First ever food plot... so far so good.

Well, now you've done it! Ya done messed up! Ya gonna be hooked on planting all sorts of stuff by the time your thru now and be as messed up as the rest of us!!!!:D

Nice looking bean plot. Keep - records of what you planted and when, chemical applications and fertilizer rates. This is all things you will look back on later and wish you had kept that info.
 
For no more than the clover and chicory would cost, why not include them, just to give you more options next spring? Maybe next year you focus more on bringing other plots into rotation, leaving this one as a perennial for a year or two? You'll find that your goals and your plans change over time.
That makes perfect sense. I actually wanted to get 2 bean field planted this spring, but quickly figured out it took a while to get one ready from a fallow field. Doing what you suggest would let me get the 2nd one ready next spring, and leave something useful in the first.

Nice looking bean plot. Keep - records of what you planted and when, chemical applications and fertilizer rates. This is all things you will look back on later and wish you had kept that info.

I've done a good job of that so far... hopefully I remember to keep up with it!
 
For no more than the clover and chicory would cost, why not include them, just to give you more options next spring? Maybe next year you focus more on bringing other plots into rotation, leaving this one as a perennial for a year or two? You'll find that your goals and your plans change over time.

Maybe its a "here" thing but chicory isnt exactly cheap, at least from my source for those type of seeds, I just checked and they have it for about $8/lb for 2-4 lbs, and its $4.50/lb if you buy more than 50lbs.

I see youre in OK, but here, trying to plant things like beans or corn into sod is hit or miss, even with our no till equipped big planter. It depends on whats growing, brome and alfalfa are pretty easy, bluegrass is almost impossible. Usually what we do is mow it down in the fall, kill it and let the freeze/thaw work its magic and in the spring is a nice mellow bed to plant into.

Theres alot of guys on here with more experience than me in food plotting, but if youre gonna have a plot of beans next to it next year, I would sow rye/oats/peas/radish in it this fall, then let it mature next spring/summer, then do it again. Then in the fall of year 2 I would sow some brassicas in the beans on the other side. My thinking is because they are a forage bean, you need some grasses to balance. Personally I looked at eagle beans, but shyed away because of the price, and because here they wont put on much of a pod, and the first frost would kill them, leaving nothing there. If I did use them, itd only be about 50/50 with a normal length bean for my area, and only if I had to feed a TON of deer.

Edit: with 4 acres like that I would split it up at least 3 ways, probably 4.
Id have it like this:
1ac in a white clover/chicory mix
1ac in a bean thats a bit shorter season than average for your area
1ac in corn
1ac in oats/rye/peas?/radish/red or crimson clover?

The wc/chic would be a perennial, you could spread some brassicas into the mature rye and then roll the stubble down and the brassicas will grow under it, then sow next years rye mix into the beans when the leaves start to drop, then plant beans or cowpeas where the corn was the year before. The only fertilizer youd need probably would be a little N for the brassicas, might not depending on how much N the legumes that you sowed with the rye made, plus youll get some back from the rye stubble, but that might not be until the next year. You may end up using forage type brassicas or maybe cut out the legumes with the rye/oats because you dont want the next crop of beans to be lazy.
 
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Thanks for the info, bigbluetruck. There's a lot there, and I'm not sure I understand all of it. Regarding planting into sod, I'm not sure I completely follow.... I don't know what was all in the field that I planted in, but it was mostly "weeds"... ragweed, sumpweed, etc, and some Bermuda. I mowed it all over the winter, sprayed it when it started to green a couple weeks before planting. The reason I planted the Eagle Beans, is a expected all of the existing weeds to be a bit of a battle, so I wanted to be able to spray Gly on it again after germination. Also, everything I read, and some advice I got from some people in the area said that I would likely need a good sized plot of beans to withstand the browsing pressure. So far, it appears that it is doing so. Honestly, I thought the 4 acres may be overkill, but it does appear that the whole plot is being utilized pretty heavily, but keeping up.

Below is what it looked like after mowing, before spraying or discing:

IMG_3132.JPG

This is immediately after planting:

IMG_3235.JPG

I do not intend for this 4 acre plot to be the only plot on my property... it's just what I have been able to get ready this spring. I intend to add to it plot by plot with some variety similar to what you have stated above. I haven't really considered adding corn to the mix, as I haven't heard of many people in my area having much success with it.

