Proper PH for plots

[nybuckboy]

I had a soil test run yesterday on my 3 food plots. The results were all 6.8. I was told there is no need for any lime, although lime wouldn't hurt. I plan to plant a mix of clover and alfalfa asap weather provided and in mid August turnips and winter peas. I also plan to throw in some sunflowers for cover to make the deer feel less open and I have a small bag or Biologic Winter Bulbs and Sweet Beets in a small area at the end of the peas/turnips area

Anyone else plant alfalfa?  How has it worked for you.

[growalot]

Yes and my PH is lower than that...I actually have a 5# bag I'm still hoping to get in this fall. The alfafa comes in goog and much taller than the clover ..first to get tipped off but it does go dormant late in the season ..why a good mix is preferred by me.  I always add a couple of bags(small plots) to the plots each year this is to maintain a good PH  most plants do well on soils that aren't too neutral. So much info on specific plant species...reading up on each and their chemical and mineral requirements is extremely helpful. That and The breeding of what you are using...some can handle certain thing better than others with in the same group..ex..to say all clovers aren't equal is an understatement. One thing for sure...Alfalfa's like well drained soils. 

[nybuckboy]

Grow - do you mix your alfalfa with clover then

 

[growalot]

Yes in areas  that i know the soil drainage will support both. You have more growth option with your clover selection then the alfalfa. Making such matches are not difficult.

[sailinghudson25]

Alfalfa doesn't like competition as per dairy farmers.  Makes sure you're weed free in that plot. 

Think this is not a good year for sunflower if they're not in yet.  From memory, they take a long time.

6.8 is good.  But, you add fertilizer, the ph will lower a touch.  I always add ph raising lime when adding ph lowering fertilizer.  Atleast lb for lb.

This is my take on lime.

Certain minerals take to roots best in certain pH ranges.  This is why we lime.

Carbonate introduced helps make nutrients in soil more available.  A bit of lime on an ok plot does help.  I've added mild amounts of lime to part of one plot, bit both sides got fertilizer at same rate.  More growth on the limed part.  This is in a fresh wheat clover plot on reclaimed hardwood clearcut with minimal tillage.

Extra calcium and magnesium in lime helps too.  I prefer pelleted lime or atleast 500lbs per acre of pelletized.  If my memory serves me right, it includes magnesium sulfate to the plot.

At very minimum for me, 3 bags lime per 1 bag of fertilizer during a maintenance fertilizing.  Fertilizer lowers pH.

There's much more than pH, bitrogen, phosphurus, and potassium a plant needs.

I hunt out firewood ash and prefer it to lime for raising pH anyday.

If you burn the tops of trees and brush, do small spots in the area rather than a big one.  Spread the ashes when it's done.

Those burn areas are like turbocharged plot spots.

I've been advised against alfalfa many times by farmers.  Definitely need to spray for weeds and rescratch  the soil a week after tilling to be weed free.  It doesn't like competition.

My plots are boring....   cereal grain and clover with treats like Austrian peas or turnip.  I don't monocrop except with clover frost seeding.  That's only if I got the spot prepped past a killing frost.  Get the spot ready, limed, fertilized lightly, and put about 1/2 the clover seed in.  

I've seen parts of my crop fail, but never all.  

I also either leave edges brushy into the woods, or do fallow on the last 5 yards into the woods.  

Edited July 3, 2017 by sailinghudson25

[Adkhunter1590]

My farmer neighbor advised me against alfalfa as well. Weeds are hard to control in it and the ground I'm on is too wet. He said the surface is dry but a few inches down is just too wet for alfalfa and the winter freezes tear the roots apart and kill it. I drive by quite a few alfalfa fields on my way to and from work each day and I notice almost all of them are full of weeds and look terrible. The only one that looks good has a tall deer fence around it and it looks like they really control the hell out of that field.