Originally Posted by CNC
Originally Posted by Cibola
I have a plot of around 3 acres consisting of a mix of standing sunn hemp, sunflowers, vining soybeans, and volunteer weeds. If I wanted to mow a few shooting lanes thru it and plant them in a fall/winter mix (oats, rye, clover), what steps do you guys recommend? In the past I have sprayed, cut, tilled, and then sowed. But I would like to get away from tilling so often. Thanks.


Wait until early Oct......broadcast your mix where you want the lanes to go and then mow the vegetation down over the seed. The key factors to success are having a soil surface in a good mellow condition and then having enough thatch to cover your seed. If either of those are lacking then you'll need to improve things before you'll see really good results.


Thanks! That's what I am going to try. An experience I had this Spring/Summer has kind of opened my eyes to the importance of leaving some organic thatch to decompose in the soil. Before I begin planting this past Spring, I burned the thatch off in 1/2 of the field, and left it in the other 1/2. The section where I left the thatch made a much better plot than the burned section, despite the whole plot getting the same fertilizer application. If I can also cut down on labor, diesel, and erosion in the process, that is even better.

He never promised that the cross would not get heavy & the hill would not be hard to climb.