Last weekend I mowed and sprayed another 4 to 5 acres that I intend to plant in the fall. Some with a clover/chicory mix, and some with oats/rye/wheat and possibly some clover. If I get a good kill on the plots before planting time, would it be beneficial and/or practical to sow some buckwheat on them in the near future?
 
Take all this with a grain of salt, this is my first year for a dedicated food plot, but Ive ton a ton of research on here, and I didnt stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
First off, this thread was extremely helpful to me: http://deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/dbltrees-getting-started-threads.869/, its not all about food.

Again everyone on here needs to remember there might be a fair amount of difference between "here" and "there". What works in one place might not in another. Also scale is different in different parts of the country, for you a small plot might be 4 acres, for someone in NY for example, a spot the size of a big garden might be huge. Generally speaking about an acre or more is usually enough of each type of plot to support a good sized deer herd

The root systems of the different plants are what make it tough, bluegrass has a massive rootsystem, which is great when its growing, but trying to do any tillage or even plant right into it in the spring is almost impossible. Most "weeds" dont have the fiborus root system like bluegrass so by looking at your plot after disking you would be alright, here a bluegrass field wouldve had baseball and softball sized clumps of grass and dirt everywhere, even after multiple diskings.

Here we usually try to kill sod in the late fall time, after mowing it the last time, let it get some growth and hit it hard with some roundup and something with some residual action, if youre unfamilar with chemicals and spraying, its best to get an expert. Then let it lay all winter where the freez/thaw action and the rotting of the sod roots will make a nice mellow seedbed but not loose like tillage, perfect for notilling with a planter or drill. But that might not work as well in South OK with the milder temps.

What I would do now is hit it hard with Rup might throw some 2-4D in and make sure everything is dead, the 2-4D will give you about 4-6 weeks of residual on broadleaves IIRC. Then plant the buckwheat, kill it later this fall, should be able to do it with a roller or anything that will knock it down and plant a oat/rye/crimson clover mix in it. Then next spring depending on what you want to plant, you can kill it with a shot of Rup again or let it grow.

4 acres is a heap plenty of one crop, I like the idea of a bunch of different things in each plot, it gives them variety depending how they feel or what they need, but I see your thinking.

Some other ideas for you to think about too. Milo will be more drought tolerant than corn and cowpeas would be a more drought tolerant than soybeans. Those would make a nice mix together in a plot, the cowpeas would climb the milo, lots of CPs grown in OK, but I dont think any are RR (roundup ready). If you wanna save some money, maybe put a CL add out or ask at your local COOP looking for leftover soybeans, milo, or corn, thats what I use, just leftover seed from planting that we cant send back, usually any opened bags or some that was left when changing hybrids, you could save some from this year in airtight 5 gal buckets from home depot in a basement and use it next year.
Any other questions feel free to ask!
 
Last weekend I mowed and sprayed another 4 to 5 acres that I intend to plant in the fall. Some with a clover/chicory mix, and some with oats/rye/wheat and possibly some clover. If I get a good kill on the plots before planting time, would it be beneficial and/or practical to sow some buckwheat on them in the near future?

Clovers and chicory are best established in the fall with a cereal grain cover crop. If the goal is to establish perennial clover plots, just remember that 10-20% of your total plot acreage is usually sufficient to keep up with the amount of grazing you'll get.

You don't even need to spray that new plot again before planting buckwheat. You don't need to create the beautiful seed bed that you created for the beans. Two weeks after spraying with gly, broadcast BW at 50#/acre, then lightly disc (set no more than 2") until you see a mix of thatch and bare dirt, or what we affectionately call "thirt". This will create plenty of seed-to-soil contact for the buckwheat to germinate well. If you have a cultipacker or a weighted roller of some kind, it will help ensure germination even more. There is still plenty of time for a 6-8 week rotation of buckwheat before planting your fall mix. Since you're down in OK, you could even wait until 7/1 to plant the BW and then, around September 1st, broadcast your fall rye/oats/wheat/clover/chicory mix into the standing BW before mowing it down on top and cultipacking it.

The BW will essentially act as a two-month long gly spraying, suppressing weeds while feeding deer, bees, turkeys and your soil. You can choose to terminate it before it sets hard seed (around 6 weeks) or wait until most of the seed is hardened off. Don't worry about volunteer BW in your plot...it dies very quickly after your first frost, leaving the cereal grains you planted to grow. If your goal is a straight legume planting for a few years, I would only use oats for the cereal portion of the fall mix, especially if those die over winter in your area.
 
