Throw&Mow novice

[lakngolf]

Ok, the Ol' "you got to find dirt to get a seed to grow" guy is gonna try throw and mow. I have had good luck over the years with various dirt scratching methods but fuel prices tell me to avoid tractor work this year.
Some samplings of my food plot areas are shown in the pictures attached
(1) Will I be ok to simply broadcast seed (wheat and oats, maybe rye) into the plots and then bushhog?
(2) We will not plant until about a month from now so the growth will be at another stage. Is that a problem?
(3) Would it do me any good to knock off the top five or six inches now?
(4) I have 10 lbs of Daikon Radish to plant somewhere. Can they just be broadcast into these fields?

Thanks for you help

 

[Native Hunter]

Lak, I was hoping someone near you would answer your questions, but here are my thoughts:

* You do need to get "seed to dirt "to get seed to grow. With throw and mow, the seed still need to make it to the top of the soil.
* If that grass is all warm season annual grass you might be just fine without spraying. It's going to die soon anyway.
* However, if a lot of it is cool season and/or you have thick sod, I think you could end up very disappointed.
* I see less sod in the second picture. I think your chances are better at that spot, but depending on the kind of grass. It could still fail.
* I do think there is going to be too much thatch in that first spot. You want the seed covered but not smothered.

I personally wouldn't do it without spraying. I've learned that throw and mow is tricky. It doesn't take much out of line to cause problems.
Good luck!

 

[cutman]

I don’t think that oats do well when broadcast. I’ve had much better luck with wheat and rye.

The key to success with this method is good rain in the forecast. I agree with Native - spray first, broadcast, mow, pray for rain.

 

[SwampCat]

If I only had one or two plots and really depended on them, I would do it conventional tillage. Throw n mow depends on more stars aligning

 

[Long Cut]

I’d definitely spray first and then either burn then seed OR seed then mow.

I’d seed at 1.5-2x higher the seed rate to compensate for seed lost to poor contact.

Pray for heavy rain within 1-3 days after seeding. Any more it’s probably a lost cause

 

[lakngolf]

This is not encouraging. I'd rather not be a sprayer and more seed is expensive

 

[BoneCrusher20]

my luck has been limited w/o bringing some chemicals into the mix. If i had nice roll crimper for my atv i might have some better luck.

 

[dogghr]

Ok, the Ol' "you got to find dirt to get a seed to grow" guy is gonna try throw and mow. I have had good luck over the years with various dirt scratching methods but fuel prices tell me to avoid tractor work this year.
Some samplings of my food plot areas are shown in the pictures attached
(1) Will I be ok to simply broadcast seed (wheat and oats, maybe rye) into the plots and then bushhog?
(2) We will not plant until about a month from now so the growth will be at another stage. Is that a problem?
(3) Would it do me any good to knock off the top five or six inches now?
(4) I have 10 lbs of Daikon Radish to plant somewhere. Can they just be broadcast into these fields?

Thanks for you help

I’m not sure of the south but to answer based on my area…
IF that grass is less aggressive late sept then..

Mow it half height now. Spread seed in a month and mow nearly scalping the dirt. Forget the oats as said they don’t do well

Yes Daikon will do fine w above method.

If that grass is going to be aggressive into Nov then my son you need to spray at least at time of planting. Sometimes life is not fair.

And of course rain at or near planting is your friend.

Heck you grow tomatoes on a tree stump , I have confidence in you. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MarkDarvin]

I don't know much south. I'm so far north, I see Santa at the bar most of the year. It'd be hard to get something to go in my country without making some kind of opening, whether that's mechanical or chemical. I don't like either, but it's an unfortunate reality in my world. I repent by making sure I don't have to repeat those processes for as many years as possible.

 

[Mennoniteman]

The most successful throw n mow that I have seen includes dragging something similar to a pointed tooth harrow through after throwing then mowing on that

 

[catscratch]

I agree with most of what's posted above. I will add that seed is shaped in a way that allows it to fall through thatch and find soil. I believe that mowing (even if there is nothing to mow) creates a wind that greatly helps the seed find its way. Plus most seed will throw a pretty long root though open air to find soil. Too little thatch or not enough rain and rates understandably go down. Oats has never been a great TnM seed for me.

 

[Long Cut]

This is not encouraging. I'd rather not be a sprayer and more seed is expensive

You need to spray or else whatever you plant will just become a weedy mess.

 

[jlane35]

You need to spray or else whatever you plant will just become a weedy mess.

Not necessarily, I’ve found if you can get a good stand of rye or wheat, along with a bi annual clover you can broadcast and mow into that and not have much weed competition without spraying.

