Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Food Plot Progress October 18, 2011

Ten days post planting, and some gentle rain since has gotten things rolling on the small plot planted on the 8th. Rye and peas are up, plus some rape and turnips. Looks pretty good, although I'd like it better if the leaves hadn't fallen in the interim...probably didn't help with germination rates.






Friday, November 11, 2011

Food Plot Panting Part Two October 11, 2011

We worked ahead of the rain today to finish planting; this time the bigger food plot. Another bag of Pennington seed, then over-seeded with five pounds of inoculated turnip seed, along with lime and 10-10-10 fertilizer. We'll see how she does.




The six foot tiller on the Kioti prepares a really smooth seed bed. Metering the seed was difficult with the yellow seeder on the John Deere. Turnips, rape, and clover are tiny, winter grasses are bigger, and the cowpeas are very big. Spreading this seed with any shot at even coverage was an excercise in futility. We finally settled on a setting of "7" for fertilizer and "8" for the seed. Next year, I think we'll make a small seed pass and a peas pass if we're still broadcast planting.


A quick drag with the small chain harrow behind the mule, and we're done. On these small plots, this rig is a whole lot easier to drag with than a tractor with the big harrow. Wish we had a cultipacker though. The rain started as I dragged the plot, and kept up nice and gentle all night. Some seed had sprouted within 3 days.


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Food Plot Planting October 8, 2011

I was late getting fall plots in, just as I'm late posting up these notes. This is a small, secret spot. Managed to turn the tractor enough to till it, but planted the plot by hand, with a push spreader.



1 bag of Pennington Buckmaster's Feeding Frenzy, two of 10-10-10, and some lime. October is at least two weeks too late, but we'll see. This mix includes rye, wheat, oats, austrian winter peas, red clover, radishes and turnips..