Lime Timing sandy soil

When do you put out lime on soil for planting fall food plot in sandy soil?

For this fall food plots it really needed to be put out the first of this year. Lime isn't instant.

Same time you plant a tree. Yesterday.

I would put it out asap.

The soil will start improving the second you put it out. It doesn’t lay there doing nothing for 6 months and then magically everything changes. Do it whenever you can and it will be better than it was come fall planting season. It takes a while to alter the pH all that it will change it but it starts working immediately. Throw some out at my place if u have time.

Put it out asap. Lime reacts a lot faster with sandy soils, but it also leaches away a lot quicker, as well. If it is truly sandy soil it should raise the ph by October-November. Particle size is very important. Pelleted lime will raise it quicker because it has smaller particles than bulk lime, but doesn't last as long.

Alright I need to get on that. The main concern is leach rate. Macon county al sandy/rocky soil.

you cant predict a Leach rate, depends on how much rain and what kinds of rains you have. flooding rain makes it leach much faster that a slow soaking rain without a bunch of run off

You need to start building up some organic matter in the soil first if you haven't already. If you have less than 1% OM then most of what you apply will likely just be wasted. Once you've got a little OM starting to build up to hold then lime then add frequent small doses in the beginning and build your CA up as your OM builds. You may want to add a little each year if it's possible to do so. You don't want to just dump big quantities out at one time in this situation

I am using this approach now. We just pushed a new field and there is almost zero top soil. We planted brown top millet with plenty of fertilizer.

Good choice with the millet..... depending on when you planted it and when you want to put your fall plots in....you might possibly get two crops of it in if you wanted to try it.

I got a farmer who cleaned up 80 acres of cutover to go back into row crop production. We’re putting it all in sun hemp next week.

I haven't planted sunn hemp other than helping a guy at the old hunting put some out in a mix one year. It never stood a chance with that deer density. From watching and reading everyone else's experience with it though....it seems like it would be a great soil building choice in some situations. Mainly the situations where the person planting has large enough equipment and acreage to handle the stuff. It looks like it would just be too cumbersome with anything small.if you really grew off the biomass

I planted 12 acres of sun hemp/buckwheat this summer. I have zero acres that survived. However I have a solid stand of crimson clover that’s taken over. Was gonna kill it down and plant soybeans use the plotsaver but dry weather hit. I now have soybeans coming up in clover. I think I’ll just let the clover survive and whatever beans make it come on. If I spray that clover out the beans will definitely be gone overnight. I just got a mess due to that long dry spell.

I planted a 1/2acre sunhemp plot about 2months ago, overseeded it. It came up in three days and the deer found it on about day 5. Theyve kept it ate to the ground ever since. I dont think it will be doing much to build the soil. This is my second attempt to grow sunhemp with little success. I do believe it would make a good foodplot if you could keep the deer out of it for a month or so after it comes up. Ironclay peas work better for me. For some reason theyll let the peas get about knee high before they start eating them, then they keep them at that height.

What annual summer and fall plots would you plant in sandy soil that would maintain OM and still allow good seed contact with ground when TnM without breaking up the soil. The caveat is that I only have minimal equipment (atv,sprayer,roller,weedeater). I don't have a drill or crimp or anything like that. I've noticed when prepping for fall food plots that some of the native grasses grow too tight for throw and mow, the soil seems to always need worked.

I'm starting from scratch here, but i'll do what it takes

For summer, and building organic matter you cant go wrong with buckwheat and browntop millet. You can get multiple croppings(free seed) by bushhogging after they have went to seed. Don't fertilize until you get your ph up over a 5.5, you'll just be wasting your money. For the fall, cereal rye grain and crimson or yucchi clover work well.

Never seen buckwheat at the local feed and seed. I'll try it if i can find it easily.

Buckwheat didn't work well for me because the deer hammered it too hard. I wasn't left with any of it in the end. The reason I like going pure millet for someone just starting the process in sandy soil is because 1) it has a very small seed that's easy to establish in poor condition....2) it's fast growing and produces grass type biomass which is what we're needing most in the first stages of rebuilding sandy soil.....and 3) it's not something the deer are gonna hammer so hard that you fail to produce any significant amount of biomass.....A pure stand of millet is a pretty safe bet in most situations. If yoe saw a pretty decent amount of browising even on the millet but only just nipping off the top of the blades

Harold, if they hammered buckwheat, you either have too many deer or your habitat is subpar because buckwheat is on the lower end of the preference list. I've planted it a lot and never had the deer hammer it, that's why I liked planting it with cowpeas. After they annihilate the pea's your left with buckwheat and I've always been able to at least double crop it, plus it adds phosphorous to the soil. Millet is a great planting for OM, plus the dove and turkey love it.

Not necessarily true…..and in this case I can verify with certainty that its not. This is where folks commonly make the mistake of assuming that because someone sees “X” number of deer or can’t grow seed “A” in a food plot, etc…..that they automatically have too many deer and need to shoot some or something else is wrong……How about this possibility……Maybe the understory habitat around me is prime and and therefore able to support a very high deer density…..a deer density that has no issue wiping out 2 acres of buckwheat in a field that they frequently visit.

Every situation needs to be assessed individually to determine what’s too many and such. There’s an abundance of prime native understory vegetation pretty much year round on my place indicating that I don’t have too many deer. Just about all of them that I see are really healthy looking too….does commonly with twins.

Well, we have seen some of the pictures you've posted with your plot full of deer. LOL All I know, is everything you read about buckwheat is that it is NOT a preferred food source. I have a good deer density and they don't hammer my 1/10th acre plots. Strange.

Maybe it’s a difference in how concentrated the deer are to my field in comparison to yours. Aren’t you in an area with a decent amount of closed canopy hardwoods? Maybe the deer that are visiting your fields during the summer are using a lot bigger area for their home range during that time than what mine are…..That would mean that the frequency in which they passed through and utilized the field could possibly be less. I damn near have to keep my does shooed off the porch they stay held so tight. I just don’t think they ever go anywhere much other than a short stroll back into the thickets to lay down. That has my field seeing constant activity day to day….week to week….

The hardwood closed canopy was on my mountain property. I sold it. We still have my brothersa property up there. This is on my club that borders the coosa river. It's 20 year old pine with a lot of open area's as well. It has a lot of plant diversity. They haven't even started hammering my 3/4 acre pea patch yet.