Looking for some advice.

[Jimmy51881]

Hey guys I'm going to try and plant my own food plot this year. I recently just purchased a ATV sprayer, a spreader and a disc/cultipacker combo from cabelas. The field I want to plant was planted with clover last season but was over run with weeds. I want to plant soybeans instead. I had a soil test done last year at the end of the year and I tested low for potassium. I bought the amount of potash it suggested. I guess I'm wondering the steps I should take. Do I spread the potassium and spray the weeds before I disc? Any other advice would be great. Thanks guys

 

[Drycreek]

I would spray, wait until the weeds are dead, disc them under, disc again with the gangs straight to level it, plant, then cultipack. You can spread rhe fertilizer right before you disc to level.

I don't know what kind of disc you have, but mine has adjustable gangs, from very aggressive to straight. On the leveling pass, I set them one hole off of straight. That leaves small furrows in the surface that are just right for beans, peas, wheat, etc. I usually drag the plot with a homemade tire drag to cover the seed.

A lot of this depends on what type soil you have. Some places I plant don't have to be disced so deeply, in that case I can spray then disc shallow and plant, then drag.

 

[Jimmy51881]

Sounds good. I'm going to get roundup ready beans. How long should I spray before I disc and plant? My discs are adjustable. Will the cultipacker be enough to bury the seeds or do I need some sort of drag?

 

[dogghr]

Personally....if you have much dpsm, your deer will eat the soy before it has a chance unless you are doing several acres minimum or in area of heavy ag adjacent to your place. I'd continue with what you have started, spray/mow to control weed and grass, overseed some clover and your clover plot will probably take off this fall. You can add chicory, and even brassica this fall overseeded into the clover. Def overseed the clover this fall with a grain which will help control weeds/grasses and will self die the following summer.
Hopefully your ph is 6 or better, if not get your lime and your Fert down yesterday. Just an opinion. Good luck.

 

[DIY]

Sounds good. I'm going to get roundup ready beans. How long should I spray before I disc and plant? My discs are adjustable. Will the cultipacker be enough to bury the seeds or do I need some sort of drag?

Is it the Tarter disc/cultipacker combo?

 

[Jimmy51881]

Yes it is the tarter disc combo. It's about 2 acres of beans I am planting. I will be installing a solar fence to try to keep them out.

 

[DIY]

Yes it is the tarter disc combo. It's about 2 acres of beans I am planting. I will be installing a solar fence to try to keep them out.

I have the same disc combo. After I broadcast the seeds I set the discs at a medium angle and raise them up so they are lightly touching the soil. I lower the cultipacker and then make a final pass over the plot. The discs move enough dirt to cover the seeds about an inch and then the packer firms it up. The disc height is really easy to adjust so you can play with it until you're getting the appropriate seed coverage. There will be some seeds that don't get covered. That's just the way it is. That's why it's important to seed at the broadcast rate and not the drill rate. You don't want the seed covered too much.....0.5 to 1 inch is a good range (Eagle Seeds recommend 3/4 to 1 inch in moist soil). Better to be a little shallow than too deep.

Alternatively, if you have a drag harrow you can drag the plot to cover the seed and then just run the cultipacker over it. I like to do it in one pass, so I take advantage of the combo design of the product.

 

[Drycreek]

Speaking of drags, the easiest and cheapest way to make one is to use however many pickup tires that your pulling vehicle will handle. For my tractor I use five tires. Two in front, three in back, and chain them all together with the tow chain in the middle. I use the screw-type links to tie them all together so that if and when I need to replace them it's easy to do. You get the tires free and the chain doesn't cost much, and it does a good job. I have one of the commercial chain-link type drags from TSC and I prefer my tire drag two to one over that.

I have one at each place I plant, because moving them from one property to another is a pain.

 

[Tap]

Personally....if you have much dpsm, your deer will eat the soy before it has a chance unless you are doing several acres minimum or in area of heavy ag adjacent to your place. I'd continue with what you have started, spray/mow to control weed and grass, overseed some clover and your clover plot will probably take off this fall. You can add chicory, and even brassica this fall overseeded into the clover. Def overseed the clover this fall with a grain which will help control weeds/grasses and will self die the following summer.
Hopefully your ph is 6 or better, if not get your lime and your Fert down yesterday. Just an opinion. Good luck.

I agree with

Hey guys I'm going to try and plant my own food plot this year. I recently just purchased a ATV sprayer, a spreader and a disc/cultipacker combo from cabelas. The field I want to plant was planted with clover last season but was over run with weeds. I want to plant soybeans instead. I had a soil test done last year at the end of the year and I tested low for potassium. I bought the amount of potash it suggested. I guess I'm wondering the steps I should take. Do I spread the potassium and spray the weeds before I disc? Any other advice would be great. Thanks guys

1st off...what kind of weeds were in your clover? Did they make a seed bank?
And I'm leaning towards dogghrs advice. If your plot size is what can be handled with atv equipment, then its probably not a very large plot. Unless you have a low DPSM, then beans ain't gonna work unless you use an E fence.
You said it was clover last year...was it 1st year clover? If so, when was it planted...spring or fall? What kind of clover? Any other ag in the area? There are a lot of questions to answer before you abandon that clover. Not all weeds are bad and even if you have undesirable weeds, it doesn't mean the plot can't be saved.

 

[Jimmy51881]

It was a first year clover plot planted last spring. It's a 2 acre plot. Its located in south eastern Minnesota with tons of farmland nearby. The plot actually borders a 30 acre cornfield. Nobody in the area really plants beans though. I hunt alot late season and am pretty set on beans. I do plan on protecting the plot with an electric fence. I'm not really sure of the kinds of weeds. I'm new to this. It seems to be tall grasses. Here are some trail cam pictures of the weeds.

 

[Tap]

The E fence will go a long way toward establishing a mature bean plot. I am a little surprised that there is no crop rotation practices around you. A rotation of beans-corn-beans-corn is pretty common in larger ag areas.
Do you intend to plant RR beans? And have you thought about a forage style bean which have a slightly longer period of attractiveness than a conventional bean?

If it were me and I planned on hoping the plot would have a later season draw, I would consider planting a mix. Have you planted any of the brassicas? They are usually great for a late season draw. I say "usually" because there are areas where, for some crazy reason, deer won't eat brassica. The classic scenario for brassica is deer don't pay much attention to them until after a few hard freezes and then they get sweet and highly attractive.
Check out some of the um-teen zillion posts on Lickcreek's threads about mixes and late season attraction. And don't forget to add some cereal rye.

BTW, just for future FYI, spring planted clover is notorious for weed issues. Plant clover around Sept 1st.