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Post by cspot on Dec 29, 2015 20:57:25 GMT -5
Ok. Since we are starting a new year, what is everyone's habitat plans for next year. Here are mine.
1.) I am planting a couple acres of corn. I have always wanted to do it, but I always end up not doing it. I sent out the soil test today and have made up my mind that I am going for it.
2. I will plant an annual in my 1 food plot behind the house (plant unknown). The 2 acres of corn will border this foodplot.
3. My gasline foodplot is undecided. A new gasline went in near it and I will wait to see how it grows in this spring. If it is loaded in clover then I may not plant anything this fall and just hunt the new gasline.
4. Hingecutting. Was planning on doing a fair amount, but after doing some looking I am going to hold off on cutting that area. There is a fair amount of locust and upon inspection they are dying and the woods is still pretty thick since it is still getting alot of sunlight. I did reopen an old tractor path into the area and may cut a few trees, but I am going to leave it go as is for now.
4. I may plant some trees as well, but this is undecided right now.
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Post by blackbruin on Dec 29, 2015 21:08:35 GMT -5
Gonna try highway mix on my logging roads, applied lime and dragged in late october, will put lime again mixed in with liquid hog manure, made a small gravity feed tanker out of a flat oil tank with a 2" black pipe header. I can use all i want, neighbor has 2 commercial hog barns, no straw or clumps, run easy. Figure i can apply it yearly to "green it up". the 60 acres tillable is farmed by a neighbor as well, 30 acres corn rest in hay, next year its soybeans and hay, outta break out the old black widow again, put it down when momma got a full time job, now kids will all be in school.....
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2015 18:51:53 GMT -5
To buy property so I can do this stuff! That will never happen but I can always dream can't I?
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Post by Dutch on Dec 30, 2015 19:02:49 GMT -5
I'm going to go with another planting of Rounup Ready soybeans. I did not hit the beans with Roundup last year, but did sorta get a strong does on the edge. They didn't die, so, now I feel I can use it without killing them.
I might even just plant one plot with sunflowers, but, to get ahead of weeds, I'm liking using RR beans.
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Post by redarrow on Dec 30, 2015 19:11:34 GMT -5
I'm looking into planting driller radishes on one of my gas well locations to try to loosen the soil up. Do any of you have experience with these?
I have a bunch of tree tubes but I'm not sure what trees I'll use them for. A friend planted saw tooth oaks in a dozen tubes I gave him two years ago and the trees are several inches above the four foot tubes now.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 30, 2015 23:15:48 GMT -5
I'm looking into planting driller radishes on one of my gas well locations to try to loosen the soil up. Do any of you have experience with these? I have a bunch of tree tubes but I'm not sure what trees I'll use them for. A friend planted saw tooth oaks in a dozen tubes I gave him two years ago and the trees are several inches above the four foot tubes now. I use them every year. They are pretty awesome. The farmers around here are now planting them for cover crops over winter. Five to 10 acre fields of them. Their use has exploded just in the past two years. My boot is about 12.5 inches long, to give you some perspective. The deer love them.
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Post by redarrow on Dec 31, 2015 6:09:00 GMT -5
Where do you buy seed, Dutch? I see there's a big difference in price at agricultural sources and the places that cater to the planters of wildlife food plots.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 31, 2015 7:06:36 GMT -5
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Post by redarrow on Dec 31, 2015 7:29:19 GMT -5
Thanks a bunch, Dutch.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 31, 2015 8:44:27 GMT -5
Red, here is one I dug out the other year. I really sow them to thick, and that year they were pretty small. This year, due to how I planted, and the dry weather, I didn't get great germination, so the stand was thin, but the turnips and radishes got lots bigger.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 31, 2015 8:46:02 GMT -5
These things are drilling 6-10 inches into the ground, creating a void when they rot up and aerating the soil.
The deer LOVE the tops, and eat what sticks out of the ground.
I have no plow, just a disc behind an atv, so, this is the best way for me to loosen the mountain soil.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2015 8:53:48 GMT -5
My buddy Larry planted a patch of turnips on our sand mound last summer. He mixes sand with the turnip seeds so they don't get sowed too thickly. The deer started grazing on the tops late in summer, and by the end of rifle deer season they were digging out the turnips. Some of them got nearly fist size (I have small fists). A few looked like your photo.
Plans for this year are for me to take the troy tiller out to camp and rototill some patches for turnip planting. I won't set the tiller to till very deep; maybe a couple of inches. That should be enough to get the seeds sprouted. I thought it might be a good idea to mix some imperial clover with the turnip seeds. Whatdya tink?
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Post by Dutch on Dec 31, 2015 9:24:20 GMT -5
You can mix clover and brassicas, but, if you get the brassicas too thick, it shades out and kills the clover. Been there, done that.
