Official 2022 Fall Plots Thread

[UpStateRedNeck]

Little tiny sprouts are just starting.  Another half inch of rain forecasted tomorrow, and a little more Tuesday.  

[G-Man]

Got 3 plots fertalized today...  picked up some winterwheat for another spot .. 

[LET EM GROW]

Got another inch or so of rain this weekend. I will say as dry as my soils are this year, the little bit of rains we got earlier in the month germinated the seeds, but no following rains and current dusty soils killed the sprouts. Even the plots i tilled.. As well as the no till. It certainly wasn't a year for no till here. That requires adequate moisture above and below ground. 

But each plot has germination some better than others, all got a light reseeding Friday of Hybrid Forage brassica and PTT/Radish. will reevaluate early September where Wheat and Rye will be seeded either way, for next years no till. Perennial blends in two plots to convert them harder to reach areas.. 

We are putting down 2gallons per acre of 9-11-9 liquid today following this last rain fall this morning. and will hit it again in 4 weeks with this 9-11-9 and a little added urea. Found urea pretty cheap for 21$ per 50# bag. I Cant wait to see how it works. I'm not one to use fertilizers. But the no till plantings and rotations have been missing for a few years now. lol.  

[LET EM GROW]

On 8/19/2022 at 2:14 PM, Robhuntandfish said:

we were wonderign if we are gonna have to mow trails again before season.  But without any rain its looking like we may not have to. We have clover in a lot of the trails that was looking pretty good. 

It will come back regardless of rain, the lower night temps will create moisture. As long as the days aren't smoking hot. Usually early September they start to take off again and really pull some deer in. If it starts to grow good early mid September. Id give it a high clipping. It will control your weed smore than anything. And keep your clovers more palatable and preferred 

[Five Seasons]

On 8/19/2022 at 2:05 PM, phade said:

Since we changed our strategy a few years back, I think we're at a happy medium with plotting.

One season we spent entirely too much time, effort, money on plotting and didn't get done the other things we needed to get done like stand prep, moves, glassing, etc. 'Twas a crap season.

After that we agreed to keep plotting to a minimum of days/time investment. I believe this year we'll have 4-5 work days into plots across May-August, with 2 of them being "full days." In alot of instances we touch a plot 2x and are done, and sometimes it's a 1x of seed, fert, spray, or disc seed fert. We've had no noticeable drop in plot performance or huntability. I still think in alot of instances the plotting efforts are not an overall positive ROI. Hard to really determine whether we make a difference or not in success. Without a doubt there are times, like early/late, but it's not a magic button. We hunt in higher ag areas so that likely is a factor, too. 

I went over my wall - I have one buck shot on a plot. That's it. Late regular season I think. Looking at misses - my FIL missed a 5.5+ on a plot 2x (I was with him in the blind), and at passes - several encounters with 2 and 3 year olds. So I guess it does help, but certainly a tail off of encounters with 4.5+ bucks that I can recall over the years.

there is no way on god's green earth I could ever do what I did this year every season. But it was my first year and much of my time was spent researching, buying and learning new equipment. I intentionally did one of my largest plots clover and chicory hoping that to get at least 3 to 5 years out of it. Doing a single acre plot every fall though is something I think I will look forward to experimenting with over the year. Some time here should be saved too in that breaking ground for the first time has some challenges. 

I too though wanted to maybe put in another stand this year that I don't think will happen because of the time spent on plotting. Might even plant some chestnuts or something next year as a more long term solution.

[Five Seasons]

Update from webster in 8f. There were storms west, east and south of us all weekend. Got poured on for about 10 minutes at the football field that is about 5 minutes north of the house. Wife said we got a sprinkle at home lol. Last night we got some rain and this morning as well. Hoping for the storms to roll through, was looking at the radar all day yesterday as I was in charge of calling the scrimmage and it looked like a good soaker to my south and I was jealous.

Drove by the plot Friday afternoon and quite a few crows out there. Don't know much about crows but I'm assuming they were chewing up my seeds... It will have been 5 days of seed on the ground until we got rain. Probably will overseed soon to be safe. 

