Weeds and burning

[Frederick D Harris]

Last year was my 2nd at food plots. I planted about an acre, plan on 2 acres this year. I plowed and planted clover, wheat and rye, some buckwheat. And some brassicas. I limed last year. PH came back this year still low 6.2. I still have too many weeds. Should I spray first, burn the existing food plot off and then broadcast seed, or spray, give it a couple weeks and then plow and fertilize and plant, or broadcast seeds, spray and roll and no till. Never tried the no till. So to burn or not to burn and to till or not to till ? Which will help with the weeds the most? I am in the South Central Ozarks. Rocky poor hard soil.

 

[Frederick D Harris]

Forgot to mention fescue is the dominant grass in the area. Still had grass in the food plot too.

 

[Native Hunter]

No till methods are healthier for your soils than tilling - and over time you can build up your soils. Fescue is easily killed with gly. It comes back over time from seed already in the seedbank but you just keep killing it, and eventually you exhaust the seedbank of it and a lot of other problem weeds. You can also kill fescue with clethodim and not hurt your clover or other broadleaf plants like chicory. Grass is the easiest weed to deal with in my opinion. Clethodim is a no brainer.

It takes several years in most cases to get weeds under control in a new food plot. Patience and persistence are your friends. Lots of annual weeds like marestail can be controlled by letting them get tall and mowing a few weeks before the seed become viable. Eliminate the seeding and you eventually eliminate the problem.

I don’t plan ahead much when it comes to a food plot. I just watch what is happening and stay prepared to jump on each problem as it arises.

PS - it is a travesty to not have chicory in a food plot. The farmers should pay me to plant it, because the deer snub their noses at their soybeans to get to it. Good luck.

 

[Frederick D Harris]

Thanks I appreciate the help!

 

[g squared 23]

My best weed control comes from spraying about 2 weeks before planting, and then spreading, fertilizing, and spraying again on the day I’m planting. If you’re planting winter grains, clover, brassicas or buckwheat, there isn’t a need to till or work dirt, those will all germinate well in a no till situation. So to me, tilling just stirs up the seed bank and will cause equal or worse weed competition for a much greater time and labor input.


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[Doe Shooter]

My best weed control comes from spraying about 2 weeks before planting, and then spreading, fertilizing, and spraying again on the day I’m planting. If you’re planting winter grains, clover, brassicas or buckwheat, there isn’t a need to till or work dirt, those will all germinate well in a no till situation. So to me, tilling just stirs up the seed bank and will cause equal or worse weed competition for a much greater time and labor input.


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Agree. Seed bank takes a while to control. Generally shallow cultivation is better than plowing. Mowing at the appropriate time. Weed wick wipers are very good medicine. It can be done. Chemicals are just one tool.

 

[Frederick D Harris]

Can you spray Clethodim with Gly? Or does one replace the other?

 

[g squared 23]

Can you spray Clethodim with Gly? Or does one replace the other?

Grasses are very sensitive to roundup making the clethodim redundant and unnecessary in my experience. For a good burn down, I’m normally combining roundup and 2 4 d which will take care of the roundup resistant broadleaves like marestail and water hemp.

I did this year spray small patches of clover with roundup and clethodim, 0.5 ounce per gallon of the former with 1 ounce per gallon of the latter with some dawn soap. This effectively destroyed all grass, hit the roundup sensitive broadleafs like plantain, and did not kill the clover.

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[dogghr]

Pictures might help as it may not be as bad as it seems to a new plotter. And we don't know when or what was planted. Also don't know some important things like CEC, OM, etc. Great soils require much less manipulation than poor soils. Some weeds are beneficial and browsed by deer. Some grass is not a big deal and handled with Cleth.
So not knowing, here is my free advice which isn't worth much. Plant in the fall. For initial clover, mix RC and WC and a grain of WR or WW. As said, chicory is a good additive. While I would suggest not tilling , poor soils sometimes do not have enough biomass and OM to facilitate such.
The following spring, I let my grains go to seed in summer which controls weeds and grasses. Or you can spray cleth to kill the grasses and grains. You can add Gly but only when clover is growing strong in mid spring. Then overseed grains the following fall into the clover and repeat process. Eventually as soil improves you can even include brassica into the plot yearly.
Now Im sacrireligious to many posters, as you don't need to worry a great deal of grasses. People spend hundreds of dollars each year to kill clover in their yard. Observe it can survive quite well and even overcome most grass/fescue/bermuda yards. So sometimes nothing is better than something created by micromanage. Good luck.