What and Where to Grow?

[BizCT]

So my parents closed on 30 acres this week (region 3N). I'm not artist but below is a rough map.

 

The Red 30 acres is our land. This land has 2 quad trails from the previous hunter, 1 goes around the outside of the property, and then there is a second loop in the interior. The previous owner hunted and trapped.

 

The 3 Gray X's are where the previous owner left his treestands.

 

The Brown A is where there are tons of acorns.

 

The blue is a stream.

 

The land is at its highest point when you first walk onto it near the powerlines. The difference is in elevation from the top of the property to the swampy 50 (S 50) acres is 600-800ft, pretty steep in some spots. There is 16 acres of private land bordering us. The 50 acres we can hunt, so essentially we have 80 acres here to work with.

 

Regarding planting stuff, would you use the powerlines? and what would you use? I had success growing throw and grow with minimal effort about 10 miles from this spot.

 

Thanks in advance.

[BizCT]

Trying to upload pic, but keeps saying file to big.

[BizCT]

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[BizCT]

Also, when to plant. I would think mid September?

[woodchuck]

I would try planting some clover in may. That's a long strip of PowerLine right of way. You could try a few clovers in 100 ft area and see what it draws in. Clover is cheap if you buy from an agway or farm supply.

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[Four Season Whitetail's]

I would try planting some clover in may. That's a long strip of PowerLine right of way. You could try a few clovers in 100 ft area and see what it draws in. Clover is cheap if you buy from an agway or farm supply.

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Plus 1..And i would do away with those wheeler trails. If they can be had by the outside world...They will be had and prob while you are sitting on watch some night. They spell trouble.

[phade]

Woof, trespasser galore.

 

Clover is cheap...might even be worth doing a spray and throw in July/August for some fall attraction on the open line area.

[BizCT]

Despite the views, won't be many issues with tresspassers. We talked to the guy who owns the 16 and have exchanged recover rights after a phone call. The swampy 50 acres is landlocked. Only accessible by 2 houses, neither of whom hunt (also spoke to them). The quad trails are only on the 30 acres and were created by the previous owner for an easy way to check his traps and get deer out. Like I said the powerlines down to the bottom is pretty steep and there is also a rock quarry down there formed from glaciers I would assume.

[BizCT]

In this view you can see a mountain in the distance. The land drops from approx 1000ft to 600ft and there is a highway, then begins climbing back up that mtn in the distance which is over 1000acres of land that gets hunted. So the 80-100 we are part of gets nowhere the pressure that 1000acres in the distance gets

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[BizCT]

 

 

Clover is cheap...might even be worth doing a spray and throw in July/August for some fall attraction on the open line area.

 

Any specific brand of clover you would suggest?

 

I'm looking at Whitetail Institute Imperial Clover - http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/whitetail-clover-planting-dates/ Could I throw it down in the spring, and then throw more down in late august?

Edited March 23, 2016 by Biz-R-OWorld

[phade]

basic medium red and ladino or alice white.

 

I would invest in a quality sprayer - if you are doing it all by hand you can get functional plots (not necessarily photogenic) with timely sprayings of glyphosate and then some seeding of winter rye or brassicas and some basic top dressing of fertilizer.

 

People get hung up on how pretty plots need to be. I've seen some pretty ugly plots - including the one me and Moog did last year, that I've got a fair number of deer on cam munching away.

[Renegade Hunter]

I scraped and raked the surface of the ground on some power lines, then threw down buck forage oats. Lasted well into the winter and you could see where the deer were eating big chunks out of it. Used to walk out of the woods to see them eating out of it late morning.

[BizCT]

basic medium red and ladino or alice white.

 

I would invest in a quality sprayer - if you are doing it all by hand you can get functional plots (not necessarily photogenic) with timely sprayings of glyphosate and then some seeding of winter rye or brassicas and some basic top dressing of fertilizer.

 

People get hung up on how pretty plots need to be. I've seen some pretty ugly plots - including the one me and Moog did last year, that I've got a fair number of deer on cam munching away.

