No Plow - Food plots

[ajkrem22]

Was looking for some advice.  I don't have any heavy equipment to work with so I was thinking of using the no plow seed.  Wanted to see if anyone had used this stuff and see if they had any success.

The property I am hunting is about 150 acres in size with a couple decent sized overgrown fields.  I will be able to take samples for ph, and should be able to remove most of the brush so the seeds have a chance to germinate.  Looking to possibly put this no plow in by mid August.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shaman]

The trick to no-plow technique is that you need contact with bare mineral soil-- all seed needs that.  Some fields, once you knock down the weeds with a close mowing have enough bare soil that it'll work.  You also need to worry about competition.  If anything else is growing in that field that is a cool-season grass or forb, it already has a head start. You might need to spray.They said no-till, not no-mow-spray, etc.    There's always controlled burning as an option, but don't jump into that unless you know what you're doing.

The next thing you need is something to get the seed into the soil.  If you sow just before a big rain, there's probably enough action to get the seed into the soil. Otherwise, you might want to improvise a harrow. I've got one made out of an old bedspring. 

When all's said and done, no-plow can work, but it often times doesn't.  Everyone I've seen try it gets disappointed.  A lot has to fall together for it to work.

[hawkeye642]

No plow seed it truly a misrepresentation.  Shaman is right on with what he told you.  I have tried no plow seed and found that it will not germinate in my area without some labor.  It really doesn't matter what seed you plant you still have to do as much as possible to increase its chances of germinating and growing.  When trying to establish a food plot of any kind there is no cutting corners unless you are fortunate enough to live where the soil is neutral and it is a perfect balance of sand, silt and clay. 
 
You must do what you can with what you can.  I personally would look into borrowing some equipment or renting it if you can afford it.  If you can't you can do alot with a backpack sprayer and an atv with a disc.
 
If you can't get an atv with a disc you will at least need to spray round up on the area you want to plant.  Spray the area and then wait a week.  If everything turned brown then you can proceed.  If not spray again.  Then broadcast your seed.  Come into the area you broadcast your seed and cut the grass/weeds with a mower, etc.  Cut the grass/weeds as low as you can.  The grass/weeds you just cut will protect the seed from heat and will keep in moisture. 
 
Planting is always an expirement!  Good luck!

[ajkrem22]

Thanks for the advise guys. Went ahead and purchased some no plow seed and am now looking to get started. I have been talking to some buddies and found out one of them has a disc. I am hopping he will let me borrow it so I can turn the soil over a couple times and add some lime and fertilizer. I now atleast have a plan to get started. Can't wait to get started.

Thanks

[hunt4fun]

I used the Whitetail Institute No-Plow last year and it worked decent. I had to rake away the leaves to get to bare ground and lime and fertilize, but it actually grows pretty decent. It isn't the strongest attractant at first, but for some reason after gun season, the deer were in there a lot. You can see pictures of what my plot looks like if you go into the Wisconsin Land Management forum, page 18 is how it looked to start, it did get better as the season went on. I would say that it is a LOT of work to plant no plow, but if you're dedicated and don't have the machinery to do it the easy way, then you can pull it off. Biologic Hot Spot, which is supposed to be a no plow did not grow at all for me, so you may want to stay away from that. If you have any other questions about the No-Plow, let me know.

[buckhunter21]

i've used whitetail institute's no plow and it has worked great.  just do what it says on the bag....pretty simple!  let us know how it goes if you use it.

[habitatmanager]

Well no plow doesn't mean no prep. Make sure you remove as much surface clutter as possible you still need seed to soil contact! Spray area with round up or similar product a few weeks before and i recomend doing it again 2 weeks later to get anything that was missed with the first application. Scratch up surface after removing dead growth and spread your seed! The more "bare" you get the ground the better it will grow! best of luck to you i am sure you will like the results!

[prohunter]

break out the elbow grease.
1- start small .
2- find a spot that you can get to without getting busted going in and out.
3- that has a good ambush place, i like a funnel or small place in the woods coming or going to the food sorce.
4- a push mower and a weed eater can get a lot of work done.
5- round up area , 2 weeks later round up again .
6- lime to get ph right ,dont scimp use plenty.
7- fertilize 10 10 10 is fine.
8- ruff up the ground a tiller would be great at this point ,or a stiff rake
9- seed needs to have good soil contact ,clover goes on top
10-pray for rain
hope this gets u started kill a big one
jim

[SolocamXtreme]

Im a farmer. the most simple place is to plant it on the outside feilds. its alot easier to get a friend or a trusted farmer to bring his tractor to do the job such as discing plowing and chopping the food plots during the summer. as for no plow. id dont recomend no plow. you mind as well plant imperial clover instead its worth lasting for years. but for example its not good to mix perenials like clover and chicory together. different types of clovers are good. because in four years your going to chang the plants. say during the forth year fall. ask a farmer or a friend to take his tractor to disc the food plots for you during mid august or late. then you plant imperial winter greens. then in the spring get the farmer to plow and disc over the winter greens and plant over it with the chic magnet. no clover reseeded. its not good for the soil.
Heres my advise on making the food plots to turn good for your success.
1. ex a one acre food plot. You got to buy 2 acres worh a bag of whitetail clover to double seed it. so that theres no bald spot and so that thers alot of forage for the deer. but discing the fields is always first.
2 after that use a seed spreader to spread the clover seed to the fields.
3 after applying the seeds. use a truck or atv to cultipack the plots so that the seeds germinate easy.
4. apply 0-20-20 fertilyzer or 19-19-19. they claim 300 lbs. but i recomend 100lbs per acre. youl kill the food plots with 300 lbs.
5. your not done yet in the summer when the clovers grown theres weeeds and tall grass you got to spray and get a farmer to bring his tractor with a chopper to chop down the clover so that it can regrow for more lush for the deer.[:)]

[Woods Walker]

Ignore door. He's an internet SPAMMER who cuts and pastes other people's posts so that he can have an excuse to sneak in his internet sales spam crap. He stole one one of my posts verbatim and put his name on it. He probably can't even compose a coherent sentence in english enough to fake his way in here so he has to use someone elses!