I'll bet talking to him about alternative ways of doing things wouldn't be met too warmly.

Yeah, ya think?

He's pushing 70 probably and I'm sure been doing it this way for his whole life. It really becomes a matter of psychology when something has been imprinted like that.

CNC,

I see where you asked someone about bare spots above. I T&M the field I was asking you about a few pages ago about a week ago and top sewed the clover Saturday AM before all the rain. I did have a good number of bare spots due to lack of thatch. I assume that's bad, but I did break the surface with disc so maybe I'm Ok. I can always go back in a few weeks with some rye over the bare spots if it doesn't pan out?

I hope this works, as I really need to get some OM in this soil. It's more important than a good place to hunt right now, as I won't have the latter if I don't get the OM in the soil.

The thatch on a planting like this acts like the roof on a greenhouse. Once you get a rain on it then it keeps the conditions on the soil surface in a constant state of moist and warm�..like a greenhouse. Without the thatch "roof", then you won�t see the same germination rates. It�s kind of like sprouting seed in a paper towel�..you need a piece of paper towel under the seed AND over the seed in order to make it germinate. The thatch is your top piece of paper towel.

It�s to be expected though that everyone will not have an ideal situation to start with. A lot of it likely is due to your field not being in a productive enough state to produce the biomass you need. As you improve the conditions then biomass yield will increase. In year one your basically looking at it and figuring out what you need to do so that when next year rolls around you won�t be in the same situation again. It sounds like you have that game plan in mind already with over seeding the bare spots if needed.

I once had a food plot that had an area that was not too sandy or too much clay. Just regular looking brown soil in the middle of a plot. I could not get weeds to grow there, ryegrass would not even grow in that spot as I tried it out of curiosity. I even spread some topsoil out of a bag over it and got germination that only lasted a few days then died. All I can guess was this spot was once under a machine that was dripping when they were clearcutting. I used T&M on this plot though with success everywhere, but there.

Hmmmm....that's interesting. Maybe its a saline seep of some kind.

You might try adding some gypsum to the area and see if that helps.....

http://aglifesciences.tamu.edu/baen/wp-c...il-Salinity.pdf

Before the recent rain came through, I broadcast a little cereal rye over those bad spots we talked about earlier in the thread. I noticed something very interesting this morning��The ground looks almost white in the areas where I spread the seed. Upon closer inspection, the pic below is what I see with every seed. I can only come up with two explanations�..1) It�s really foggy this morning so the moisture may be clinging to every fine hair and making it look this way�..or 2) Some kind of microbial fungi is interacting with the roots already�..Not sure. It looks neat though.

So I�m pretty sure that�s mycorrhizal fungi showing themselves above ground that we�re seeing. I�ve watched several videos showing how to create/grow homemade brews that infuse your soil with microbes and this is exactly what they look like. Below is a pic a of a little pile of seed I spilled on the edge of the plot where you can see it well. If you recall�.. M. fungi creates an interconnected web between plant roots. If you build it�.they will come.

Ok Harold, snap out of it! Your getting a little too giddy. 4 days until the opener!

I hear that!!!....I�ve been getting the ol� crossbow tuned in this morning. I had a new string put on it and switched to some new broadheads.... so she needed some adjusting. As much as I�ve railed on them in my tracking thread in the past, I actually got some Rage 125 gr expandables for crossbows�..with a 2 inch cut. I did so though knowing the good and the bad of them. I�m gonna make sure to not flirt with the front shoulder. They leave some gaping holes in deer when they hit the body but they suck arse when they hit shoulder.

I was about to say congrats on getting the mychroezaiealae sp? growth. I never can spell that stuff, so I quit trying. I do know that when you see it, you know your soil is getting healthier. If you can get the good fungi and bacteria together and expand your aerobic area, you are doing good.

Thanks!....I did some Googling and those seedling root pics most definitely is M. fungi��That�s pretty exciting to see. That has to make a huge difference in seedling germination and survival, growth, etc.....Here�s a quick one minute video explaining the basics of what m. fungi do��...



You can always buy your solution in a bag��they'll sell it all to you....�.Again, I�m not against using products like these to get you out of the hole�.but you don�t want to stay on the path of maintaining a sterile growing medium and buying all of your inputs annually. Just something to think about��..

I think I had the same thing going on in the garden, but wheat instead of cereal rye.

I got 5 plots in before the rain. I didn't spray instead seeded and fertilizer and then bush hogged. All fields had about 18 in of standing thatch. The only thing I didn't like was after pulling the seed and fertilizer around the field it pushed it down pretty good and the bush hog didn't get a real good cut. I just need a killing frost to stop the regeneration of the natural summer vegetation asap.

Yeah, I'm hoping we get a frost sooner rather than later as well. Planting early like I did has allowed more summer growth to sprout back from seed than what normally would.

Just out of curiosity....Did you add any inoculant to your garden when you planted those beans? Is that the same area?

The beans were inoculated. They are in the same garden, but the other side of the garden (40 feet away?). I've had Milorganite throughout the whole garden, but I'm not sure what it does for microbes.

That milorganite is good stuff for slow feeding. It takes microbes awhile to break it down. We get a good green response out of it, probably because of the iron. You just are not going to get a lot of growth from it.

I am curious if you were able to throw and mow the eagle beans or you cut them in?

If I had a no-till I'd be using that for the beans in a heartbeat. Those are planted using tillage though.

I'm considering terminating the wheat in the garden spot in the spring and then planting veggies into the thatch.