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ahuebel
Optics Apprentice Joined: December/28/2006 Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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Posted: August/25/2007 at 22:14 |
I have a question about planting some fall food plots in east texas. The places I will be planting is overgrown pasture. I was thinking I could mow then immediately disk. Then perhaps wait a week or so and disk again and plant seed using some sort of broadcast method. I was thinking of planting a mixture of cow peas, oats, and arrow leaf clover. I know I could start by spraying round up or something but for one thing I dont have a large sprayer. I do however have 2 tractors and some pretty good discs.
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pyro6999
Optics Retard OT TITAN Joined: December/22/2006 Location: North Dakota Status: Offline Points: 22034 |
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if you have a chisel plow that may solve your need to spray, you could plow and then disc a couple of times then replant
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They call me "Boots"
375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead" 343 we will never forget God Bless Chris Ledoux "good ride cowboy" |
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RifleDude
MODERATOR EVIL OPPRESSOR Joined: October/13/2006 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 16337 |
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Sounds to me like you have a good plan, ahuebel. That's essentially what we did, and we had some pretty good food plots. We used a tractor to disk up the plot site then attached what was essentially a deer feeder onto the back of an atv for a seed spreader, using a homemade switch and battery to power it. We planted in early Sept. and by deer season had pretty lush food plots. It all depends on the amount and frequency of rain afterward.
Where in east texas? NE TX is where I'm from and where I do most of my hunting (Hunt, Hopkins, Franklin counties). |
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Ted
Money can't buy happiness... but it's much more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than on a bicycle. |
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ahuebel
Optics Apprentice Joined: December/28/2006 Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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You are a bit north of me. I live in Houston but I hunt in Anderson county. We have some family land in that area. Nothing spectacular but its really nice. The hardest part is getting the time to get up there.
I'd like to be able to disk one time and then plant but I question whether or not the grass and weeds would be out of the way enough to get enough seed in the soil.
I'll look into either getting a spreader of some kind or rigging something up similar to what you used. This is all new to me but it should be pretty fun. |
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8shots
Optics Jedi Knight Lord Of The Flies Joined: March/14/2007 Location: South Africa Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
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To rid a field of weeds etc cannot be hurried. You need to rough plough or disc and leave the roots exposed to die. Then a fine disc to allow new seeds to germinate, then ploughed back in. Obviously all kinds of shortcuts can be followed, and the succes will depend on the amount of weeds, weed seeds present etc. Often a hurried job leads to more problems later on. If you want a shortcut, then Roundup is better, followed about 3 weeks later with soil prep for seedbed. |
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Urimaginaryfrnd
MODERATOR Resident Redneck Joined: June/20/2005 Location: Iowa Status: Offline Points: 14964 |
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Sounds like good advice so far. I just disk it and plant it. I have been using Frigid Forage brand seed and I get really good results with the mix that has turnips in it the Deer Just love them and they are there all fall. Also best with fertalizer. I just use a hand seeder little bag with a hand crank on it and walk and seed as Im only doing about an acre or two. You can drag a spike harrow over the seeding to knock a little dirt over the seeds but if you get rain after seeding the rain is enough to plant the seeds as they dont need to get deep. I really like Ladino Clover also. http://www.sunrichfarm.com/
Edited by Urimaginaryfrnd |
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"Always do the right thing, just because it is the right thing to do". Bobby Paul Doherty Texas Ranger |
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ahuebel
Optics Apprentice Joined: December/28/2006 Status: Offline Points: 109 |
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Well I called a local feedstore and they sell a pre-mix bag that has oats, wheat, rye, peas, and I think something else. I think I'm going to try that. The soil is very acidic so I'll disk once, then add lime, then after a few weeks I'll disk again and then seed. I don't know whether the disks I have are "rough" or "fine". I think at this stage I'm going to just do some small test beds totalling about 1 acre and see what happens. Not sure if I'll try clover this time or not. If this works, next year I'll experiment with turnips and other popular seed.
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Urimaginaryfrnd
MODERATOR Resident Redneck Joined: June/20/2005 Location: Iowa Status: Offline Points: 14964 |
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Clover is the easiest to get to grow. I say overseed it with Ladino Clover on top of what ever else you put down.
Edited by Urimaginaryfrnd |
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"Always do the right thing, just because it is the right thing to do". Bobby Paul Doherty Texas Ranger |
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