Planting Wheat

[RobJ]

Another way to spread seed is to use a deer feeder. Put the barrel or whatever on the back of a truck and run the motor. It'll get the seed out 25-30' or so depending on the seed itself. If the seed is small and light I've heard of using fertilizer mixed in to help get it out there. Around here they like to come back and fertilize after the plants have come up.

Good Luck. I got mine in the weekend before labor day. I don't think it's rained yet.

 

[stevenf]

npaden, I have tried the mixing the seed and fertilizer together on multiple plots and multiple weeks of planting, Don't do it! It sounds like the absolute perfect thing to do and in theory or even logically it should work fine, It doesn't. Heres why when you mix them together even if your very careful mixing you then dump the mix into your broadcast spreader, it'll look great coming out all is well, then it rains you'll find many places with no plants and I'd bet plenty of fertilizer, seed and fertilizer don't flow the same. You can certainly either fertilize first or seed first wouldn't seem to matter except I like to fertilize first and then go back and disc it in good and then seed and then lightly disc the seed over. If theres just seed flowing out of your spreader you can tell exactly how much seed is being dispersed and where as the weights are different as well hence the fertilizer will broadcast in wider strips then the seed will. I'm sorry to be so absolute but I was very disappointed with my Legume crops from this standpoint and talked to my farmer friends who told me why and how. There are plenty on TBN that reccomend fertilizing and seeding in one pass and maybe it works for them it sure didn't work for me.
Steve

 

[npaden]

Okay, I have 180lbs of wheet seed and 150lbs of oat seed in the back of my SUV!

I'll pick up the spreader tonight!

 

[redlevel]

Okay, I have 180lbs of wheet seed and 150lbs of oat seed in the back of my SUV!

I'll pick up the spreader tonight!

That would be the absolute minimum I would put on 5 acres. I usually try to spread at least 100 lb of seed when broadcasting with a spreader, preferebly 125-150 lb. You can get by with a little less if you are drilling it.

Planting food plots ain't rocket science. You aren't looking for a 75 bushel/acre yield, just something to attract a few deer and other wildlife. However, I wouldn't let a little something like not putting enough seed out or not using any fertilizer set me back from the beginning. Remember, the better stand of grain you get, the less problems you will have with weeds in the spring. About 200-300 lbs of 5-10-15 Fertilizer per acre now, and about 150 lb of ammonium nitrate per acre in late winter will make your food plots much more attractive to wildlife. If I couldn't afford to, or just didn't want to spend that much, I would put the seed you have on half the five acres and get the fertilizer to cover half of it.

You said you haven't done a soil sample. You need to do that, but small grains (wheat, oats, rye, barley, etc.) are fairly tolerant of acid soil, so that won't necessarily doom your plot. Not using any fertilizer and not putting out enough seed to assure a good stand will make it very unlikely your plot will meet your expectations.

Excuse me if I sound like I am lecturing. I get carried away sometimes.

 

[npaden]

I'm going based on the recommendation of the people selling the seed. I asked how much I needed for 5 acres and they asked where the land was at and I told them and they said 50lbs per acre. I did tell them I was using a broadcast spreader to plant it. They told me for best results to plant the wheat first and then go back over it with the oats and then go over it lightly with a disk. I figured they would be willing to sell me as much seed as they thought I would need.

On the fertilizer and soil sample, there isn't much of a chance of acidic soil where I'm at. If anything it is alkaline. I'll check into how much fertilizer would cost, but it seems that if the land has sat fallow for several years it wouldn't need any now.

I do appreciate the advice. I'll check around and see if I can find out what other locals are doing.

 

[npaden]

Doing some searching on the web it makes it sound like wheat seed is pretty variable in size. I noticed on the invoice that this seed is "VNS" not sure what that would mean though.

I'll call them back up and double check if I have enough seed.

 

[bigtater]

Wheat will grow pretty good without fertlizer and once it gets to a certian size deer wont eat it. Here's a pretty good site with a lot of knowledgeable people Tennessee Deer Talk ~ TnDeer.Com: Quality Deer Management

 

[npaden]

Here's some information I found on wheat seed:

Proper stand establishment requires that seeding rate be determined in terms of number of seeds per unit area (per square foot or linear row foot) rather than pounds or bushels per acre. Seed size will vary among varieties and even among seed lots of the same variety. Seed size or the number of seeds per pound can vary from 10,000 seeds per pound to 20,000 seeds per pound.


The following chart can be used to calculate pounds per acre needed if the seed size is known.

Seeds per pound ------ Seeds/square foot*.
--------------------------- 35 30

----------------------------Lbs/acre
10,000--------------------150 ------131
12,000--------------------127 ------109
14,000--------------------109 ------ 93
16,000---------------------95 ------ 82
18,000---------------------85 ------ 73
20,000---------------------76 ------ 65

The seed place told me I needed 50lbs per acre so even at the smallest size that sounds low though.

 

[npaden]

Called the seed place back and they said that 40 to 60 lbs is what they recommend for non-irrigated land around here. They sounded pretty confident. I guess I'll try that and see what it turns out like.

 

[rfawkes]

I am getting ready to plant 3 acres in winter wheat for the deer. It brings them in and keeps them tight all fall and winter. This means bow season, gun season, and black powder season. I rototill, broadcast wheat seed mixed with 12-12-12 fertilizer and roll with a lawn roller. I spray glyphospate a week before I rototill. That worked real well last year.