Upstate, I plant the brassicas around August 1. Seems like the best timing for the micro climate I have there. 10 miles further east I could go a bit later.
Brasicas LOVE a lot of nitrogen, so, I apply and disc it in at time of planting, and then, spread a bit more Labor Day or later.
100-150 lbs per acre of Urea is a good average.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 31, 2015 9:26:26 GMT -5
The photos I have are of forage radishes. They may have been in Larry's mix?
Purple Top turnips are round, and purple, on top, this the name. LOL
Both are in my mix.
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Post by cspot on Dec 31, 2015 13:38:52 GMT -5
The one thing I have found with brassicas and turnips is absolutely don't get them too thick. Plant the recommended amount. Rye or clover you can see heavy and it doesn't seem to matter much. With brassicas and turnips it really hurts the production of them. More seed per acre isn't better.
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Post by bake545 on Dec 31, 2015 13:42:51 GMT -5
The one thing I have found with brassicas and turnips is absolutely don't get them too thick. Plant the recommended amount. Rye or clover you can see heavy and it doesn't seem to matter much. With brassicas and turnips it really hurts the production of them. More seed per acre isn't better. No more than 6 pounds per acre for me or growth is stunted for brassicas.
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Post by cspot on Dec 31, 2015 13:45:38 GMT -5
The one thing I have found with brassicas and turnips is absolutely don't get them too thick. Plant the recommended amount. Rye or clover you can see heavy and it doesn't seem to matter much. With brassicas and turnips it really hurts the production of them. More seed per acre isn't better. No more than 6 pounds per acre for me or growth is stunted for brassicas. THe bad thing with the fine seed is that it doesn't seem like you are putting that much down, so it is easy to give it some more. I should do like Mutt said and mix sand or something in it.
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Post by redarrow on Dec 31, 2015 14:05:20 GMT -5
I just came back in from a morning hunt with my son and a friend. Before we left the woods we took a short walk over to a neighbors property who told us he had plated about a half acre of turnips. I could not believe the size of those things. Some were nearly the size of soccer balls. I pulled up the two smallest we could find(a little smaller than a soft ball) and brought them home. They looked like the turnips we plant in our garden and taste the same, but Ill have to ask him what kind of turnip they are. I would guess that less than one third of the bulb was below the surface.
I don 't know if I'd plant them myself as we saw zero sign that any deer had been feeding in the patch. I would guess they will be eaten if we ever get any snow.
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Post by buzz on Dec 31, 2015 15:48:16 GMT -5
I will do my annual frost seeding/over seeding of clover around the pond. I also have a small area in woods that I killed off with round up last fall, just haven't decided what I will plant there, but most likely clover.
I plan to plant a couple more apple trees, and maybe a couple pear trees. I have some that are big enough that I can take the fence down, so I will use the fence again for some more trees. I may also try some more dungst chestnuts, and just use tubes instead of fence.
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Post by bake545 on Dec 31, 2015 16:19:52 GMT -5
No more than 6 pounds per acre for me or growth is stunted for brassicas. THe bad thing with the fine seed is that it doesn't seem like you are putting that much down, so it is easy to give it some more. I should do like Mutt said and mix sand or something in it. I've got it down so I take two passes per field perpendicular to each other to ensure good coverage. I can see how it would be easy to dump too much seed but I never have an issue. If you can see the seed flying you're spreading it too thick IMO.
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Post by cspot on Jan 1, 2016 14:24:50 GMT -5
Not very often you can plow in January, but I did plow the plot where I am going to plant the corn. Plowed almost 2 acres.
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Post by bake545 on Jan 1, 2016 15:17:40 GMT -5
What kind of tractor are you running cspot?
Always wanted to plow just for kicks but I'd ruin my shallow soil if I did.
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Post by cspot on Jan 1, 2016 15:23:35 GMT -5
I have a McCormick CT65U. Only running a 2 bottom plow on it so it takes a while to plow a couple acres. Some of that ground along the edges has alot of rock just about 4 or 5 inches under the ground so I have to plow pretty shallow.
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Post by bake545 on Jan 1, 2016 21:29:29 GMT -5
Planted 4 fields in turnips this year but only 1 grew well due to lack of rain. Two were overtaken by weeds, one of which I disked under and planted rye. I've developed a pig weed problem in that field and need to find something besides glyphosate to kill it b/c that's not working. Here are some rifle season turnip pics. This mix had a lot of purple top in it which is a staple of mine. A couple from earlier this fall. Pig weed plot prior to disking it under. This stuff is hard to get rid of.
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Post by Dutch on Jan 2, 2016 8:43:34 GMT -5
That's what I call red root. Had it in my beans this year. That's why I want to use RR beans next year.
Gly should snuff it out, but latent seeds are gonna be a problem.
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