We continue to plant corn, wheat, clover and lespedeza (korean) in food plot to dertemine what works the best. What we have found out is this.... The grain plots generally are seasonal, when the grains mature, the birds will use them most. When the wheat is young the deer will browse it. We determined that our corn plots feed the coons rather nicely. I suspect the deer have an opportunity to use it, but we have really no evidence they use any before the coons/possums take it all. The clover is by far the best, you will notice that the clover will start to thin out over a couple years. Mowing can prolong the plot but requires equipment and access to the plots with the equipment. We use a clover rotation scheme where every second or third year we plant a new plot or overseed an existing one. This keeps the clover plots in excellent condition and in great palatable shape. We also plant alfalfa/timothy mixture in a 10 acre food plot for use as hay. However, the deer utilize this plot even more than the clover. If money is no concern I would plant 10 acres of alfalfa and allow nighbors to hay it. You can use the money from the hay to buy fertlizer and seed for the following year. In addtion to the alfalfa plant and rotate several 2-3 acre clover food plots every two-three years. Do not use the specialty seeds they are a waste of money. If you are interested in a flurry of activity nest to your deer stand, plant about 1 acre of red-top turnips in shooting distance of your deer stand. Detemine the date you should plant by counting back from deer season they days it takes for you variety of red-top turnips to mature. Fertilize as required and during deer season, sit back and watch the deer actually dig these up out of the ground!!
But whatever you do, plant something and see what happens. You may need fertilizer, lime to get the soil in the optimal condition. Don;t be afraid to contact the local USDA extention. They have the answers to most all beginer questions. I would start with clover and if you want to try something else, that fine. but keep your base plots in clover.
Cliff
This is really an easy question, an easy answer is to plant whatever you want to plant.
When you have more information gathered from your person experiences, you can make a great decision. but plant SOMETHING and keep track of the results...
I was in your position about 10 years ago when I started this on our 360ac farm in Missouri. I started out with the Biologic in a small 1/2ac food plot, smack dab in the middle of an 80ac old brome grass field. I used a cattle panel to make a circle so I could see if the deer were using the plot.
Well they did and they ate it down pretty good, but some portions of the field did not grow at all!
I was concerned why some portions of the field did not grow well. I did some research and spoke with my elderly uncle who owned the place. He said since this field hadn't been planted or fertilized in 20 years that I needed to grow some nitrogen fixing plants in order to get some nitrogen back into the soil. He suggested planting forbs and legumes to establish the plot and return some nitrogen back into the soil. Well I planted korean lespedeza that was given to me by the Quails unlimited people. To my amazement this grew knee high and flourished. I had a nice green food plot, but were the deer using it? I suspected so, I would see deer in the plot on occasions. I left this plot in Lespedeza for a couple years and it began to die back. So I over seeded ladino clover in the plot and the following year the clover just took off. I began to see more deer than ever in my food plot. I started another food plot closer to the timber and found that with the location closer to cover and the crop selection, I had hit the motherload. In this plot, I planted a mixture of Ladino clover and winter wheat. And mind you all of this is from the local seed company and the seed costs about $20 per acre. The winter wheat was planted with the ladino clover so that in the fall, the deer would have great green browse before the clover came in the following year. I would mow yearly to help the clover overcome competition. We continue to plant corn, wheat, clover and lespedeza (korean) in food plot to dertemine what works the best. What we have found out is this.... The grain plots generally are seasonal, when the grains mature, the birds will use them most. When the wheat is young the deer will browse it. We determined that our corn plots feed the coons rather nicely. I suspect the deer have an opportunity to use it, but we have really no evidence they use any before the coons/possums take it all. The clover is by far the best, you will notice that the clover will start to thin out over a couple years. Mowing can prolong the plot but requires equipment and access to the plots with the equipment. We use a clover rotation scheme where every second or third year we plant a new plot or overseed an existing one. This keeps the clover plots in excellent condition and in great palatable shape. We also plant alfalfa/timothy mixture in a 10 acre food plot for use as hay. However, the deer utilize this plot even more than the clover. If money is no concern I would plant 10 acres of alfalfa and allow nighbors to hay it. You can use the money from the hay to buy fertlizer and seed for the following year. In addtion to the alfalfa plant and rotate several 2-3 acre clover food plots every two-three years. Do not use the specialty seeds they are a waste of money. If you are interested in a flurry of activity nest to your deer stand, plant about 1 acre of red-top turnips in shooting distance of your deer stand. Detemine the date you should plant by counting back from deer season they days it takes for you variety of red-top turnips to mature. Fertilize as required and during deer season, sit back and watch the deer actually dig these up out of the ground!!
But whatever you do, plant something and see what happens. You may need fertilizer, lime to get the soil in the optimal condition. Don;t be afraid to contact the local USDA extention. They have the answers to most all beginer questions. I would start with clover and if you want to try something else, that fine. but keep your base plots in clover.
Cliff
11-04-2004, 09:25 AM
#9
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Cedar Park Texas
Posts: 188
RE: What to plant?
How much land are you planting? If its about an acre or less the name brand, fancy bag stuff is the way to go IMO. While seed can be purchased alot cheaper, consider the additional cost of innoculant and the minimum quantity of seed you may need to purchase from the local Ag. Co-op... So the question how much land? Is THE important factor IMO.
11-27-2004, 03:32 AM
#10
Fork Horn
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 219
RE: What to plant?
Cliff620 hit the nail on the head. I like the clover and the Lespadezia. You can even buy chickory or LabLab though the companies that grow them for the commercial market and pay half the price.
Don't worry about enoculants they (for clover) cost about $4.00 and it will do 50 pounds. do yourself a favor and get a soil sample done. This will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
I do have a question for Cliff620 or any one else that can answer it. What can I do about weed control in my clover? I thought I remeber someone posting that a company had come out with a herbiside that sould control weeds but not kill the clover. Does anyone know what that would be? Is ther something else I can use or do? We have 1 Plott in Red Clover 1 Plot with a New Zealand - Linda mix and 1 plott straight New Zealand.
Don't worry about enoculants they (for clover) cost about $4.00 and it will do 50 pounds. do yourself a favor and get a soil sample done. This will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
I do have a question for Cliff620 or any one else that can answer it. What can I do about weed control in my clover? I thought I remeber someone posting that a company had come out with a herbiside that sould control weeds but not kill the clover. Does anyone know what that would be? Is ther something else I can use or do? We have 1 Plott in Red Clover 1 Plot with a New Zealand - Linda mix and 1 plott straight New Zealand.