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Post by smsmith on Aug 13, 2019 10:19:11 GMT -6
Annual plots make weed management more and more difficult IME. A guy really needs to start using a pre-emergent to control pigweed/waterhemp/palmer amaranth. I don't want to get into that category of herbicides I think I am at the point that I want and NEED to get back to perrenial food plots......and lessen the need for this kinda situation. I didn't relalize what I was getting into......and thought I could get into a rotation of beans and brassica plots.....with some brassica and rye overseed in late summer. I am surprised at how quickly that pigweed takes down my crops and efforts. I'd rather play golf and find some time for fishing (I have not been fishing since Memorial Day) in the summer than pull pigweed and try to figure new ways to combat weeds. I gotta lessen my workload. May need to start a new thread on low maintenance plotting for dummies. FORE! I can see that need in my near term future. I'm going to 100% perennial plots next year. I have one 1/4 acre plot that is in straight brassicas right now, but next year that one's getting planted to a clover/chicory mix too. I'll clean up the oldest plots with gly, throw down some brassicas to hopefully use up some of the accumulated N, then frostseed more clover/chicory the following spring. Rotate through the oldest/weediest plots is my plan. No more intentional bare dirt ever.
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Post by Sandbur on Aug 13, 2019 10:24:33 GMT -6
Annual plots make weed management more and more difficult IME. A guy really needs to start using a pre-emergent to control pigweed/waterhemp/palmer amaranth. I don't want to get into that category of herbicides I think I am at the point that I want and NEED to get back to perrenial food plots......and lessen the need for this kinda situation. I didn't relalize what I was getting into......and thought I could get into a rotation of beans and brassica plots.....with some brassica and rye overseed in late summer. I am surprised at how quickly that pigweed takes down my crops and efforts. I'd rather play golf and find some time for fishing (I have not been fishing since Memorial Day) in the summer than pull pigweed and try to figure new ways to combat weeds. I gotta lessen my workload. May need to start a new thread on low maintenance plotting for dummies. FORE! And I haven’t been fishing for almost 24 hours.
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Post by Sandbur on Aug 13, 2019 10:28:57 GMT -6
I am stretching my mind back to trying to ID plants from my college days. For crying out loud, don't hurt yourself! Saturday was our 40th college reunion. Really had to stretch my memory there. Act like you know somebody and have no damned idea who you are talking to. Lots of crippled up, old people there.
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Post by Catscratch on Aug 13, 2019 12:25:31 GMT -6
More and more of my efforts are going towards amending native plants, or adding preferred species to native stands. Quite a bit of my current plots are going into a mix of clovers, alfalfa, and chicory this fall with the idea of not seeing soil again for several years. I like wheat too much to give up on yearly plots completely though.
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Post by kooch on Aug 13, 2019 12:53:30 GMT -6
Amen to less work. SD and I live hours and hours away from our respective dumps. I want to get away from spraying and rolling and dragging..... Maybe that Dipper dude was on to something. Just let it all go, spread some annuals into it every year, sit back and watch what happens.
I'm only a couple years into it, but is the juice really worth the squeeze? I admit, it was fun watching deer eat turnips out of the ground from my blind.
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Pigweed
Aug 13, 2019 12:58:04 GMT -6
Post by benmnwi on Aug 13, 2019 12:58:04 GMT -6
I also hate pigweed, but during the rut I'd rather be sitting over standing soybeans with a little pigweed thrown in than a perfect looking clover perennial plot. Soybeans seem to draw the deer in much better than any perennial plot in my area. I still like perennial plots to add some variety and have a lower effort food plot though.
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Post by benmnwi on Aug 13, 2019 12:59:33 GMT -6
I do think that in a big woods area with little to no ag you can draw in deer just fine with perennial plots if that's the best food in the neighborhood.
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Post by smsmith on Aug 13, 2019 13:01:14 GMT -6
Amen to less work. SD and I live hours and hours away from our respective dumps. I want to get away from spraying and rolling and dragging..... Maybe that Dipper dude was on to something. Just let it all go, spread some annuals into it every year, sit back and watch what happens. I'm only a couple years into it, but is the juice really worth the squeeze? I admit, it was fun watching deer eat turnips out of the ground from my blind.You can still watch them eat turnips. Last year I spread a brassica mix on a clover plot, sprayed it with gly at nearly 2 qt./acre, and walked away. There was a decent stand of brassicas (zero added fertilizer) and the clover snapped back pretty good by the end of September. I frostseeded it with more ladino and red clover late last winter. Nice looking clover plot this year. I'll do that process again in a couple years when it gets too full of weeds and grass again.
