Clover/corn food plot

[treefarmer]

Let me begin this new food plot thread by giving an actual accurate weather report. The accuracy is based on the fact that it has already happened and there are no projections about tomorrow from my point of view. But there are predictions of rain through Saturday and it's only Wednesday morning and it is now sprinkling.

Since January 1st, we have had 23 rain days. January totals were only 1". February had 15.15" total. March recieved 4.1" and we just finished April with 4.2". Total rainfall so far this year has been 24.45". May 1st and it's sprinkling, so needless to say some places are very wet on our farm.

I started working on the part for the clover back on the 9th of March. Was able to pull the off-set harrow through the corn stubble that had been mowed. Then made a few rounds with the bottom plows and it found it was way too wet to work. I was pulling the plows with the 4-wheel drive tractor and I've been stuck enough to know when to stop and let it dry a little.

Our home garden is on a different type of soil and we have some of it up and growing. I broke up some new ground back in March for the red corn that we're trying to develop and yesterday it was finally dry enough to run a harrow over it to prepare for planting. On next to the last round, the right side wheels were traveling in the "water furrow" left by the bottom plows, when we got in a slick spot and the tire pulled up some yellow clay. Time to stop before you get in any deeper! That was before dinner and had to wait till my wife got back from an appointment late in the afternoon to help me out of the field. This time it was the 2-wheel drive tractor that was stuck so it was easy enough to pull it out. Prior to getting stuck, I had double cut the clover spot without much problem, even though I was not able to bottom plow all of the plot. It needs to be level and smooth for the clover seed. We're about to run out of the recommended planting time for the clover, as it will not do well if it's too hot. If stays too wet and we don't get in planted, the seed will go in the freezer till next time. Still intend to plant the other half in the same corn we had last season.

Here's some pictures showing the wet progress of the Clover/corn food plot and the old Massey Ferguson waiting to be retrieved. Treefarmer

[Triple Creek Reaper]

I have been looking forward to your spring plot post. Our plots are being bushogged and harrowed now, I am concerned the ground is too wet to plant and we are getting late in the year.

[sam03]

Hell ya! Finally the "Food Plot Master" is back with another addition of food plotting!!

[Iluv2hunt]

I have been looking forward to your spring plot post. Our plots are being bushogged and harrowed now, I am concerned the ground is too wet to plant and we are getting late in the year.

Don't panic on the time frame....yet. The best food plots I ever planted were done on Mother's day weekend several years back when I had the lease in Panama City

[9dawgs]

I've been waiting on this Treefarmer. I miss the old thread so thanks for starting a new one!

[Iluv2hunt]

Since January 1st, we have had 23 rain days. January totals were only 1". February had 15.15" total. March recieved 4.1" and we just finished April with 4.2". Total rainfall so far this year has been 24.45". May 1st and it's sprinkling, so needless to say some places are very wet on our farm.

If my calculations are right, we have had just under 7" since the first of the year here in N. Tampa. And 4.5" of that was this week. it destroyed some of my more tender plants in the garden, like all my lettuces and okra that was about 4" tall. Talk about a danged drought!

[davedirt]

That's a nice looking spot Treefarmer........I just got this seed called sweet tea and it wasn't cheap. I ordered the five vile special and it came today and let me tell you that all five shakers fit into a box about the size of a VHS tape box. This stuff better be the Shizz or I will be pissed. It comes back every year so I figure it would be worth the money. I am going to plat it like it was the last corn kernels on earth,....LOL.

[davedirt]

Well......

[GoodOyster]

Well......

deep subject!

[sam03]

That's a nice looking spot Treefarmer........I just got this seed called sweet tea and it wasn't cheap. I ordered the five vile special and it came today and let me tell you that all five shakers fit into a box about the size of a VHS tape box. This stuff better be the Shizz or I will be pissed. It comes back every year so I figure it would be worth the money. I am going to plat it like it was the last corn kernels on earth,....LOL.

The "Sweet Tea" plant sounds pretty good. Start a thread and let us know how they works for ya dave!

[davedirt]

I will.........

[treefarmer]

Fellers,Thanks for the encouragement to do another food plot thread, I enjoyed keeping up with it last year.


Hey " davedirt" I'm not familiar with the product you mentioned, sweet tea. Please tell about it, sounds interesting.

With all the rain and cold weather that swirled around us last week we only had 2 rains totaling 0.9". It dried up enough for me to fluff up the clover side of the food plot. I kept pulling the disk over it to allow it to dry enough to have a proper seed bed for the clover. Finally yesterday it was dry enough to plant. Spread 13-13-13 and disked it in, then rolled it with a cultipacker to tighten the soil to keep the seed from being buried too deep. Got my wife to drive the cart and I sat on the back and used a small hand spreader to put out the 5 pounds of Osceola Ladino clover. Some folks add a filler and mix it with the seed for better control. Builders sand, grits are some of the things I heard folks use as the seeds are so very small. There is supposed to be 800,000 seed to the pound. After spreading the seed, we rolled over the plot with the cultipacker dragging a chainlink drag to get a slight coverage.

We'll call this day 1 and maybe by next week we might see some clover sprouting. There is a picture of the cultipacker , what the planted plot looks like and a picture showing how big the clover seeds are beside a 1 inch straight pin. Treefarmer

[kc45]

And it starts...
Thanks treefarmer

[sam03]

Dam nice work! Abt how big are your plots?

[treefarmer]

sam03,
The clover part is around 250'X90' hair over 1/2 acre. There is room for an acre of corn that will be planted a little later.
Treefarmer