Recently acquired hunting rights on an active farm. The crop, peanuts, are still in the ground, but will be picked in about a week or so. I am going to plant food plots and have decided on oats, wheat and rape. I'm in northern Florida and have access to the farmers equipment (and help). The soil is great. My questions are:

1- Will I be ok planting the end of this month or the first week in Oct?

2- any suggestions/ info on how much to plant (pounds of what per acre); again, I have picked wheat, oats and rape.

p.s. All of the plots I plant will be between 1/2 acre to 2 acres.

Do a soil sample... Don't get into guess work. Oct is not too late for your area. Traditional plantings times for North Fla. are Sept 15 - Nov. 15.

Romans 10:9 Psalms 42

Thanks Lunchbucket,

soil samples are on the way. So is the lime. Any info on the rates(5-8 lbs of rape per acre, etc)?

We are going to mix the seed together, but I was thinking that since the rape seed is so much smaller than the wheat and oats, maybe I should broadcast the oats and wheat first and then come back over it with the rape. Any thoughts?

Good luck with your plot, seems you have plenty of time.
Lime if you can, but with rape, oats, and wheat, Ph, while
still important, is not as critical as with a legume. 6.0Ph
is a good target.

When I broadcast oats or wheat, I usually plant 100 lbs per acre, then lightly disk it in. If you have access to a grain drill, you can get by with less, say 80 lbs per acre. I planted rape one year in a mix with clover on a 1-1/2 acre plot, seems like I used 6 lbs in the mix, and had a good stand of rapeseed (dwarf essex), but not too thick that it shaded out too much clover. I'd say 4-6 lbs per acre in a mix is fine.

Rape LOVES nitrogen, oats, and wheat will benefit as well. The peanuts, while not a prolific source of N like alfalfa, will add some much neaded N to the soil: <BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Many soils, particularly in the tropics and subtropics, are low
in nitrogen. Legume crops, grown in rotation with other crops
can be used to add nitrogen to the soil. The amount of nitrogen
fixed annually by rhizobia varies with legume species:

Legume kg N/hectare

Alfalfa 200-400
Ladino clover 100-200
Lupines 100-150
Red clover 100-150
Crimson clover 100
Cowpeas 100
Vetch 90
Annual lespedeza 80
Soybeans 50-100
Peas 60
Peanuts 40
Beans 40

The nitrogen in the nodules, top growth, and roots of the legume
becomes available for use by other plants growing with the legume
or growing in the same soil later. Approximately 80 percent of
the nitrogen is in the uncut top growth, and 20 percent is in
the roots. Nitrogen usually averages 3.5 percent of the plant
material on a dry matter base.
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote> courtesy of:

http://idh.vita.org/pubs/docs/uni09.html

Your soil test will indicate if you need to add additional N, P and K.

By the way, welcome to the board, be sure to let us know how your
plot(s) turn out.

Thanks a lot Farm Hunter. When I got on the board and read all of the postings about plots and such, I figured that you would be able to provide some very valuable information. It was kind of wierd, there were two of you guys that I hoped I would get a reply from. You and Lunchbucket. I will keep you updated with how well it works.