2015 Field of Dreams

[hickslawns]

Hate to break the news to you Frank. . . .those thistles are going to be tough to get rid of. They drop thousands of seeds per plant. These seeds can lay dormant in the soil for years. They could have been in the soil when you worked it up and you simply brought them to the top so they could germinate. I hope I am wrong for your sake, but they can give a person fits.

 

[MK111]

Hate to break the news to you Frank. . . .those thistles are going to be tough to get rid of. They drop thousands of seeds per plant. These seeds can lay dormant in the soil for years. They could have been in the soil when you worked it up and you simply brought them to the top so they could germinate. I hope I am wrong for your sake, but they can give a person fits.

Phil I hope not as none went to seed yet. And I have planted clover in it this spring and i won't be tilling it up for couple years. Just going to mow the oats and thistles down. I'll keep a watch on the 1/2 ac. plot for future thistles growth as I don't have any in the rest of the old 3.0 ac pasture I turned into the food plot 3 yrs. ago.

 

[Jackalope]

Good looking plot there. That clover looks thick and lush.

 

[MK111]

Good looking plot there. That clover looks thick and lush.

Thanks and the 1/2 ac plot to the right of this one is even thicker. The deer are in both of them every day. This is my 3rd year of clover and the deer feed in it evey day up until it dies back from hard cold weather. Then of course clover and the forage oats I plant are the 1st thing the is green and lush in early spring. Of course the oats never dies back and stays green and lush all winter.
I'm sold on clover and forage oats as a main stay plantings. But I did have good luck with the WT Inst. Winter Greens as the deer eat it to the ground last winter. More is being planted next month.

 

[MK111]

8-3
Went down and bush hogged the clover patch to cut the weed tops off. Plus I cut down the oats plot from 2014 and that cut off the thistle plants. Some of the thistles were 10 ft tall but at least none had flowered out yet. We'll see. I didn't stop to check how the clover was growing I frost planted early this spring.

 

[MK111]

8-15
I went down a roto tilled the 1.5 ac. fall food plot. Didn't see no new thistles. And strange as it was all the thistles were in that 1/2 ac. plot and no where else.
8-16
I spread fertilizer on the whole 3.0 ac plot. Spreading fertilizer with my 3 pt. spread is a dream come true as it throws a path 60 ft wide. I always spread at 50% and go over it 2 times.
Went back to the barn and got 2 bags of WT Inst. Forage Oats and dumped it in the fertilizer spread and went back and spread the oats. once again the spreader throws the lighter oats about 40-50 ft. So on my 100 ft wide plot I take 1 trip along both sides and a trip through the center and it's done. Once again I spread at 50% and do a 2 time coverage.
Went back to the barn and dropped off the spreader and went back down and hooked up the cultipacker and did the whole 3 ac.
Took the tractor back and got my seed around plus my hand spreader. I planted a 1/2 ac combo of radishes, WT Inst Winter Greens and WT Inst Tall Tine. Which is radishes and what ever, I also threw in some Merit Seed Groundhog radishes.
I drove the golf cart down and hand sowed the 1/2 ac plot. Then I hooked the cultipacker behind the golf cart and I'll be darn it pulled it just fine.
Supposed to rain later tonight and through Wednesday, and if it does I should be set on my fall planting.

The 1.5 ac of clover looks good as I've done a better job of mowing and knocking the weeds tops off before they went to seed. In 2016 I will get after the grass and broadleaf weeds in the clover.

Just as a review my 3.0 ac. plot is planted in 1.5 ac of WT Inst clover, 1.0 ac. of WT Inst Forage Oats, and 1/2 ac. of WT Inst radishes, and Winter Greens.
I've had great luck with the clover planting and Forage oats in 2013 and 2014. I pull deer of my adjoining neighbors 110 ac. of horse hay. In 2014 what Winter Greens that I raised was eaten to the ground come spring.

 

[yotehunter]

sounds like you are on the right track Frank.

 

[Bigslam51]

Good stuff, frank. Can't wait to see the progress!

 

[hickslawns]

Sounds good Frank. You are set up pretty well now it sounds. You can do a bit of everything out there.

