I had couple questions sent to me through PM’s…..I asked the folks if it was ok to answer publicly on the thread so that everyone could read along and in case others had the same questions….The OP will remain anonymous as long as they wish to…….
Question: I am sending you this private message to get your opinion about my situation. I have a small hunting tract (34 acres) I purchased this year in southeast AL. It is all thick/overgrown/untouched woods and some wetter ground surrounded by agricultural fields. I was going to make 3-4 small 0.1-0.25 acre food plots. I have cleared the areas with my chainsaw, sprayed glyphosate, used a lawn rake to try to get some of the leafs up. My specific question is since there still exists a layer of leaves from years and years of accumulation/breakdown, would you use a an ATV disc just to break through that layer so my seed will actually contact some dirt? Or, would you broadcast over the existing ground coverage? I’m leaning towards the former. The only equipment I have is a 4-wheeler and some hand tools, so either way I would probably need to buy an atv disc or cultipacker (for latter option). It sounds like you have been working your land for a long time and I’m just beginning my journey.
Thank you in advance for your time,
Answer: .......Basically what you have is just a build up of carbon on the soil surface. Let me explain a little bit about long term management of that litter and it’ll answer your question in the process……As we go from one rotation to the next to the next…..summer crop to winter crop back to summer…..and so on…..What you want to have happen from one rotation to the next is to put your dying crop to the ground and have it breakdown and just get about decomposed when its ready to rotate to the next crop….Its biomass management….We can talk more about the finer details of this in another post so as not to get too long winded. With things like carbon/nitrogen set up in the right proportion as well as a vibrant microbial community…..etc…..it’ll manage itself and not be much an issue for you once things are in a proper balance……What you’re shooting for though is for a brief few week period to have that fluffy soft potting soil on the soil surface exposed a little to broadcast your seed onto…..Instead of the soil surface being covered over with a heavy layer of duff like you have in your scenario.
So yes I would take a drag or disk or whatever you have available and use it to just scratch up and flip around the surface debris to get us to that point I just talked about. You’re not trying to “disk it all in”…..you just want to help get the duff decomposed on out of the way while kicking up a little soil in the process…..This will also mean giving it little a shot of N to mix with the carbon you’re about to put into play….That’ll help get it broken on down a little faster and more importantly it’ll prevent from tying up the N that you want for you’re little seedling about to emerge.
You should have a good reserve of organic N in the soil in your particular situation since its probably prime topsoil under that leaf litter.....but a small rate of 50 lbs/ac wouldn’t hurt just to nudge it along. Use your best judgement….The more leaf litter that’s built up….the more N you need and the more you’ll need to churn it up a little….If it’s a thin layer…small amount of N and just scratch it up……
You can throw your cereal grains out before you do this or you can churn it up first….broadcast them and then run back over it with another pass or so….any clovers or brassicas just surface broadcast at the end
