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Anyone else’s food plots suck?

Planted Abruzzi rye and oats in my clover plots on 9/23 in North Central SC. Rain was in the forecast when I planted for the following week. The next day the forecast went to Zero! Still no rain in the forecast until 10/13 or so, if that happens. My clover was in good shape until I used a spring plow to work the new seed in. Had I known the forecast would change so drastically, I would have just left the lush clover alone.
 
khnc said:
Planted Abruzzi rye and oats in my clover plots on 9/23 in North Central SC. Rain was in the forecast when I planted for the following week. The next day the forecast went to Zero! Still no rain in the forecast until 10/13 or so, if that happens. My clover was in good shape until I used a spring plow to work the new seed in. Had I known the forecast would change so drastically, I would have just left the lush clover alone.
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It may still be ok if it didnt germinate and then cook. Do you have access to a drill? Might have been a little less distrubence of the clover. We rent one from the NRCS office.
 
BTaylor said:
It may still be ok if it didnt germinate and then cook. Do you have access to a drill? Might have been a little less distrubence of the clover. We rent one from the NRCS office.
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I can rent one but its damn huge!! My 37hp Kubota isnt big enough to drag it around. Plus its about 15 miles to the ag office. Abruzzi will grow just by broadcasting, but the oats dont do as well. Last year my plots were perfect. Worked in the seed in the clover and then frost seeded clover again in Feb. Hopefully we get rain soon. I dont think anything has germinated. Its been desert dry since 9/23 so far.
 
khnc said:
I can rent one but its damn huge!! My 37hp Kubota isnt big enough to drag it around. Plus its about 15 miles to the ag office. Abruzzi will grow just by broadcasting, but the oats dont do as well. Last year my plots were perfect. Worked in the seed in the clover and then frost seeded clover again in Feb. Hopefully we get rain soon. I dont think anything has germinated. Its been desert dry since 9/23 so far.
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Yeah I didnt think about how big the NRCS drills are but they area load. We are lucky the office is only about 5 miles and we have a couple of bigger tractors to use. Hopefully they will pop up when you get some moisture.
 
I run into the issue of actually getting our tractor with a drill into the plots because the bigger fields are under contract so all my efforts are in areas less than 1/4 acre either tucked into the woods or adjacent to fields with narrow access. I can get our JD back into some of them but it’s honestly more trouble than it’s worth (most years). Usually a broadcast over fresh duff and a rain will do the “drilling” for me. It’s that damn rain part I missed out on this year.
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
I run into the issue of actually getting our tractor with a drill into the plots because the bigger fields are under contract so all my efforts are in areas less than 1/4 acre either tucked into the woods or adjacent to fields with narrow access. I can get our JD back into some of them but it’s honestly more trouble than it’s worth (most years). Usually a broadcast over fresh duff and a rain will do the “drilling” for me. It’s that damn rain part I missed out on this year.
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Yeah we have a few small plots like that where we broadcast seed too. They did get a crimper built last year though so we have the option to spray, broadcast and crimp the week after to have a thatch layer to hold moisture. Throw and mow works pretty well but in our experience the thatch is really inconsistent and pretty short lived.
 
BTaylor said:
Yeah we have a few small plots like that where we broadcast seed too. They did get a crimper built last year though so we have the option to spray, broadcast and crimp the week after to have a thatch layer to hold moisture. Throw and mow works pretty well but in our experience the thatch is really inconsistent and pretty short lived.
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Same neighbor I mentioned before swears by his crimper. That’s next year’s investment.
 
Still dry as bone in SC until next friday looks like. However, I have found that my Cereal Rye plots are greening up anyway. I guess from Dew or maybe residual moisture in the soil. Hopefully the rain arrives on schedule and it doesnt end up wilting away from the heat. Deer are all over the plots this week.
 
khnc said:
Still dry as bone in SC until next friday looks like. However, I have found that my Cereal Rye plots are greening up anyway. I guess from Dew or maybe residual moisture in the soil. Hopefully the rain arrives on schedule and it doesnt end up wilting away from the heat. Deer are all over the plots this week.
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Cereal Rye, imo, should always be in the mix. It is just about as bombproof as food plot seed gets.
 
I have great plots every year. I just stick to a mix of cereal rye, clover, and chicory. Chicory and rye are both drought tolerant and grow in poorer soil conditions than other types of seed.

I did a brassicas plot one year and had a really dry August and the plot was awful.

Edit: A nice thing about rye is that I never have to till the ground. Simply mow and broadcast out of a bag spreader at 100-200 lbs per acre. Cereal rye also keeps weeds down.
 
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Got that rain last night and this morning in SC finally! Read today that parts of Kentucky are suffering from EHD due to the recent drought as well. So its not just plots taking a hit.
 
Mine are still hanging in there despite 6 dry weeks. The late August and early September rains definitely saved the day.

Exclusion cages don’t lie!

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Finally the rains are steadying, and we’re getting a couple-3-4 days’ rain in each of the last few weeks. I am not totally confident that a lot of seed made it, based on turkey numbers and the lack of green sprouts I’m seeing. Crossing my fingers for a pleasant surprise though. Some brassicas might just make it, and some clover might just make it. I guess the next week or two will show me what I need to know.
 
I went out and hunted with a friend yesterday evening and we stopped at one of his spots to replace a camera that died. He was saying his green lane was nonexistent. It was just bare ground. This drought has been unreal here. He also told me that one of our mutual friends put a bunch of ammonia fertilizer on his plot expecting rain today and we most likely won't get any until maybe tomorrow. He basically just burned up his plot.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I went out and hunted with a friend yesterday evening and we stopped at one of his spots to replace a camera that died. He was saying his green lane was nonexistent. It was just bare ground. This drought has been unreal here. He also told me that one of our mutual friends put a bunch of ammonia fertilizer on his plot expecting rain today and we most likely won't get any until maybe tomorrow. He basically just burned up his plot.
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Oooohhhhhh that sucks.
They kinda talk about both those things in the podcast. I was listening yesterday as I mowed crunchy leaves away from trails leading to my brown barren brassica plots. The best forage I planted was in the trails where a hole had opened in my seed bag and trickled rapeseed 35 yds from the plot to the lake. Does that count as partial success?
 
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