First Time Throw and Mow

Here's just one example of what I'm talking about in my previous posts. What is the white stuff growing on these seedlings? Do you have this in fields that have been heavily tilled for years?

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No. Nothing at all that looks like that.
 
Sounds like bad seed to me. I have never seen a plot fail like that, you should of had germination with 1.5 inches of rain.
I have 11 plots from 3/4 acre to four acres planted with the same seed. One plot which is semi wet bottom area is doing ok. Other plots have growth in areas of shade. I wouldnt think it would be bad rye and bad wheat seed. Bought 2000 lbs of each seed. A pallet of each.
 
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If the soil is right it will envelope the root system underground, where they do their work.

Yes, I understand how the fungi work. Benefits to the soil strata is one of the reasons I am attempting throw and mow. I will fight this for awhile. There are now a lot of areas bare of seed where the hogs cleaned it up. If I was only planting a plot or two, I could wait until conditions were perfect to do this - but I dont have the luxury. I have had plot failures in the past on conventional tilled plots, also. I understand that is part of food plotting. We are forecast a rain tomorrow night. Probably give it another week after that and see what happens. If what’s out there now doesn’t work out, then I will replant using conventional tillage. I dont see any way to replant using throw and mow. Conventional tillage allows you to replant almost as many times as weather and money permit. I feel if I have to replant, maybe I would have a good consistent stand to seed into next year. We will see what the forecast rain does for it.
 
I had to replant a couple of plots this year due to a lack of moisture, but the T&M that I planted failed simply because hogs ate all the seeds. The IC pea vines that I mowed down were rooted around and no seeds were visible anywhere. I looked all over the plots....no seeds.

I know T&M will work, but I seriously question if large seeds like wheat/oats will ever work when numbers of hogs are present. Imagine 15/20 hogs spending a couple nights in your plot with seeds laying on top of the ground. Their bottom lip is precisely equipped to pick up grass roots, bugs, acorns, etc. and they can certainly do a number on seeds. I do what I can to control them, ( actually "control" is a joke where hogs are concerned ), but this year I have a bumper crop, everywhere I hunt. They used to just be a nuisance, but now it's getting serious ! Sorry for leading the thread astray, but I hate hogs !:mad:
 
Hogs may limit the success of my throw and mow attempts - but I will try again. I have my hogs beat back pretty good - for now. Just a few boars roaming around, but I know the sows will return. A couple 200 lb boars can clean a food plot in a couple of nights.
 
I had to replant a couple of plots this year due to a lack of moisture, but the T&M that I planted failed simply because hogs ate all the seeds. The IC pea vines that I mowed down were rooted around and no seeds were visible anywhere. I looked all over the plots....no seeds.

I know T&M will work, but I seriously question if large seeds like wheat/oats will ever work when numbers of hogs are present. Imagine 15/20 hogs spending a couple nights in your plot with seeds laying on top of the ground. Their bottom lip is precisely equipped to pick up grass roots, bugs, acorns, etc. and they can certainly do a number on seeds. I do what I can to control them, ( actually "control" is a joke where hogs are concerned ), but this year I have a bumper crop, everywhere I hunt. They used to just be a nuisance, but now it's getting serious ! Sorry for leading the thread astray, but I hate hogs !:mad:
I feel your pain. Use to only have a couple boars roaming my property. Now we have a bunch of hogs and they sucked my 3 way mixes out of several of my TNM food plots all my small seed came up fine but my 3 way mix is very thin. I have been waiting to pressure them some hoping they will move on before I replant the bare spots. We had 11 shot this weekend but now I have no rain in sight for a while. It is better than last year where my seed sat on the ground for 90 days without rain and the hogs never touched it last year.
 
My hogs will tend to relocate if pressured. They get very nocturnal and can be hard to hunt.

My buddy and I bought some "cheap" (didn't cost $3k) NV scopes a couple years ago and that helped us some, but I quickly found out that their bedtime is not the same as mine. We did however, (or he did), stumble across a good way to make Gen II scopes perform like top of the line NV. He bought some $12 IR lights for security cameras, put them on Tposts and hooked a 12v feeder battery to them. Invisible to the naked eye, but lights up your shooting area through the NV scope like an airport runway ! We have three sets of these and pour out three corn piles in the off season. We ride the golf cart around and check them at night. Almost always kill at least one, sometimes more.
 
I am not very patient. Checked my TNM Sunday and it looked like nothing had sprouted - two weeks after a 1.5” rain. Rained a half inch from yesterday and today. Checked again tonight and fine green hairs of sprouting rye and wheat, everywhere. There are some thin spots, but wouldnt doubt they fill in somewhat before it is all said and done - even in the areas where there was no duff. I am feeling much better.;)
 
Reading your post I was thinking, "I hope you don't have hogs". Same thing happened to me this year. I tried my first throw and mow and I can tell you that I won't ever try it again. I had to come back and disc, then reseed. I would have been better off to plant it the conventional way the first time. I've no doubt it will work with no hogs, but no hogs is something I don't have.

When I first read this I wondered what difference hogs would make. Well, I inspected my throw-n-mow plot this weekend and the hogs had gotten into it and turned ALL of the thatch over. Fortunately I had a heavy rain the day after I planted and everything had sprouted or I probably would have had a complete failure in that plot. I guess hogs are one of those "variables" CnC talks about!

Unless I have a strong change of rain right after planting in the future I may try the "thirt" variation on throw-n-mow in an effort to "hog-proof" my plantings.
 
When I first read this I wondered what difference hogs would make. Well, I inspected my throw-n-mow plot this weekend and the hogs had gotten into it and turned ALL of the thatch over. Fortunately I had a heavy rain the day after I planted and everything had sprouted or I probably would have had a complete failure in that plot. I guess hogs are one of those "variables" CnC talks about!

Unless I have a strong change of rain right after planting in the future I may try the "thirt" variation on throw-n-mow in an effort to "hog-proof" my plantings.

I had a promise from the weatherman, but he didn't deliver ! I really don't mind the discing too much if I have time, it's the weeds that come up after.
 
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