 

[Drycreek]

Just remember that when God seeds He puts out a LOT of seed ! I know it costs money, but I spray if I need to, then disc just enough to scratch grooves in the ground. It works if I get rain and I miss the Army worms, and the hogs don’t root it up. I have no luck with TnM.

 

[TX-Aggie]

My family and I run a modified TnM - we run the disks set straight through the plot first, then spread, then mow. If we have time, we drive the sidexside back and forth (I've used my truck before as well). We have to plant when vacation is available, so we can't plan for doing it just before a rain event. From our limited experience, we get a good stand - enough for the deer, but not to win any awards or be on covers. We have never had a problem with oats or winter peas germinating using this process - some of our plots are 3 years running now, I did go heavy on the rye the first year.

I can say be very careful with mowing before spreading seed. I can see some thatch still on the ground in the thicker field picture - that could lead to the seed hanging up and never making it down to the ground or thatch that is in the breaking down process. My uncle mowed 2 of our plots last year the week before us showing up, those two plots were the worst ones we had. The seed got hung up in the existing thatch, and never made it to the ground. He has done it again this year, but moved his mowing back to July instead of Aug - I hope they don't cause a problem, but I digress. As for how thick it is, we had some plots that thick last year. They seemed to "lag" a bit behind some of the other plots, but by deer season - they were blowing and going same as the others. We plant over labor day for reference with 1st frost about mid October, and deer season 2nd week of Nov.

I typically plan on running 1.25x the seeding rate, but adjust that as well. If my 1.25x comes up to 3.25 sacks of rye, I'll buy 3 sacks of rye, then adjust my seeding slightly to match the 3 sacks. This is typical for all the cereals. However, I spread the "shortage" or "excess" evenly across each plot. Legumes and Brassicas are typically fine, because I seem to be forced to order more than I need every year of something, and I squirrel the excess away.

One last note - if the mowed thatch is "thin" and you have a big flock of turkeys or crows find it before a rain event - all bets are off. In 2020, we spread seed, mowed down, had rain in the forecast that didn't happen. The weekend afterwards, we had turkeys and crows hitting multiple plots in succession like a cleaning crew working an office building. It was a summer plots, and we had to spread out browntop millet just to get something to grow that year.

 

[lakngolf]

My family and I run a modified TnM - we run the disks set straight through the plot first,

Thanks Aggie. All that sounds like it would work on my property. I had already determined that the light disk pass would probably be good.
Good luck this year.....with food plots, deer kills and FOOTBALL

 

[hilljec]

Thanks Aggie. All that sounds like it would work on my property. I had already determined that the light disk pass would probably be good.
Good luck this year.....with food plots, deer kills and FOOTBALL

Lak, I'm in your area in NE Coosa County and have been successfully using T&M successfully since Fall of 2017. Here is the method that works very well for us.

• We will spray our fields with Gly in the next couple of weeks and try to plant around the end of September/Early October, depending on the rain chances. The Gly takes care of any weeds that have popped up over the Summer.
• Spread fertilizer over the fields prior to planting
• Spread Cereal Rye, Coker Oats and Austrian Peas into the standing sprayed crop with UTV mounted spreader
• Bush Hog down the previous years crop - This also allows to disburse any seed that may have gotten all the way down to the ground. Watch the PTO speed on the Bush Hog to make sure the cuttings don't windrow and spread evenly
• Spread by hand seeder Crimson & Ladino Clovers and Daikon Radish
• Finally we run a cultipacker over the top - This is not a necessary step, especially with a good rain forecasted, but we do it anyway

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

 

[Drycreek]

Thanks Aggie. All that sounds like it would work on my property. I had already determined that the light disk pass would probably be good.
Good luck this year.....with food plots, deer kills and FOOTBALL

I have to cover my seed because the hogs will eat them if I don’t. I spray if necessary, then a week or ten days later I mow. After that, any time I think the moisture is right I run my disk one notch off of straight. That gives me enough “grooves” to bury the seed when I drag the plot. If I plant small seeds in the mix I’ll put them on top of the ground after dragging. The hogs can’t pick up clover or Daikon radish. Since the blades don’t penetrate over an inch or inch and a half I don’t figure I’m hurting the soil that much.

 

[lakngolf]

Lak, I'm in your area in NE Coosa County.

Hey, good to know you are that close by

 

[Mennoniteman]

This is not encouraging. I'd rather not be a sprayer and more seed is expensive

TnM is a form of no-till, and people are still trying to invent a method of no-till that works without spraying, but up to this point there has been very limited success, although it can be done with a good stand of mature rye that has no weeds in it, but there's almost no way to arrive at the mature stand of weed-free rye without tillage or herbicide. So, if you don't want to spray and also use more seed your options are mostly limited to sticking to tillage for planting.