[art]

The first thing to get a good stand no matter what you plant is to be sure that the field has the proper neutreints that it needs to grow a good crop. I'd be doing soil tests first as it may take a year to improve the field enough so the weeds don't win and you waste your time and money!
Lime is important to the fertilizer to even be able to work!!! The trade off would be twice as much as if the field would have a good PH rating. The other thing we've noticed, fields with good PH don't have as much trouble with weeds which like sour soil. Sorry but sweet soil is high in PH and sour needs it. A cooperative extension office would be able to guide you to a place for proper testing.
This should be done before any type of planting or tillage as I said earlier it often takes a year or two to bring the PH up to par depending on it's current levels.