 

[MK111]

We got a decent rain shower last night but not as much as I wanted. At least it's not bone dry. There was a fair amount of moister in the ground from the wet week before we had. We'll see in about 7 days how it's going to work out.

 

[MK111]

Went down at 7:00 PM to pull my cam cards and there was at least 20 turkeys eating away at my sowed oats seed. At least I tilled under last years oats crop so I'm hoping for a decent crop. If not in a 7-10 days I'll do a light disking and sow a Winter greens or brassica crop.

 

[MK111]

8-23
I was down working on insulation my hunting tower today. Insulation in all the side walls and ceiling and covering with black woven driveway cloth. Plus I'm going to make a curtain for each window with the black cloth. That way the deer won't be able see the light behind me. It hasn't been a problem in the past 2 years but I figured do it right while I'm at.
I checked my 2 plots I planted 7 days ago and the radish, turnips and brassica is coming up spotty. But we only had a light rain 3 days after planting. Seen nothing in the oats and I don't have much hope there except what I oats I tilled under but I figure since it's such a larger seed it'll take longer to sprout. If not I'll do a light disking and replant.

I forgot to mention that there was 6 large paper wasp nest inside. The can of spray I took down for the job had liquid but no gas. So I ended up using my can of Off I have on the golfcart. It would stun them but no instant kill. The biggest problem was the ones returning with food, I killed most of them with my hat. At least I didn't get stung.

 

[MK111]

8-30
I got the hunting tower done today. I insulated all the walls and ceiling. Then I covered everything with black nylon woven driveway clothe I had left over from putting my pole barn parking lot in. It turned out real well. It's not so hot now since the roof and sidewalls are insulated. It's a lot quiter now, before it sounded like a drum when I would bump or drop something.
Then I cut shades for 3 of the blind windows. Now I can set in the corner where the door is and have no background light behind me in a area about 5' x 5'. Since I always wear black from the waist up I will be almost invisible. Hell I may even loose myself in there.
On a lighter note I sat down to rest and see what else I wanted to do for improvements and noticed my time lapse cam was missing, I forgot to cut the wall covering away, problem solved. LOL

 

[MK111]

9-1
I was down watering anc checking the cattle which are doing great. So I slipped across the creek and checked on the food plots. Nothing in the oats 1.0 ac plot and that looks like a replant as soon as we get some rain. In the .5 ac radish, turnip in the center where there is a natural wet spot I have a full crop about 2" high but that's only about 10% of the plot. Hopefully with rain it'll do better if not I'll do a replant there also after a rain.
All 3 clover plots look great. Need to go down and mow the tops off the weeds next week but nothing flowering yet.
Since I was there I just had to check out the insulated tower. The temp inside was the same as out 90 degrees. Before insulating it would be 10-20 degrees hotter due to the metal roof and side walls. It's going to work out great. Also I didn't smell any off odor.

 

[MK111]

9-4
We finally got a rain shower today and it was a good one. I don't think there is any hope for my 8-16 oats planting but maybe this good rain will sprout the oats I tilled under.
I'll check the weather forecast for more rain and do a no tile planting of something.

 

[MK111]

Looks like I'll be replanting next Tuesday if the rain forecast holds up of Wed 60%, Thurs 25%, and Fri 35%. Wish me luck as I just hate looking at the 1.5 ac of almost bear ground dead center in the middle of my 3.0 ac food plot.

 

[Boarhead]

Good luck Frank.

 

[Bigslam51]

Hope you get the rain, frank!

 

[MK111]

9-8
I went down and checked the oats plot and I got 100%. Sorry to report 100% bare ground and just a few weeds.
So I hooked the disk up and did a light disc job. Damn it was hot out there of about 90 but it wasn't too bad as long as I kept moving. Got a little hot hooking and unhooking the disk. It doesn't take too long to disk up 1.0 ac.
I'm happy that I got about 90% crop in the .5 ac plot of turnip, radishes. Their about 4" high and really filled in nice. I disked up the 10% on the one end and I'll plant something there.
I hope to run the cultipacker across the disk area and plant tomorrow as it's supposed to rain Wednesday afternoon then for couple days. I'll cultipack it after I plant also because of the small seeds.

 

[Boarhead]

Good work Frank!