Organic Matter

[Drycreek]

Gents: I know how to read a soil test, but what I don't know is what percent of OM I should have for optimum fertility to grow IC peas, WW and the like. I just got results back on two plots here at home and one has 2.3% and the other 5%. Neither of these plots is suitable for white clovers, they are both too well drained. One is much too small for anything except a fall plot, just to attract deer for bowhunting. The other is marginal for IC peas in the spring/summer but I'm gonna enlarge it as soon as weather permits. My topsoil is sandy with clay at around a foot deep. What are your suggestions ?

 

[TreeDaddy]

but I'm gonna enlarge it as soon as weather permits.

Good luck

i am drowning in van zandt county

will be june before i can get started clearing a fence line here

bill

 

[Drycreek]

I'll need it in the bow plot ! I've never had much luck with anything there, but it may be because it's so small. I've really only planted fall plots there but this year after adding a little lime (5.7 ph) I'm thinking about some buckwheat or sunnhemp. I just don't know how much success I'm gonna have in a plot that small. Rained pretty much last night and this morning but tomorrow I'm gonna measure for area so I know how much lime to add and get it worked in as weather permits.

The worst that can happen is that the deer kill it before it gets a chance to grow, or it won't grow at all. I'm stumped as to why I can't get a crop here. I've never put a cage in it but I will this year for sure, and in ALL my plots.

 

[Baker]

How small is the plot? Its always challenging to find summer annuals that can handle grazing pressure on small acreage plots...especially the second year on when the deer begin to expect food there. Sunn hemp is as good as I've found. Sandy soil works for alyce clover.Both will last into bow season in the deep south. You might consider amping up the seeding rate to handle excess pressure. Also might consider overwhelming the plot with a multi specie thick jungle cover...sunn hemp, cow peas, soy beans, sunflower, buckwheat, grain sorghum, ,alyce clover all mixed. Confuses everything...bugs, deer, and will increase om as well. I can share seeding rates of mixes like this I've used if interested

 

[Drycreek]

How small is the plot? Its always challenging to find summer annuals that can handle grazing pressure on small acreage plots...especially the second year on when the deer begin to expect food there. Sunn hemp is as good as I've found. Sandy soil works for alyce clover.Both will last into bow season in the deep south. You might consider amping up the seeding rate to handle excess pressure. Also might consider overwhelming the plot with a multi specie thick jungle cover...sunn hemp, cow peas, soy beans, sunflower, buckwheat, grain sorghum, ,alyce clover all mixed. Confuses everything...bugs, deer, and will increase om as well. I can share seeding rates of mixes like this I've used if interested

I'm definitely interested Rusty. I may go ahead an enlarge this plot also, it's pretty small right now, but it's just a pausing spot on their way to a larger plot.

What's your opinion on the percentage of OM ? This one is at 5%. Thanks !

 

[MarkDarvin]

Gents: I know how to read a soil test, but what I don't know is what percent of OM I should have for optimum fertility to grow IC peas, WW and the like. I just got results back on two plots here at home and one has 2.3% and the other 5%. Neither of these plots is suitable for white clovers, they are both too well drained. One is much too small for anything except a fall plot, just to attract deer for bowhunting. The other is marginal for IC peas in the spring/summer but I'm gonna enlarge it as soon as weather permits. My topsoil is sandy with clay at around a foot deep. What are your suggestions ?

There isn't much you can do to impact OM in a year or two to make a noticeable difference. It's still noble to work in that direction. If you want to grow peas, I'd get a solid stand of barley going right away in spring. Once you see seed heads formed broadcast your peas in there and mow the barley down on top of it. They'll like being covered in straw and stand a better chance because of it. Mix in some WGF sorghum too, in case the deer wipe out the peas.

Either way, keep a high straw variety growing there, and you can slowly seal up your sand with straw.

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

There isn't much you can do to impact OM in a year or two to make a noticeable difference.

With the exception of amendments, of course. Chicken litter/antler dirt, manure/dairy doo etc.
I’ll be buying a bunch of dairy doo this spring for my plots

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

There isn't much you can do to impact OM in a year or two to make a noticeable difference.

