Spring Plots are Out (and so soon too)

[Land_Owner]

Field cameras show deer sat on the soy beans until they ate them to the dirt.  Now I have weeds once again.  I put Roundup over 3 acres this afternoon, but it was too late.  The weeds had produced seed heads and dropped those latent seeds.  When I mow and disc the earth again, I am going to have heavy competition between the new seeds I plant and the native weeds.  I am going to plant corn for the Summer (June to September) and plow it under in the Fall (October). 

[RB1235]

Hopefully that corn will shade out those weeds enough to overpower them. There is always round up ready corn as well.
Good luck on your new plot.

[Land_Owner]

I don't think I am going to like the cost of RR corn seed.  I believe it to be EXPENSIVE thanks to the "patent" that Monsanto holds.  I could go with regular corn and over seed it to shade the weeds out.  But am going to get a whole lotta weeds just the same.  Don't really know which way to go right now.  I suppose a cal to the seed supplier is in order to see how expensive RR corn really is in comparison to "Orville Reddenbacker"  .  I believe I also need a deer exclusion fence.     Whether Gallagher-type, Plot Saver-type, or other is TBD.  The cost of hunting is rising.   

[RB1235]

No doubt it is rising my friend. In the garden I got to using fishing line strung up like an electric fence on T posts. Wherever I read about it said they are unable to see the little line and it spooks them when they walk into it. I have watched them do a routine where they are standing there and the head is bouncing up and down where they want to jump it. It can go on for several minutes like a strange dance. It is just light weight line, happened to be the cheapest I could find on a big spool, looks like 4 or 6 lb test. I role it up on sticks and reuse each year. It has kept them out for 5 years now. They readily jump into the livestock fields that are electric fence, so I guess what I read about them not being able to see mono is true. I put the mono about every foot on a 6 foot t post.

For a weed reduction if you disk: Cut the ground. Allow 2 weeks for germination then cut the ground again and plant that day. There are still going to be weeds but at least you have killed the majority of the weeds by burying.  Also a cover crop of a cheap nitrogen fixer like buckwheat or cowpeas could keep your weeds down and feed the corn a little. Not to mention feed the deer.

[Land_Owner]

Every time I plant peas or beans, the deer get on them and don't stop until the fields are dead.  I will try the monofiliment line trick.  Probably not going to keep them out for long.  Maybe if I include some spaced rags with Plot Saver's stinky stuff on them it will work better.

[Land_Owner]

Bush hogged and disked the fields again - two weekends ago.  No rain to speak of so regermination has not been swift.  Need some Roundup on the remaining weeds.  Still no line on RR corn from the supplier and it is time to plant.  Have not decided nor been motivated to buy deer retardant fence - yet.  The days disappear like "sands through the hour glass".  It is mid-July (TODAY) and Deer Hunting (Bow) Season begins in just over 9 weeks (65 days).

[Blue Duck]

Well this year I have had pretty good success with my clover plots.  Had a good combination of rain and sun early and little shower now and then through out the summer.  Just finished mowing to slow down the weeds and ferns.  Looks great.  Also mowed a quarter acre or so and sprayed it with round up for this falls plot. Im going to try a brassica-turnup mix.  Heard good things about that mix so I wanted to give it a try.  Fall is always tricky to start plots in this part of the country (north Idaho).  Might or might  not get the moisture you need and then again sometimes winter comes early.   Whatever, let her come.  We are off to a good start anyway......

[Land_Owner]

I tried those in the past.  FL rarely gets a good frost to start the sugar rising in the plants so my deer don't eat them.  Kind of hit or miss.

I disked the property again Monday 8/16.  It has rained off and on about 4 inches in total over the past week.  There is very good soil moisture and now the weeds are gonna get it with Roundup.

I have hatched a plan to plant (gotta get seeds first) grain sorghum thick along the edges of fields for deer "comfort" when they participate.  Then in rows, I plan to plant peas and beans staggering the rows over WEEKS of plantings.  It is hoped that the deer will keep returning as the new rows germinate. 

Kind of a "Johnny Appleseed" sort of approach, plant one row one weekend and another the next, and so on until the field is planted.  Continue with that approach over four or five weekends and end up with four or five rows of succession plants.  The deer won't be able to eat multiple rows at one time since they won't be germinating at the same time.