4th of July Update Pic:
acd861d133d8d451c177a179e5515b1c.jpg


Very impressed with the Eagle Beans so far. We've had ideal weather so far... warm with timely rains. You can see that the beans outside the exclusion cage have grown up to my game cam, which was about 3' high, with the beans inside the cage about 5' high, so the plot is being utilized pretty heavily, but growth is outpacing the utilization... which, I guess, is the goal. I didn't have the camera running for the last month, but I've redeployed it off the edge of the field, so we'll see what's all using it.

Starting some work on a few fall/winter plots now. Sprayed them a few weeks ago and broadcast some buckwheat into them yesterday. I may have screwed up a bit with that... I thought I was following Jason's guidance from above from memory, but skipped/forgot the light discing.... so just broadcast and cultipacked. Oh well, We'll see what happens. If I have to, I'll spray again and prep them for the fall plots later.
 
4th of July Update Pic:
acd861d133d8d451c177a179e5515b1c.jpg


Very impressed with the Eagle Beans so far. We've had ideal weather so far... warm with timely rains. You can see that the beans outside the exclusion cage have grown up to my game cam, which was about 3' high, with the beans inside the cage about 5' high, so the plot is being utilized pretty heavily, but growth is outpacing the utilization... which, I guess, is the goal. I didn't have the camera running for the last month, but I've redeployed it off the edge of the field, so we'll see what's all using it.

Starting some work on a few fall/winter plots now. Sprayed them a few weeks ago and broadcast some buckwheat into them yesterday. I may have screwed up a bit with that... I thought I was following Jason's guidance from above from memory, but skipped/forgot the light discing.... so just broadcast and cultipacked. Oh well, We'll see what happens. If I have to, I'll spray again and prep them for the fall plots later.

Nothing tells the story like an exclusion cage!


Sent from my iPad using Deer Hunter Forum
 
Those beans sure look good and the deer are obviously enjoying them! :)

It's pretty early to plant fall/winter plots; where you're at, I wouldn't establish a rye-based mix until about 9/1. Starting them too early results in plants that are no longer palatable, or preferred, by the time deer season rolls around. While there are no set "rules" for stuff like this, it's generally best to plant your rye mix 6-8 weeks before first frost, which is around the 2nd or 3rd week of October, in your neck o' the woods.
 
Your plot looks great. Hopefully you have a mild fall so that you can get some good use out of the Eagle beans. I don't plant Eagle in Illinois because they don't put the pods on and do not last into deer season. Once we get a good frost the Eagle's will die leaving nothing for the deer to eat. I would be ready to plant a turnip/radish/brassica mixture into your beans in August. The main reason I plant beans in my neck of the woods is for a good late season food source. With Real World beans being very frost tolerant I still had the actual bean stalk standing in the fields when I worked the ground this spring. I still had standing beans with pods and bean seed for the deer to eat in January. I also broadcast the brassica/turnip/radish mix into my beans so I had good green stuff growing all winter under my standing beans. Makes for a deadly plot all deer season.
 
Great looking plot, seriously.


Do eagle beans hold zero pods? of simply less than ag beans?
 
Beans are still going strong. They're being utilized a lot but are still huge. I have a bunch of pics where all you can see is antlers in the middle of the plot. They're good 4.5 feet tall and probably 6.5 feet inside the exclusion cage. They have a fair amount of blossoms on them now, so we'll see if they produce pods.

Here is my favorite trail cam pic of a good bachelor group just entering the field:
76ee9c3adb0eadac81810932c47fc287.jpg
 
My deer would NEVER tolerate beans getting that tall.

I guess I've managed to outplant the current deer density for now. Not having any experience with any other kind of beans, I will say that the Eagle Beans are very aggressive growers... at least for the conditions we've had this summer, which are likely as good as they could ever get.... I think it also took a little time for the deer to get on to them...kind of a "perfect storm" for success.... I'm sure every year is different, but for this year at least, I'm extremely pleased.
 
No doubt Eagle beans are the bomb. I just can't justify their expense every year just to feed deer. Maybe every other year. Yours sure look nice.
 
RCDuck, did you do any kind of soil/fertility work before you planted this? Curious what you may have done on lime and fert.
 
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