no till seeding..

[mykleh]

I have nice established plots of landino clover in my 3 food plots and last year in one I planted Winter rye, another Deer Creek Succotash and the last buck forage oats... I planted on 8/23/17 and virtually nothing came up last year a little bit of the rye came up in spring and is growing.. I wrote it off to bad soil but just had it checked at the state ag department and it came back fine needing nothing.. I went back to the seed store after figuring out its not the soil and they tell me "oh you have to till up the clover to plant that stuff" well that defeats the purpose of providing food for the animals if I mow/till/plant in fall just before rut/hunting.. any suggestions on northern WI tolerant stuff I can broadcast seed into the existing Landino that will take it into winter? also not looking for something 3-6' tall that will end up an eyesore.. thanks in advance!!

 

[bfisherman11]

You could consider frost seeding. There is a guy named John O'Brian Grandpa Ray Outdoors - Food Plot Seed - Deer nutrition who can advise you. He also sells seed. Anyhow he recommends frost seeding a lot.

Bill

 

[Dadnatron]

Did you attempt to broadcast into clover? If so, you are up against a major problem. Clover will shade out anything that sprouts other than a bare patch. And Broadcast spreading onto untilled ground is difficult to begin with.

Frost seeding works best WITH clover. I've not heard of much success with many other crops.

Don't know anything about WI, but I think you will have to change your method to get what you are looking for. Even if you just mow it short/rough it up someway (light disk), and seed onto that followed by ROLLING the seed for good seed/soil contact. The clover will likely be maintained and you seed might have a fighting chance.

 

[mykleh]

Thanks for the replies and help!!

 

[mykleh]

Thanks again bfisherman11 for the tip to look at grandpa ray outdoors John has been VERY helpful in helping me understand the soil results as well as what bad advice I had been given previously...

 

[bfisherman11]

No problem. John has helped many of us. My plots have benefited but I feel like such a novice compared to John. I just planted a Brassica mix in one plot that John helped me out on interpreting the soil sample. All I needed was some potash and urea so I am hoping to see that plot take off. I did the frost seeding on my clover chicory plot and it has filled in well. My issue in that plot is WEEDS. I control them by mowing. I hope to someday gain the upper hand in that plot but weeds are a tough adversary.

Regards,
Bill