Help with my first plot

Eshoremd

Eshoremd

Member
So I got my four wheeler and bought a drag harrow, pull behind sprayer and pull behind spreader.

I marked and sprayed glyph Saturday. Its a quarter acre. This Saturday I'll probably get the soil sample, dump out 500lbs of lime and drag the harrow.

Do you guys think I should just focus on getting the soil right and plant late summer and if so what should I plant?

Or do you think I should plant something now? And if so what?

I was also thinking about spraying the surrounding 10 yrds with Clethodin to kill grasses but let forbes grow.

This is on Maryland's eastern shore.
 
Welcome to the board!

I’m a newbie to the food plot world and there are many knowledgeable folks on here.

First, follow through with getting the soil sample and amend accordingly.

Regardless of your soil test, you can plant buckwheat once the frost danger passes. Other forages that are forgiving of soil conditions are iron clay cow peas and Sunn Hemp. Deer will reportedly wipe out small plots of iron clay cow peas.

I haven’t planted anything except white clover and rye last year but intend to plant a combination of buckwheat, iron clay cow peas and Sunn Hemp in the next few weeks if I can get my atv running.
 
Forgot to mention, if you decide to plant buckwheat soon you can either till it in or throw and mow late summer with a cool season crop like clover, oats, brassica etc
 
I appreciate the info. I read up on the buckwheat, peas and hemp. Later in the summer what exactly would I need to do? Bushhog the plot, spray and then go over the ground with the harrow?
 
Apply lime according to the soil sample you get back. You could do a mix of buckwheat and spring oats or just buckwheat. We did spring oats in one of our smaller plots just to have some green in it after amending it and discing in the amendments. It wasn't supposed to rain for a few more days and we wanted the amendments to get in the ground quicker. It ended up raining as we were leaving that day:rolleyes:. The plot came up great and the deer and turkeys used it(no wheat heads) and it layed over and gave us a great soil building layer. We have planted buckwheat on trails with adequate sunshine and the deer devoured it once it started to bloom. We were going to replant, but the logging company decided they were going to use the road again and we never did.... neither did they:mad:. Hopefully some of the other guys will come in with recommendations. I will say, if you aren't going to plant until late summer/fall, don't disc it. Let it lie dead/fallow until you are ready to plant.

For a fall plot, I would do a mixture of crimson clover, winter wheat, cereal rye and maybe some austrian winter peas Most of it should over winter unless the deer decide to lay waste to it. In February sometime(or best time for your area), if you don't have snow on the ground, I would go check it and over seed any bare spots with more clover.
 
Doc suggestions are on point.

You asked about discing. If this is virgin ground it’s not necessarily a bad thing but be prepared to fight weeds from seed that have been laying dormant.

Or, you could get a spring/summer plot going and throw and mow your fall seeds. I haven’t done this before but plan to do so late summer with rye, oats and clovers.
 
If you plant sunn hemp now just remember you will have to keep it trimmed back to no higher than 3 -4 feet. if you let it go it can get 10-12 feet high and would be a pain to deal with without a bush hog in the fall. Ask me how I know. If it was me I would put down some alyce clover with the tools you have to work with, it will be easy to get to grow and the deer will eat it and it will stand up to browse pressure. It will die off at first frost and you could throw-n-mow some clover and wheat or rye in the fall.
 
Shawn,
Did you notice any soil building benefits to using the Sunn Hemp?

Eshoremd, sorry for high jacking your thread
 
This is worse than picking out a car lol

I don't have the ability to mow on my own. I could probably find someone in the area that could do it for me but Id rather not depend on someone else.

That said if I planted buckwheat and or something else that gets tall I would assume with the equipment I have Ill be in a jam come late summer when it comes time to plant something else????

Basically am I limited to shorter species with the equipment I have?
 
It’s a lot of work and probably hot, but you could use a weed eater. That’s what I’m planning to do for some of my plots. My father in law has a few tractors and a bush hog that I can use on a couple plots though. But I’m gonna have to weed eat a couple plots because I can’t get the tractor in a few places.
 