[phade]

We put in a few hasty plots in Ohio this weekend. Four plots, technically, so we will see. We got about four hours of sun after spraying/seeding/fertilizing, and the skies opened up with rain that evening, overnight, and in the morning. I think we'll be fine with rain there. Much different - dry but they're getting rain when needed. Ag fields on the whole look much better and more consistent there than here. Would have been nice to work the ground formally, but I think we'll be OK given the seed to soil contact being good and mostly going with radish and clover, with some larger seeds in a mix spread about. 

It was very hot there, lol. Hopefully this pays off come in-season. We also set several cams, although not near as many as planned due to Sunday morning being a rainout. 

Also, for the record, I bought my first WGI product in a long time. A feeder. Go figure Cabelas outside Cleveland had none of the good feeders in stock despite advertising the heck out of them. We put it together yesterday AM and it's tall and has the eliminator spinner plate. Hopefully keeps the coons out. We don't hunt over the feeders much but it's a great place to get inventory along with minerals there. 

[Five Seasons]

huh i didn't know you could bait in ohio. Combined with their crossbows, sounds like some of the upstateny gang's dreams haha.

We're getting more rain now this afternoon and it's glorious. 

[land 1]

checking my plots wednesday hoping the young sprouts didnt die went a long time with no rain but im guessing they will be ok.

[Robhuntandfish]

checking my plots wednesday hoping the young sprouts didnt die went a long time with no rain but im guessing they will be ok.

You and are about in the same timing and rain. Hoping my sprouts that germinated so well made it too and the seed I planted later took. Good luck and send pics. Prob won't get to mine for a couple weeks.

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Five Seasons]

more glorious rain today and maybe some more friday. My main hope now is that most of my seeds didn't get eaten by birds. I bought some more to overseed, so there's another ~$90 adding to the price of my venison this year... 

[stubborn1VT]

On 8/22/2022 at 9:18 AM, Belo said:

there is no way on god's green earth I could ever do what I did this year every season.

Welcome to farming.  Now imagine that your livelyhood depended on the weather.

[LET EM GROW]

On 8/22/2022 at 9:18 AM, Belo said:

there is no way on god's green earth I could ever do what I did this year every season.

 

I wish i could do this all year long like farmers. lol. ITs addicting and fun and frustrating. lol. Can we get food plot insurance? lol 

[Five Seasons]

2 hours ago, LET EM GROW said:

 

I wish i could do this all year long like farmers. lol. ITs addicting and fun and frustrating. lol. Can we get food plot insurance? lol 

honestly I'd love to farm if it wasn't so hard to make an actual decent living doing so. There's a great documentary on amazon prime called Farmland. A little over an hour and an interesting watch.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Belo

[phade]

Farming is not an easy job by any stretch. Tough life. But in some respects I think there are pros to job satisfaction. You probably deal with fewer people that you don't like, don't want to be around or work with, etc. Being around farming a bit, relationships still matter and people are Uber helpful to one another for the most part in the industry. That to me, sounds like something one would enjoy in a profession.

Our farmer had a tire go down on one of his smaller tractors this weekend - was pulling out some walnut trees for woodworking. Stuck in an interior wood trail. We had a Li-Ion compressor. Saved him hours of work and he was super excited and appreciative. He went out a bought the same model that evening and let us know, lol. Farmers are good people in large.

I think we'll be working a plot on Sunday and fertilizing the ones that went in two weekends ago. Oats maybe if we decide to plant instead of LD weekend.

[LET EM GROW]

56 minutes ago, phade said:

Farming is not an easy job by any stretch. Tough life. But in some respects I think there are pros to job satisfaction. You probably deal with fewer people that you don't like, don't want to be around or work with, etc. Being around farming a bit, relationships still matter and people are Uber helpful to one another for the most part in the industry. That to me, sounds like something one would enjoy in a profession.

Our farmer had a tire go down on one of his smaller tractors this weekend - was pulling out some walnut trees for woodworking. Stuck in an interior wood trail. We had a Li-Ion compressor. Saved him hours of work and he was super excited and appreciative. He went out a bought the same model that evening and let us know, lol. Farmers are good people in large.

