First attempt at growing crops

[Wesdor]

Looks like you have everything under control. Good job.

A friend of mine plants several acres of sunflowers for Dove season. He "rents" his land to hunters from chicago. Last year he had good success with drawing in the doves as well as the paying hunters.

Hope your project is successful.

 

[Wesdor]

Looks like you have everything under control. Good job.

A friend of mine plants several acres of sunflowers for Dove season. He "rents" his land to hunters from chicago. Last year he had good success with drawing in the doves as well as the paying hunters.

Hope your project is successful.

 

[wushaw]

Pray for rain Nat ...from what I've read about planting sunflowers in our state June 1st is the latest time and you will need water and don't be suprised if you don't get a good crop this year but next will probably be a bird heaven.
Sunflowers in my area are already growing like crazy and flowered out.
I plan on planting mine this fall since I don't expect any rainfall till then.

We need pics of the disk you got /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[wushaw]

Pray for rain Nat ...from what I've read about planting sunflowers in our state June 1st is the latest time and you will need water and don't be suprised if you don't get a good crop this year but next will probably be a bird heaven.
Sunflowers in my area are already growing like crazy and flowered out.
I plan on planting mine this fall since I don't expect any rainfall till then.

We need pics of the disk you got /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[npaden]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Here is a picture of the disc. It is just like the one I looked at earlier, but it doesn't have scrapers. I probably shouldn't be using it if it is muddy enough to need the scrapers anyway. I got it for $600. I didn't use any weights, it dug in pretty good but dug in on the outside edges more than in the middle. Not sure if that is because it is setup so aggressively or not. I did a second pass to get it all pretty smooth and that seemed to work out pretty well.

The nut came off one of the gangs and I lost the outside disc but the place I bought it from said to just bring it back and they would fix it.

Here is the planter that I used. I got it for $200 from a fellow TBNer.

Dove season usually starts around the first of September. Hopefully some of sunflowers and sorghum will be ready by then!

 

[npaden]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Here is a picture of the disc. It is just like the one I looked at earlier, but it doesn't have scrapers. I probably shouldn't be using it if it is muddy enough to need the scrapers anyway. I got it for $600. I didn't use any weights, it dug in pretty good but dug in on the outside edges more than in the middle. Not sure if that is because it is setup so aggressively or not. I did a second pass to get it all pretty smooth and that seemed to work out pretty well.

The nut came off one of the gangs and I lost the outside disc but the place I bought it from said to just bring it back and they would fix it.

Here is the planter that I used. I got it for $200 from a fellow TBNer.

Dove season usually starts around the first of September. Hopefully some of sunflowers and sorghum will be ready by then!

 

[npaden]

Well, they are coming up! Not sure if that is a good thing or not though. The 5 day forecast is for highs of 100 everyday and zero chance of rain.

The sorghum is coming up better than the sunflowers and it is all a little hit and miss right now. I think either I got some seed deeper than others or the ground had a little more moisture in some spots than others. It is nice to know that it wasn't 100% a waste of time as I at least know that I was able to get it to come up. Sitting on a tractor running a 2 row planter for 4 hours I was sure hoping that the sucker was at least putting seed in the ground where it would have a chance at coming up. I checked it a few times to make sure it was still spinning correctly but since this was my first attempt I was for sure wondering if it was working or not.

If it makes it up tall enough to see the rows I'll take some more pictures.

 

[npaden]

Well, they are coming up! Not sure if that is a good thing or not though. The 5 day forecast is for highs of 100 everyday and zero chance of rain.

The sorghum is coming up better than the sunflowers and it is all a little hit and miss right now. I think either I got some seed deeper than others or the ground had a little more moisture in some spots than others. It is nice to know that it wasn't 100% a waste of time as I at least know that I was able to get it to come up. Sitting on a tractor running a 2 row planter for 4 hours I was sure hoping that the sucker was at least putting seed in the ground where it would have a chance at coming up. I checked it a few times to make sure it was still spinning correctly but since this was my first attempt I was for sure wondering if it was working or not.

If it makes it up tall enough to see the rows I'll take some more pictures.

 

[flusher]

Nice job. Hope you get to see some positive results from your effort.

How many acres did you plant? How much seed did you use?

Here in the North Valley we've probably seen the last of the rain. The farmers started cutting the hay crop in mid-May and are baling now. It's drying out fast and the worry now is grass fires. The CDF is doing controlled burns on stubble in some of the larger fields along Hwy 99 north of Chico. I cut fire brakes along my fence line last Fall, but I'll have to touch them up soon.

 

[flusher]

Nice job. Hope you get to see some positive results from your effort.

How many acres did you plant? How much seed did you use?

Here in the North Valley we've probably seen the last of the rain. The farmers started cutting the hay crop in mid-May and are baling now. It's drying out fast and the worry now is grass fires. The CDF is doing controlled burns on stubble in some of the larger fields along Hwy 99 north of Chico. I cut fire brakes along my fence line last Fall, but I'll have to touch them up soon.