Probably the most overlooked aspect of planting fall food plots.........

how do u manage it?

Pray

By managing infiltration and retention……..

Orgainic matter is the way.

It’s bone dry going into planting time…..typical for Bama…..We’re about to get heavy rain dumped on all of us which could potentially be one of only a couple good rain events between now and Halloween……Your plots need to be in a condition right now where they can soak all of this rain up and hold it as long as possible…..IMO, the best thing to have done up to this point is nothing……. and the dying summer vegetation still be standing whole in the field……root structures still intact in the soil……

We cut into some of our plots this past weekend with the spring tooth harrow with the intention that the cuts will catch water. many of our plots are on slopes and we have some fine chilton county chirt we deal with so run off can be an issue. other areas we have left summer crops standing and will throw and mow into them with the time comes.

Back to dry and 90-degree temps again for the foreseeable future…….

Yep. Hopefully this will be the last time we ever put a disk on the food plots at my bosses place. Still trying to convince the guys at the club to stop disking. That bare disked dirt can't hold any water. Especially the sandy loam we got.

We wheat straw over our seed. Retains moisture provides some shade for the seed and hides uncovered seed from the birds. Seems to help. Moisture is key. Pray as said above

We got over 2 inches of rain last weekend and I'm thinking about trying one small throw and mow plot that the vegetation is about waist high and pretty thick. I'm thinking about planting it this weekend if there is moisture in the top couple inches of dirt. What yall think? I won't be out but a few dollars if it fails anyway.

If you have the ability to sit back and just watch the forecast then I’d wait until it said we had temp drops and rain coming. It may not rain again until November…..or we may get another tropical system in the next few weeks.

I'm going to T&M a 3 acre plot on powerline tomorrow. This plot holds a lot of moisture/water during hunting season so I'm going to try and get it started earlier than normal. Think I'm going to plant straight wheat on this plot since it stays wet for long period of time but haven't decide yet. Plan to spray my other 8 plots on Sept 29th and plant Oct 12-14. Prefer to wait a little longer but not able to this year with travel baseball tourneys last 2 weekends in Oct and 1st weekend Nov.

Do you need to spray the fields before throwing seed ? If so, how long prior to seeding ? we were going to throw the seed and the roll it with cultipacker either way.

Im gaining a strong desire to build a cultipacker. Have yall seen the videos on youtube on how to make one with a corrugated pipe and quickcrete?

Just depends on what all you have growing in the fields.....summer annuals dont need spraying......

Serious question CNC. (Hard to believe, I know)

Would it have been good to bush hog the fields prior to the rain even if you may not plant until a few weeks later. No spraying, just cutting.

Seems like having a dense canopy laying over the soil would be great for moisture retention and building organic matter before planting.

I would always try to seed and mow at the same time…..When you mow hay it starts off fluffy and “lays down” more and more as the days go by and it gets rain on it……eventually forming a mat…..You’re probably not going to get good seed to soil contact trying to seed over hay that was mowed much ahead of time unless you were using a drill…..Also, that fluffiness of the hay there in the first week or so gives those little seedlings more space to grow through and get established……You’re correct though in that it will help hold moisture…….Right now though the summer vegetation is still standing in the field shading the soil and helping to serve a similar role.

I have one. It doesn’t work exactly like a true cultipacker weighted disk to penetrate the surface.It works pretty good on prepped disked ground but an actual cultipacker definitely works better.

Supposed to be 92-93 degrees today......hot, hot, hot.......

Yep. All those disked fields just sitting there baking. Getting drier and drier.

CNC have you listened to the Southern U podcast with Al kemcheko or whatever his name is with Vitalize?

No I dont think I've heard that one......

Soil temps are getting hot too....probably well over 100 degrees at midday......

Moist Soil Management = Garbage.

We tried that for Ducks and never saw another duck where we did this.... total crap.

Moisture in soil at food plot planting time?

I mean... surprised we are having this discussion everyone knows you have to plant food plots into some September dust.

I like soil temps in the 70's and enough moisture it's clearly obvious where you've disked... I think wheat does best in the high 60's myself it will grow just enough but not long enough to get stemy and tough.

End of October. You'll figure it out. Maybe.

Well... a "moist soil management" area and "soil moisture management" are two different things altogether so... there's that.

Seed can sit in dry dirt for a long time. and will come up just fine when it rains.

Al Tomechko. CNC you should remember him from the old QDMA forums

I dont recall him right off if that was his handle......I'll check it out though......

I wish it was easier to insert memes on this site

The person that used to helps us in our high fence uses the term banking moister. We burn a lot of fuel pulling a three shank subsoiler with 32” tines on 36” spacing. Cut then cross cut. The water goes deep into the ground instead of running off then wicks up when dry. We subsoil every two years but cut with a three tier 12’ chisel plow once or twice. We parked our heavy cutting disk several years ago and now use a finishing disc with 12’ roller cage to tickle the surface. That Marengo county black prairie dirt is some bad stuff and this is the best way to deal with it.

I planted last weekend, cereal rye mainly. I am holding off on the brassicas and clover. The soil was moist, so I broadcast seed and fertilizer and disked it under.

While I think throw and mow works well, I find I get much better results if I come in and cut, spray and disk a field, and then let it sit for a couple weeks and disk it again. Then when it rains, it soaks up a lot of water.

Cooler temps on they way but not a drop of rain in the forecast for at least 10 days in north Alabama.