Less Till Planting Idea - Will This Work?

[MickeyDBC]

My wife and I bought an old ranch in central Texas at the end of last year (86 acres) with the intention to eventually retire there and raise pecans. One thirty acre pasture where we are going to start planting trees next winter was pretty beat up and rough from over grazing and too many fire ants so I shredded and heavy disced (20 foot JD folding disc with the wings up for more weight) it and then planted a good mix of legumes for nitrogen and sunflowers to get some root structure to open the deep soil. When I planted I used a pto distributor that was putting out about 35 pounds of seed mix per acre and towed an old John Deere cultimulcher to help cover the seeds and firm up the bed. Now I am just waiting for rain.

I still have about 600 pounds of seed left but I am running out of planting time both on the calendar and with other commitments so I am thinking about putting my 10 foot Oliver tow behind disc between the PTO spreader and the cultimulcher to open the ground a little (planning to set the gangs almost straight so it cuts more than turns and use the hydraulic lift to keep it from cutting too deep. If I lift the spreader on the 3 point it will put most of the seed between the disc and the mulcher, kind of like a crude and not super efficient less till overseader. Thinking about doing this on a 20 acre patch that does not drain well. I should have enough horsepower and traction, but I am a little worried that this idea is a little too wacky. Any thoughts on this?

 

[airbiscuit]

If I follow what you are saying, I'm guessing that 90% of the seed is not going to end up with soil contact. If you're tying to beat the clock with a Hail Mary and have the seed anyway, I might suggest a slight modification.

Take one pass with the disc over the 20 acres. Then do your MacGyver no till method. Much more of your seed will have contact with the soil.