Planting Wheat

[npaden]

Well, I didn't do any soil samples or put any fertilizer down this year and everything seems to be going really well still. I guess I got lucky. I do need to take pictures of it, it grew in really thick and since it isn't getting grazed very much it is probably about 4" to 6" tall in most spots.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year. If it heads out and goes to seed I may just see what it does on a volunteer basis next year. I think I will probably go back in and plant some sunflowers and sorghum again this spring in some spots also.

Now that I have some more land I will probably do some soil samples for that and will probably go ahead and do a soil sample on this land as well. I don't know if I could justify spending much money on fertilizing this land though.

Nathan

 

[Green is Keen]

npaden -

Found your thread today and enjoyed the read. Enjoyed even more the fact that your project produced such great results and hope that I too can reap such success.

Thanks for the post, it is inspirational.....

 

[npaden]

Well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day out today (75 and no wind) and I took my 2 month old son out for a walk tonight after work and brought the camera and took a couple pictures of the wheat.

The sun was going down so as usual, my pictures aren't very good but I think you can get a good idea of what it looks like.

It looks good to me, but I've never grown anything like this before so I don't really know what it should look like. It is nice and green and the wildlife seems to like it though!

 

[EddieWalker]

I had no idea that's what wheat looked like. It's kind of nice looking!!!

Great picture!!

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[redlevel]

Good pictures and a nice looking food plot. Have you bought the kid a rifle yet?

I went back and read the first few pages of this thread. I have a question for you. You said that you put the first 100 pounds of seed on less than an acre. Dio you have a much better stand of wheat on that acre?

Also a comment. If you will put about 50 units of nitrogen (approximately 150 lb ammonium nitrate) per acre, that wheat will really green up, be much more palatable to the deer, and will make a bunch of seed heads to keep the deer coming through the soring and early summer. Some say that deer don't eat wheat seed heads, but I know from recent experience that they do. It will also make wonderful nesting habitat for quail, too. Without herbicide, it will grow up in a mixture of wheat and native weeds and grasses, which isn't necessarily bad. With herbicide, the wheat will be much cleaner, which is good also. In other words, it is a win/win situation. (I really hate that term, so why am I using it?)

I sowed this field in Oct. 05 with about 125 lb of wheat seed, and harrowed it in. This is what it looked like in June 06. The brown you see is wheat maturing, and the green is Summer weeds just coming up.

This is what it looked like two weeks ago Feb 07. I did not put herbicide down, but did apply about 50 units of nitrogen. Many of the weeds are common ragweed, which is good for quail. I'll probably let this part of the field continue to grow naturally for another year, when I'll start with the same rotation.

Just to give you an idea what to expect. I did not have enough seed heads left to harrow in and re-seed. The deer ate them all up through the summer.

Mark

 

[npaden]

Thanks for the input and the pictures. Actually the area that I overseeded didn't look any better than the rest of it. It seems that the area that I was able to disc up the best and get fresh clean soil up is where it did the best. There are some areas where it was a little more rocky and the disc didn't dig in as well that it doesn't look as good.

That picture from June 2006 looks really good. I will look into how much 600lbs of fertilizer would cost and might as well throw it down if it doesn't cost much. I probably need to do that soon before it gets much higher.

As far as herbicides, I'm actually pretty impressed with how relatively weed free it is right now. That was actually one of the original reasons for doing this because that 5 acres had been disturbed a few years back and the native grasses were gone and it was getting overtaken with weeds.

I actually ended up planting a 50/50 mix of wheat and oats, I've never seen oats head out so that will be interesting too.

I'm curious if it will provide food for the quail and dove when it heads out this summer.

Thanks again for the input.

Nathan

 

[npaden]

Well we got some rain and the wheat TOOK OFF!!!

It is just starting to head out and looks GREAT!

Here are a couple pictures from the same spot as the last ones with the same stroller and same dog.

Not bad for less than 2 months of growth!

 

[EddieWalker]

That's really amazing!!! Now that it's growing, what do you do with it? I know it's for the animals, but is there a time when you cut it down? When do you disk it in and do it all over again? Is there a time when it's not any good any more?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[npaden]

Actually I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. It is really looking good and it seems a waste for it to just sit there but I don't think there is enough to harvest or anything especially since it is a wheat and oat mix. Maybe in the fall I can just disc it lightly and it will come back up?

 

[redlevel]

Actually I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. It is really looking good and it seems a waste for it to just sit there but I don't think there is enough to harvest or anything especially since it is a wheat and oat mix. Maybe in the fall I can just disc it lightly and it will come back up?

That looks great. I guess you could call your first food plot experiment a resounding success. I bet you're getting a lot of nocturnal visiters.

You have lots of options about what to do with it. You could just let it sit there and feed deer. I guess you discovered that there are more deer in the area than you originally thought. You may or may not have enough seed heads left this fall to just harrow it in to reseed. Its just according to how many deer will be grazing on it. You could also mow/harrow out some strips to plant sunflowers or milo. Didn't you leave part of it in the middle with some sorghum on it? I would definately seed that in sorghum or sunflowers.

Did I read correctly that there is no open season on deer in your county? That doesn't sound right. If you like to shoot doves, you could go in about a week before the first season and mow the stalks, then either burn or disk it. Doves like some bare ground, and disking usually leaves enough seed on top to attract doves. Burning also is a good way to do it if there isn't too much green stuff that would keep it from burning well.

If you chose to go that route, you could then just start over with a little more seed and the disk. If you just leave it as is, and there are still a few seed heads, you can mow to scatter the seed, then disk it in.

Congratulations on your success.