So I can really use some advice on what to do with my food plots. I'm in Northeast Ohio and started my planted my food plots for the first time last Labor day. I amended the soil with lime and fertilizer according to Whitetail Institutes soil tests.
I got everything planted and the same weekend I planted we got 3 inches of rain in one day and most what I planted got washed away. I ended up planting a mix of white clovers and winter rye. After that torrential rainfall I continued to try and get something to grow. I ended up seeding again with more clover wheat and oats just to try and get something growing. We basically had a drought from labor day till winter so nothing really came up very good.
This winter I ended up frost seeding more clover. After a little warm up I hit it with more fertilizer and oats.
At this point I'm mostly greed but it's been a pretty dry spring. I've got a mix of everything growing including wheat, rye, oats, clover and some turnips that spread from another adjacent food plot. There's a lot of clover in some spots but a lot of it is very young and small. The oats and wheat seem to be thriving. Oats are starting to go to seed.
So I'm not sure what I should do at this point. The good thing is I really don't have a lot of weeds. I was thinking about mowing or spraying to kill off the rye, oats and wheat but there's a lot of areas that don't have a lot of clover. I'm afraid if I kill that stuff off I'll be back to bare dirt. We're basically into summer and it's been dry. I'm afraid the clover needs the nurse crop for some shade.
Thoughts and opinions appreciated!
I got everything planted and the same weekend I planted we got 3 inches of rain in one day and most what I planted got washed away. I ended up planting a mix of white clovers and winter rye. After that torrential rainfall I continued to try and get something to grow. I ended up seeding again with more clover wheat and oats just to try and get something growing. We basically had a drought from labor day till winter so nothing really came up very good.
This winter I ended up frost seeding more clover. After a little warm up I hit it with more fertilizer and oats.
At this point I'm mostly greed but it's been a pretty dry spring. I've got a mix of everything growing including wheat, rye, oats, clover and some turnips that spread from another adjacent food plot. There's a lot of clover in some spots but a lot of it is very young and small. The oats and wheat seem to be thriving. Oats are starting to go to seed.
So I'm not sure what I should do at this point. The good thing is I really don't have a lot of weeds. I was thinking about mowing or spraying to kill off the rye, oats and wheat but there's a lot of areas that don't have a lot of clover. I'm afraid if I kill that stuff off I'll be back to bare dirt. We're basically into summer and it's been dry. I'm afraid the clover needs the nurse crop for some shade.
Thoughts and opinions appreciated!