I think we'll be working a plot on Sunday and fertilizing the ones that went in two weekends ago. Oats maybe if we decide to plant instead of LD weekend.

I have a great relation with our farmer we lease with. And even before the lease. He always stopped and talked and so did we.. I love working with crops and soils etc.. Im not sure id enjoy being a Dairy farmer but Ag.. i certainly would. PLus there is just something about row crops!  

[phade]

2 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

I have a great relation with our farmer we lease with. And even before the lease. He always stopped and talked and so did we.. I love working with crops and soils etc.. Im not sure id enjoy being a Dairy farmer but Ag.. i certainly would. PLus there is just something about row crops!  

Yeah, dealing with cows cannot be fun. Our farmer has 30 head of angus. Unreal the amount of work and BS (pun intended) he deals with. 

[Five Seasons]

38 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

I have a great relation with our farmer we lease with. And even before the lease. He always stopped and talked and so did we.. I love working with crops and soils etc.. Im not sure id enjoy being a Dairy farmer but Ag.. i certainly would. PLus there is just something about row crops!  

yep same here. My best friend was part of a farming family. Literally grew up on a fruit farm and now semi-inherited one myself. Food plotting has been a nice way to scratch the itch I have, but I don't have much of an interest in doing more than that. I could easily hire help and make some "tax money" off my orchard, but I just don't have the time and patience. 

One thing I've learned recently and my wife's grandpa had a good laugh at is that you're spending most of your time fixing something that broke. I tell the wife when I go over that it could be a few hours or it could be 4, depending on what breaks while I'm working lol. 

[LET EM GROW]

2 hours ago, Belo said:

yep same here. My best friend was part of a farming family. Literally grew up on a fruit farm and now semi-inherited one myself. Food plotting has been a nice way to scratch the itch I have, but I don't have much of an interest in doing more than that. I could easily hire help and make some "tax money" off my orchard, but I just don't have the time and patience. 

One thing I've learned recently and my wife's grandpa had a good laugh at is that you're spending most of your time fixing something that broke. I tell the wife when I go over that it could be a few hours or it could be 4, depending on what breaks while I'm working lol. 

Yep my wife has no real concept to time either. So I could go over rot my camp or lease to get work down, be gone for 4-6 hours and not get hardly anything accomplished.. and she wonders why every single time still lol 

[phade]

25 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

Yep my wife has no real concept to time either. So I could go over rot my camp or lease to get work down, be gone for 4-6 hours and not get hardly anything accomplished.. and she wonders why every single time still lol 

Silence. That's why. LOL.

[land 1]

well checked on plots not great , one is a total lose anything that germanted dried up and died, other ones are hanging in there a little stunted from where they should be but they should bounce back with recent rain the other one will get replanted in rye oats mix .. did 3 smal areas in oats today

[BizCT]

In arizona i hunted mountain lions on cow farms. They lost a ton of cows (i think angus) to lions. We came across several. After I shot my lion we met the farmer at a gas station and he gave my guide $500 for taking a lion off his property.

[Robhuntandfish]

1 hour ago, land 1 said:

well checked on plots not great , one is a total lose anything that germanted dried up and died, other ones are hanging in there a little stunted from where they should be but they should bounce back with recent rain the other one will get replanted in rye oats mix .. did 3 smal areas in oats today

ugh this sucks.  I am worried about the same issues where i planted.  Gonna take a peak on sat and some seed wiht me in case. 

[Five Seasons]

what's the average germ time for a winter blend of kale, turnips, beets etc? Like how long after the rains monday should I hope for little sprouts? Just wanting to know when or if I should overseed if all my seed was eaten by birds lol. 

[land 1]

33 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

ugh this sucks.  I am worried about the same issues where i planted.  Gonna take a peak on sat and some seed wiht me in case. 

Rob i think u will be ok the failure i had was on top of hill / not quite a mtn lol, very dry and full sun all day and water runs off it my lower plots were like i said ok, and i got less rain where i was so u should be ok good luck