It would be great to have a CEC of 15-20+ but that's probably not feasible in sandy soil. The sand just doesn't really add anything to your holding capacity.....no negative charges. You're getting most of your holding capacity from the organic matter in this situation.

That's a different looking soil report Waldo. I wish they would have put your recommendations in a different unit. You would probably be just fine to wait a month and then add 50 lbs/ac of 0-46-0 and 50 lbs/ac of 0-0-60. That's not completely ideal but if you're only going to grow natural vegetation this summer then you could wait until later toward the end of the summer to really bring the levels on up. Just depends on how much $$$ you want to put into it. It wouldn't hurt to hit it with a little nitrogen in a couple months too just to help push the growth this summer. Definitely go ahead and get your lime out in full.

For sure don’t plant any buckwheat yet. It needs soil temps to be up around 80 degrees before you plant it. If I was going to do anything early, I’d wait until things begin to bud out a little and the deer quit hammering the plots….then I’d try some turnips right before some good rain. They’re killing my plot right now. I don’t think any kind of young seedling would have a chance to get established. Another couple weeks though and it’ll shut off like a light switch.

My fields are planted in crimson and white clover with some rye as well right now. Hopefully when that dies back it will add to the OM and we may get some natural browse to come in.

What about over seeding in buck wheat or vetch?

Do you think it would come up without any cultivation?

Germination right now for you will depend a lot on the soil surface conditions. It’s going to take a few rotations once tillage is stopped for the soil surface to soften up and become more favorable for germinating seed this way. You could try mixing in some buckwheat if you want to but it may or may not really be a benefit to you. They hammered it here and wiped mine out when I tried to grow it. It lasted about 3 weeks and then I was back to growing grass and weeds.

Hairy vetch is a good plant to get started in your plot but you'll want to add it to your fall mix just like you do clover. The vetch will then come on strong in the spring and reseed itself. It's a good biomass and N producer. It'll climb on your cereal grains as they mature.

The purple flowers are on the hairy vetch....

Would you recommend another combination of clover seeds that might off set the price? I don't mind the price as long as I get the results. The area I want to plant is about 1.75-2 acres.

We planted Ladino and Durana clover at a club that I was in once. That worked out pretty well.

Ladino and durana are really good choices, as N2TRKYS mentioned, but both are really slow to establish, so i would mix in some patriot clover with it. I also plant cereal rye with mine as a cover crop at about 75lbs/acre. Durana runs about $5/lb. To have and keep a perrenial clover plot, your soil needs to be able to hold moisture and be partially shade during the hottest parts of the day during late summer, or it will be toast. Rainfall is sketchy at best that time of the year. Make sure before you spend that type of money, that its a good place for a perrenial clover plot.

I planted rye, crimson clover and advantage clover and was very happy with my 1st year results using the Throw & Mow method. I chose to give this method of plotting a try due to a variety of issues including erosion, sandy soil, wild turnips and extremely wet plots. So far, this method has exceeded my expectations and I will be expanding on it this coming year.

yuchi (sp?) is another easy clover to grow that I have had good luck with. I have planted a lot of it along with crimson in bare ground cutovers and had great success. we would get 2-3 yrs out of a planting just from the reseeding.

I will be using the throw and mow approach in the fall due to necessity. I disked, broadcast, and covered as I usually do this year.

From what I have read on this thread.............In order to have the best set up to plant next fall, I really need to leave everything and let the natural vegetation go all summer until ready to plant next October as opposed to planting any summer crops?

What can I expect the first year of throw and mow? Will the plots be really spotty? (I have always tried to have plots that looked like a well manicured lawn)

I wouldn't worry about trying to grow anything much during the first summer. Just make sure the natural summer vegetation is thriving so that you don't end up with a naked looking plot when fall planting arrives. You want to have plenty of thatch. The first year results will really depend on what you're starting with. A plot that naturally stays moist will fair much better in the beginning that one on top of a hill that stays drier. A lot of the success with germinating a seed this way relies on soil moisture. As you build organic matter in the soil and begin to cover the soil surface with thatch....your ability to hold soil moisture will increase and so will the success in germinating seed by throwing and mowing.

Has anyone ever cultipacked after throw and mow? I'm wondering if it will press the seed since the soil isn't disturbed.

That's the way some of the guys on the QDMA forum do it. I don't think any of them have every done a side by side experiment though to see how much it helps. Seems like it would have to help some.

Here are pics of my oats taken yesterday. As I stated before they've had no traditional fertilizer or amonite on them. Oats are normally looking pretty rusty by now with traditional methods without treatment to prevent it...

The deer browsing has begun to ease up now and my cereal rye is starting to bolt. Another few weeks and it'll be chest deep.

They are still hitting mine pretty hard at the moment but I'm sure it won't last much longer and they will be hitting more of the natural browse.

Looking good CNC

Same here. I'm itching to throw some summer stuff out and mow the cereals down.