A quarter acre can be seeded/fertilized and mowed/weedeated by hand. It will make you feel better about it when it grows up after you are done. I seeded and fertilized 1.5 acres by hand last fall(the seeder broke) and my arms were sore for a few days, but I was happy with the results after words. An Earthway shoulder seeder is your best friend on small plots and some larger ones.
 
Last edited:
Creek chub said:
It’s a lot of work and probably hot, but you could use a weed eater. That’s what I’m planning to do for some of my plots. My father in law has a few tractors and a bush hog that I can use on a couple plots though. But I’m gonna have to weed eat a couple plots because I can’t get the tractor in a few places.
Click to expand...
It is a lot of work but that's what I used was a weed eater up until I finally got me a tractor. It can be done and I had a lot to weed eat.
 
Eshoremd said:
This is worse than picking out a car lol

I don't have the ability to mow on my own. I could probably find someone in the area that could do it for me but Id rather not depend on someone else.

That said if I planted buckwheat and or something else that gets tall I would assume with the equipment I have Ill be in a jam come late summer when it comes time to plant something else????

Basically am I limited to shorter species with the equipment I have?
Click to expand...
If you were to plant buckwheat first. One thing you could do that will work with limited equipment is in the fall when you are ready to plant, spray to kill the buckwheat and let it die. Broadcast you some clover and wheat or what ever you plan to plant and then you could ride over it with your 4 wheeler to roll the plant material on top of your seed to form a protective moisture holding thatch. It is similar to throw-n-mow without the mowing. I have done it with good results before but I used my truck when my 4 wheeler tore up. You could even do sunn hemp that way, you will just be driving over taller stalks if you wanted to try sunn hemp.
 
Creek chub said:
Shawn,
Did you notice any soil building benefits to using the Sunn Hemp?

Eshoremd, sorry for high jacking your thread
Click to expand...
Yes, I love sunn hemp and incorporate it into all my summer plantings now. Radishes grew the biggest in the spots I had sunn hemp planted before. My deer love it too and it has good protein levels and it handles dry periods very well. Our summers get hot and dry here. I created a mix similar to Whitetail institutes power plant. I go heavier on the sunn hemp though. I plant 10 lbs of sunn hemp, 8 lbs of black oil sunflower-the kind you buy at Walmart for bird food, 15 lbs of iron and clay peas and 8-10 lbs of LabLab and if any spots come up thin I come back later and fill them in with alyce clover.
 
Eshoremd said:
So I got my four wheeler and bought a drag harrow, pull behind sprayer and pull behind spreader.

I marked and sprayed glyph Saturday. Its a quarter acre. This Saturday I'll probably get the soil sample, dump out 500lbs of lime and drag the harrow.

Do you guys think I should just focus on getting the soil right and plant late summer and if so what should I plant?

Or do you think I should plant something now? And if so what?

I was also thinking about spraying the surrounding 10 yrds with Clethodin to kill grasses but let forbes grow.

This is on Maryland's eastern shore.
Click to expand...
You should look at planting Alyce Clover on a small spot like that. Do some research on it. I like it for small spots because you can plant it thick and keep out weeds easy. It will also be easy for you to plant with what you have to work with. You could spray and kill the weeds off and depending on how the ground looks you could drag to expose some dirt then broadcast your seed and drag it again then run over it with your 4 wheeler and pray for rain. it should work out real good for you.
 
shawn cox said:
You should look at planting Alyce Clover on a small spot like that. Do some research on it. I like it for small spots because you can plant it thick and keep out weeds easy. It will also be easy for you to plant with what you have to work with. You could spray and kill the weeds off and depending on how the ground looks you could drag to expose some dirt then broadcast your seed and drag it again then run over it with your 4 wheeler and pray for rain. it should work out real good for you.
Click to expand...


I was reading up on it after you mentioned it yesterday. Sounds like that would work well for me. Any place you would recommend ordering from and do I need to use an inoculant?
 
Eshoremd said:
I was reading up on it after you mentioned it yesterday. Sounds like that would work well for me. Any place you would recommend ordering from and do I need to use an inoculant?
Click to expand...
I use Hancock seed and you can get the EL type inoculate for it. No more than you need it would be free shipping.
 
I think I would plant winter rye and clover late summer and then frost seed more clover next March . This way you could spray the plots with roundup 2 or 3 times during the summer
 
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