How to plant/cover clover without a seeder?

[Rockbadchild]

Also are you spreading at a very quiet (windless day) I spread mine at dusk when it gets real quiet... To be honest I also don't get real great result the first year, the second year it fills in a whole lot compare to the first one.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

I always try and get a low wind day which is fairly easy to do here. I also try broadcasting when a rain is predicted in the next few days.

With that said there was a drought last fall and I had frost seeded the wheat/oats with little success. It had some effect as I had deer eating it, just not a pretty stand.

End of the month weather permitting I'm planning to:

Prepping to take my tractor to my hunting property about an hour away.
Take my mower up there the weekend before I plant then rent a truck and trailer to haul the tractor. I haven't ever disced those food plots. I had a forestry mulcher dude cut me out 3 food plots and several shooting lanes about 3-4 years ago. He did a pretty good job with getting the stumps below the soil. I thought I could run the disc through there a few times and cut it up enough to give the seeds a chance to take hold.

Another plot of land I have allows me to drive the tractor and use all my implements to get the soil like I want.

Seed ought to be here this week. Gonna order a ton of lime and 3-4 hundred pounds of fertilizer.

The whole thing will probably cost me about $800 to get this accomplished. Ouch... Gotta poay to play...

 

[MMC]

I always try and get a low wind day which is fairly easy to do here. I also try broadcasting when a rain is predicted in the next few days.

With that said there was a drought last fall and I had frost seeded the wheat/oats with little success. It had some effect as I had deer eating it, just not a pretty stand.

End of the month weather permitting I'm planning to:

Prepping to take my tractor to my hunting property about an hour away.
Take my mower up there the weekend before I plant then rent a truck and trailer to haul the tractor. I haven't ever disced those food plots. I had a forestry mulcher dude cut me out 3 food plots and several shooting lanes about 3-4 years ago. He did a pretty good job with getting the stumps below the soil. I thought I could run the disc through there a few times and cut it up enough to give the seeds a chance to take hold.

Another plot of land I have allows me to drive the tractor and use all my implements to get the soil like I want.

Seed ought to be here this week. Gonna order a ton of lime and 3-4 hundred pounds of fertilizer.

The whole thing will probably cost me about $800 to get this accomplished. Ouch... Gotta poay to play...

Have you soil tested? That might give you a better target to shoot at. Clover will respond to proper lime values (even some of the seed you already spread). Might talk to your local ag extension agent for some advice, even as to which quarries supply the "best" lime.

Best of luck.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

I have thought about having the soil tested but keep forgetting to take a sample, the local farm I can/should/will. The other was hardwood timber for a hundred years or more before I had the timber harvested and replanted in Pines. It's a 2.5 hr round trip to that tract. I am pretty sure it needs lime as most timbered tracts do. But I won't know until I know... Thanks for reminding me, gotta put that on the short list.

 

[DJ54]

Red clover can be frost seeded, broadcast the seed and let the freeze thaw cycle do the work of getting the maximum soil contact.
Talk to your extension agent for the best time for your area.
That is if there is oportunity for freeze thaw cycles in your region.

I use frost seeding to sow any pasture or hay seed except Timothy here in central Ohio using my Garber Seed Easy PTO driven seeder. I got a deal on this one for $20. They can be used on any tractor with a drawbar and PTO. A straight section of radiator hose is the PTO shaft. I have a tendency to set it to spread a little light, then run crossways of the first passes to get good coverage. They do a great job. Here in Ohio, it is the perfect time for frost seeding when the ground honeycombs from frost/freeze. When it thaws the honeycombing will close up covering the seed. You're basically mimicking Mother Nature.

For Timothy I seed in Sept, I use a TORO slit seeder. It is PTO driven with cutters to open a slit to drop seed, and small discs to cover the seed. I have it set to a 1/4" planting depth and also does a great job. Much slower than the broadcast spreader, but it can plant seed up to 7 mph. A $100 creampuff I got at a local school surplus sale when they went to artificial turf.

The slit seeders can be rented from equipment dealers that handle them. Last I saw was $175 a day, and it was a Woods brand. This one has paid for itself many times over in rental fees alone.

 

[super55]

For years I used to do the till/broadcast seeding method. For covering the seeds I used an 8' livestock gate from TSC that had woven wire welded on it and then ratchet strap logs on it for weight. It actually worked quite well and I would just keep it on site since such little investment was in it.

 

[HamishMacCheap]

I never bought a iron/steel cultipacker but I use an 8' 6X6 with eye bolts and chains on either end. I hook this poor man's cultipacker to the spin spreader and smooth out the food plots after using a chisel plow/spring tine cultivator and a set of discs to smooth the soil so there aren't any deep ruts for seed to fall into. I then spread seed and pull the 6x6 to turn the seed into the soil. I'm sure some seed is wasted but a bit of wasted seed is cheaper than buying a planter.

As the pressure treated 6X6 ages, it becomes lighter and I will add an 8' 2x6 to put weight back on it. I have found that if it is too light, it isn't effective.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Gonna do the frost seeding this afternoon at my local food plot. We have temps below freezing for about another week possibly 5" of snow Wed. We'll see how it goes. This is one I can reach with my tractor/mule easy enough. I keep it fertilized and limed pretty good. Still gonna get a soil sample and deliver it to the Ag office next week. Gonna take the remote food plot sample there then too.

If at all possible I may take the mule to the other food plot before the snow and sow that then come back Sat and do the lime/fertilizer. That work things keeps trying to get in my way though so we'll see.

I don't use roundup/glysophate on anything I plan to eat from, so I will see how well I can get it to take. I know its better for the clover to get rid of competing weeds, but when cows eat glysophate and other weed killers it can be passed to their manure. Has to have an effect on their meat, deer and cows are both ruminants. That's my stance on it.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I have always used a roller in harrowed dirt for planting small seed and it hasn't failed me yet, it always seems to provide good seed to soil contact.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

I have a roller someone left on the property years ago. It never seemed to roll right. I am going to spend some time trying to fix that. It would be cheaper than buying a cultipacker.

Yesterday I went ahead and sowed the durana clover mixed with some daikon radish and some left over blend of food plot seeds. Put down 240# pelleted lime. I wanted to get it down before the snow/sleet coming later today.
Saturday I plan to do similarly to my hunting property food plots.

Below are some pics of the food plot as is. It actually looked a lot better than I thought it would. When I was hunting it late season it didn't look as good as it does now. Lots of browsing been on it. it had a mixture of wheat and oats. I'm hoping because its so short it won't matter too much with the clover coming up around it.

Gonna go back over it in a couple of weeks and add some fertilizer. Waiting for the soil sample results to determine how much/ratios etc.

My ground stand (sitting behind a cedar tree) is to the left on picture foodplot2. They usually enter from the right anywhere along there. On foodplot2 they enter the plot from the left upper corner. In that wooded section is lots of pine, creek and thick tangles. Has always been a great bedding area. I can only hunt it with a south or westerly wind. Its about 70 yards across and 130 ish yds long. There is more field left to the upper right (foodplot2) that I will disc up and usually don't do a lot with it. There is a subdivision that borders my property on that side. I never shoot past the corner in the foodplot2 pic. Occasionally one will slip by me. Love using my black powder, crossbow there.

I was sitting in the ground stand a couple years back and it had gotten dark enough I couldn't see well across it. I was about to pick up my rifle and I saw a good 8 coming right towards me. It walked within an arrows distance of me, never saw me, nor smelt me. Even though I never got to see it again (it was the rut) it was a great, memorable hunt.