Bambam, thats a good mixture to plant, and it will do well using this method, as long as you don't have hard crusted clay soil. I grow some fine plots in rocks, so you should be fine.

Here are just a couple examples of why I don�t think that we as wildlife managers should take the same approach to �weeds� as what a farmer might. Do the deer call this a weed? There were several of these scattered around this area and they were all heavily browsed��. and its not just that they are browsed but look at the browse resistance properties that the plants have. Why eliminate this browse resistant broadleaf plant that the deer obviously like, only to replace it with another broadleaf plant like sunflowers that will likely not tolerate the same browsing pressure. Why not just grow them all together?




Same thing�..all heavily browsed��

Anyone who disagrees feel free to comment but please keep it constructive��..

I agree. I've cut half of the 1-acre plot I plan to plant this year. Simply by doing that I have different "weeds" (honeysuckles) coming up as opposed to the other half of the field that hasn't been tended to in years.

Here are a few more plants growing along side the clover in my apple orchard. Why would we want to take these items off of the deer buffet and make it less diverse? Why not just throw in a little more seed and ADD TO the diversity. It�s a 15-20+ way summer mix that nature provides for free. All I did was sweeten it up with a few varieties of clover. I may throw out some milo with it as well next week.

Maybe cause marestail is one of the worst weeds known to farmers ding dong. You think it's a good thing??? Just goes to show how out of touch you are with reality.

Another area where plants such as these help us out, other than adding diversity to the salad mix��is in our effort to produce biomass above ground and in the root zone for the purpose of building soil organic matter. If you�ve been tilling for years and have your soil down to zero organic matter�.then these plants will be some of the best options you have in the beginning. Why? Because they will tolerate poor conditions, deer browsing, and still produce biomass for the soil. There is a reason why these type plants start dominating in agricultural fields�..Its because we as humans have created the situation that gives them an extreme advantage over more finicky food crops. Growing in a very diverse �prairie� type mix, with good soil health, that is left undisturbed from tillage....these plants will simply fill their niche and not take over.

What would happen if you terminated all of these plants and planted a crop of say only cowpeas and sunflowers in the same field???��They likely would be decimated and produce little biomass to feed back to the soil. Therefore, you would actually be regressing from a soil health standpoint as decomposition of OM never stops whether you produce more biomass or not.

One more aspect that leaving the diversity provides you from a soil health standpoint is underground in the root system. We are not only producing biomass above ground but we are also producing it below ground as well through the root systems of the plants. An example is the extensive root system of cereal rye. Let me see if I can explain this without hunting down a picture�� So lets imagine we are looking at a soil profile picture from the surface down to 3-4 ft. One of our goals from a soil health perspective is to fill up that profile with plants roots as deep as we can get them. Adding diversity to the field adds many different shaped root systems, which fills that soil profile at many different levels. When the plants die, these root systems rot and become organic matter.

I'm sure your very knowledgeable on the subject, but your childish name calling makes it impossible to take you seriously.

Well, I throwed and mowed for the first time today. The wheat on my test plot was thinner than I would have liked but I'll blame that on the NWTF wheat, which I'll never buy again. Hemp was sold out Friday so all I had was buckwheat and sunflowers. Here's some pics of before and after.

Im with you on these childish posts...........who cares if its bad for a farmer. We are talking about planting and growing food for deer!

Yep

They just can't grasp that concept. Heck the buck my daughter shot walked right past a tecomate plot and was eating something growing in the fire break.

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This is about waste high with mainly trictacale and several varieties of clover I'm considering trying to plant this in a week or two. The main will be I/c peas and sorghum will see how it does the soil has plenty of moisture right now.

Glad to see you guys posting up your throw and mow experiments. Looking forward to seeing how you guys progress. I just threw a little milo off into my field today ahead of this rain coming in. My cereal rye is thin enough now that I may not even mow it again. Probably going to throw in some buckwheat around the end of May still.

bambam.....If we could rewind the clock about 6 weeks, it would have done your plot a lot of good to have hit it with some nitrogen about the time of spring green up. You would have produced more biomass from your wheat. Wheat is a lot more finicky to poor soil conditions and nutrient defiencies (like lack of N)....as opposed to something like cereal rye. If you can get your hands of some elbon or wrens abruzzi rye this fall I would recommend trying it. In the beginning stages is when your field is going to need the most help from synthetic fertilizers. Over time as we build fertility then you will reduce the need for them.

Something I should mention while its own my mind......All of your seed will likely not sprout in one big flush using this method. I usually see a lot of my seed sprout with the first good rainfall but its very common from what I've seen for new seedling to keep sprouting for several weeks depending on the rain. Just something to keep in mind.

Turkey neck......Your standing thatch looks nice but from what I can see of your soil surface, that is going to be your biggest drawback with this first planting. Maybe with all of the rain we've had it won't just be dry and crusty. Probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and throw out some extra seed on this first go around if you have it.

There could be several reasons for that happening.

Thanks for the tips. Fortunately we got a really good rain at the camp today. It'll be two weeks before I can get back up and will post some pics.

Yellow, red, and purple colors are signs of plant stress from things like rapid temp change, nutrient deficiencies, lack of oxygen, ect�..The next time you go back I would take a couple bags of 17-`17-17 and go ahead and get something out for now to give the plants a boost. The new plants will be growing in the same nutrient deficient soil that caused that poor looking wheat. While your there pull a soil sample and send it in to have tested. It�s something like $7 at Auburn. I�d also recommend taking back a bag of milo with you and throw some of it out before the next rain. It would be a good thing if you have some type of grass specie growing in there this summer. �Grass� species are our biggest suppliers of organic matter�.high C/N ratio. For winter and summer try to include 3 components of your mix��grass, broadleaf, legume. They all play a role in making the whole cycle function properly.

I've got all 3 with my fall foodplot. I think I'm gonna allow mind to grow, like I always do. I'm thinking of waiting until my fall planting.

I think that would probably be a good option for a lot of folks. If you have small plots and/or high deer densities, then you will likely be ahead of the game to just grow lush crops of native browse in the summer time along with some clover. There�s nothing wrong with that. Continue adding to the fertility needs and produce a good crop of biomass for the soil. Doing this will likely allow you to turn the soil around a lot quicker than trying to do it with �crop� type plants that may struggle or get wiped out by browsing.