With the exception of amendments, of course. Chicken litter/antler dirt, manure/dairy doo etc.
I’ll be buying a bunch of dairy doo this spring for my plots

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

There isn't much you can do to impact OM in a year or two to make a noticeable difference.

With the exception of amendments, of course. Chicken litter/antler dirt, manure/dairy doo etc.
I’ll be buying a bunch of dairy doo this spring for my plots

 

[Chipdasqrrl]

My app glitched and caused me to post 3 times, can a mod delete 2 of them?


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Drycreek]

My app glitched and caused me to post 3 times, can a mod delete 2 of them?


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

Ok, ok, you made your point ! If I had only known when I was raised on the dairy ! Seriously though, I'm gonna check into chicken litter as we have chicken houses not far from where I live.

Mark, I can't throw and mow because of the hogs. They'll eat all the seeds unless it's something as small as clover seeds. I tried that one time and spread wheat into standing IC peas, mostly vines, and mowed the vines. They rooted through the plot and ate all the wheat seed. I walked through the plot a couple days later and never found a seed. I had to disc the plot and reseed as usual. They will always hit the plots after seeding fall or spring and if the seed are any size at all, the hogs will eat them. Here at home my son and I are actually considering fencing them out of our main plot.

I haven't tried a trick that some farmers use on the Red River north of me. I was told by the landowner who share crops with them that when they plant corn they spread year-old corn around the edges of the fields for a few days for the hogs to eat so that they will leave the fresh planted corn alone until it sprouts. That may be the next thing I try. Hogs are here in epedemic proportians. God help us if they ever get entrenched in big-ag country !

 

[MarkDarvin]

Ok, ok, you made your point ! If I had only known when I was raised on the dairy ! Seriously though, I'm gonna check into chicken litter as we have chicken houses not far from where I live.

Mark, I can't throw and mow because of the hogs. They'll eat all the seeds unless it's something as small as clover seeds. I tried that one time and spread wheat into standing IC peas, mostly vines, and mowed the vines. They rooted through the plot and ate all the wheat seed. I walked through the plot a couple days later and never found a seed. I had to disc the plot and reseed as usual. They will always hit the plots after seeding fall or spring and if the seed are any size at all, the hogs will eat them. Here at home my son and I are actually considering fencing them out of our main plot.

I haven't tried a trick that some farmers use on the Red River north of me. I was told by the landowner who share crops with them that when they plant corn they spread year-old corn around the edges of the fields for a few days for the hogs to eat so that they will leave the fresh planted corn alone until it sprouts. That may be the next thing I try. Hogs are here in epedemic proportians. God help us if they ever get entrenched in big-ag country !

That's no good. Beings you have hogs, do you ever eat them? Is there one you can shoot and they'll be tasty? I've always wondered that, and I've always gotten mixed opinions.

 

[DIY]

Man, those hogs sound like a total nightmare. Maybe camp out by your seeded plot for a week with a few hundred rounds and night vision? Lol.

 

[Drycreek]

That's no good. Beings you have hogs, do you ever eat them? Is there one you can shoot and they'll be tasty? I've always wondered that, and I've always gotten mixed opinions.

I've eaten a few in the past, but I don't anymore. Plenty of people do but when you witness one eating a rotten cow carcass it kinda knocks the shine off of it for me. We killed thirty on my 217 acre place last year and didn't make a dent in them. They are the main reason I sold that place, I was just covered up with hogs.

Man, those hogs sound like a total nightmare. Maybe camp out by your seeded plot for a week with a few hundred rounds and night vision? Lol.

Night vision is nice, but sometimes my hours and their hours don't gee-haw if you get my drift. The one in the pic was 270 lb. A typical hog that we kill will run more like 80 to 120 lb. Trouble is, there might be 20/25 of them in a sounder. They can really eat a lot !

 

[TreeDaddy]

a sow can breed at 6 months, produce 3 litters/year,and have up to 12 piglets/litter....... I really hate these guys......

bill