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Pigweed
Aug 13, 2019 13:05:33 GMT -6
Post by Foggy on Aug 13, 2019 13:05:33 GMT -6
Amen to less work. SD and I live hours and hours away from our respective dumps. I want to get away from spraying and rolling and dragging..... Maybe that Dipper dude was on to something. Just let it all go, spread some annuals into it every year, sit back and watch what happens. I'm only a couple years into it, but is the juice really worth the squeeze? I admit, it was fun watching deer eat turnips out of the ground from my blind.You can still watch them eat turnips. Last year I spread a brassica mix on a clover plot, sprayed it with gly at nearly 2 qt./acre, and walked away. There was a decent stand of brassicas (zero added fertilizer) and the clover snapped back pretty good by the end of September. I frostseeded it with more ladino and red clover late last winter. Nice looking clover plot this year. I'll do that process again in a couple years when it gets too full of weeds and grass again. Stu.....what time of year did you nuke it and spread that brassica seed? I like this idea and may try to pull it off from time to time. .
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Pigweed
Aug 13, 2019 13:07:17 GMT -6
Post by benmnwi on Aug 13, 2019 13:07:17 GMT -6
Amen to less work. SD and I live hours and hours away from our respective dumps. I want to get away from spraying and rolling and dragging..... Maybe that Dipper dude was on to something. Just let it all go, spread some annuals into it every year, sit back and watch what happens. I'm only a couple years into it, but is the juice really worth the squeeze? I admit, it was fun watching deer eat turnips out of the ground from my blind.You can still watch them eat turnips. Last year I spread a brassica mix on a clover plot, sprayed it with gly at nearly 2 qt./acre, and walked away. There was a decent stand of brassicas (zero added fertilizer) and the clover snapped back pretty good by the end of September. I frostseeded it with more ladino and red clover late last winter. Nice looking clover plot this year. I'll do that process again in a couple years when it gets too full of weeds and grass again. that seems like a pretty good plan to control weed infested clover plots.
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Post by Freeborn on Aug 13, 2019 13:11:15 GMT -6
I also hate pigweed, but during the rut I'd rather be sitting over standing soybeans with a little pigweed thrown in than a perfect looking clover perennial plot. Soybeans seem to draw the deer in much better than any perennial plot in my area. I still like perennial plots to add some variety and have a lower effort food plot though. I'm in the same boat. Corn and beans in Ag country keeps deer on my place. If I went to clover and brassicas I think I would lose most of my deer by rifle season.
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Post by kooch on Aug 13, 2019 13:24:20 GMT -6
All I've got around me are hay fields, swamp and big woods. My brassicas were a hit last fall with every doe and fawn in town. I don't think I need corn. Beans would be fun, but I think I'd have to get a fence. That's MORE work, not less. New plan. Don't tell anyone.
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Pigweed
Aug 13, 2019 14:53:14 GMT -6
Post by batman on Aug 13, 2019 14:53:14 GMT -6
All I've got around me are hay fields, swamp and big woods. My brassicas were a hit last fall with every doe and fawn in town. I don't think I need corn. Beans would be fun, but I think I'd have to get a fence. That's MORE work, not less. New plan. Don't tell anyone. Fence is much less work. And I don't blame guys for seeing the inputs outweigh the results. Its an old bull thing.
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Post by smsmith on Aug 13, 2019 15:10:54 GMT -6
Corn and beans help during rifle season? Seems to me food is about the last thing I'm worried about during firearm season. I want the thickest, nastiest cover with available food right near by for firearm season. I could see corn and beans being a big deal during muzzleloader season though.
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Post by benmnwi on Aug 13, 2019 15:47:02 GMT -6
All of the older bucks we've killed during gun season on my MN place were standing in my fields or plots. Most of them were killed while they were looking for a doe that was feeding there. The thick cover adjacent to the soybeans or food plots is probably more important than the food though. Normally by gun season I have the only standing crops left and the thickest cover in the immediate area.
My place in WI is the opposite - every rifle season buck was killed in the thick cover and we've never seen one move in daylight in the field. The deer numbers there are much lower and the deer are pressured year round by predators, hunters and likely poachers and they are super spooky.
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