 

Yea, I could care less about the appearance. I just know from using throw and grow that in draws deer in, in this area of the state. When I sampled throw and grow, I simply kicked up leaves and threw it down and it grew great.  For clover, can't I just rough up the ground with a metal rake? What is the "spraying" you are talking about?

[BellR]

What is the "spraying" you are talking about?

 

From the mention of Glycophosphate, I'm assuming he means herbacides/pesticides.

Edited March 23, 2016 by BellR

[Chris B]

Yea, I could care less about the appearance. I just know from using throw and grow that in draws deer in, in this area of the state. When I sampled throw and grow, I simply kicked up leaves and threw it down and it grew great.  For clover, can't I just rough up the ground with a metal rake? What is the "spraying" you are talking about?

 

I'm still learning about plots, I've only been doing mine for a couple years. If you want to grow clover and plan on raking the ground and throwing it, I would suggest to buy some now and throw it out. Have you ever heard of the term "frost seeding"? clover is great for that because it can withstand some of the colder temps we see this time of year (plus some other factors I'm sure but can't think of anything else off the top of my head). With frost seeding, you basically use the extreme temp changes we experience this time of year to get the seeds into the ground. As the ground expands and contracts with the freezing (or close to) temps at night and warm days, it pulls the seeds into the ground to grow.

 

Google search frost seeding if you are unfamiliar w/ it.

[Renegade Hunter]

All I did was take the bucket of the tractor and drug the grass away, hit it with a rake, then threw the seed down with some fertilizer. The oats took off like crazy and grew nice and high (thick too). The clover I threw down didn't fare too well. I would go with some forage oats if you are just trying to do a quick plot to get deer stopping by. Especially because it sticks out through the snow late season.

[phade]

Frost seeding is a great option.

 

Challenges with it are competition from grasses and broadleaves, requiring other means of soil prep or herbicide control. If you don't have a lot of broadleaf competition and mostly grasses, Arrow 2EC is worth a buy. Frost seed and blast the plot area with Arrow as the grasses appear and are still short (2-4 inches). It'll kill off the grasses and give the clover a chance to really establish a root.

[Renegade Hunter]

Also I think you may be underestimating opening up the ground on the highline. The growth where I did mine was thick and a pain in the ass to peel away, even with a tractor. My set up was pretty similar to yours. Highline with a huge ridge with a swamp at the bottom of that ridge.

[BizCT]

Thx all

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[G-Man]

PowerLine is easiest to do, spray with a roundup type, (a sprayer on back of atv is best bet. )but PowerLine are also easy access for 4 wheelers and treaspassers. I would.start there though ,spray in spring and summer 4 to 6 weeks apart , so vegetation can rot. And you can kill any re seeding by dormant seeds. (I am assuming you do not have a tractor amd York rake to re move vegetation if you do use it to remove as much dead matter as possible.) I would.plant late July a mix. Of turnip, Daikon radish and a red clover. Top dress with 10 10 10 fert at planting and early sept.

The radish will help break up ground as will the turnip so next spring spray again to kill any grasses and wwed that survive you can drag with a pice of chain link fence and or a planker to smooth a seed bed , then you can plant good imperial clover and have a plot thay will last 3 to 7 year with mowing

[hunterman7956]

first thing soil test for ph then add lime and whatever else is needed to maximize plot production. it really makes a big difference.

[tuckersdaddy]

looks like a good amount of hardwoods... you may have plenty of food with the trees.. I would work on cover. hinge cuts, a few down tops may work out better with less equipment..

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[BizCT]

looks like a good amount of hardwoods... you may have plenty of food with the trees.. I would work on cover. hinge cuts, a few down tops may work out better with less equipment..

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Yea I'm thinking a few random spots of clover could work well. Here's a few of the non swampy or rock quarry areas

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[woodchuck]

Looks real nice. Walmart.com has 15 ft 2 person ladder stands for 49 bucks with free shipping after 50 bucks. Quick and cheap way to get off the ground. They are good stands for the price. I ordered 3 of them.

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[hunterman7956]

please provide the link I could not find this on walmart , com