Planting without rain?

I am new to food plotting and I have cleared a .25 ac. area to plant some clover and chicory with some rye. I was planning on putting the seed and fertilizer out this Saturday to be up for archery season, but it looks like there won’t be any rain in the forecast until next Friday. Will the seed and fertilizer be okay to sit for a few days to wait on the rain? It’s hard for me to get to the hunting property whenever I want to based on the rain.

Yes. You've got to plant when you can. But you are really early in terms of when most people plant. I'm not planting for another 4-5 weeks from today.

Thanks. Well like I said, I’m new to this. I just wanted something established enough to be attractive by mid October. I figured the clover would take awhile. So I should wait a few weeks? This plot will mainly be for early season bow hunting.

Bow season isn't until Oct 15. If you plant towards the end of Sept of first of Oct, you'll have sprouts by the 15th. The longer you wait, the less weed competition you get for your desired species in the plot.

The clover you plant now is actually for next spring and summer. If you plant this early you run the risk of army worms eating everything you have, also like others have said the weeds will be a problem.

Yep - good advice from Remington270 and stl32.

I plant in Lamar and Walker Co. Usually middle of September.

If you have lots of turkeys, they may eat your seed all up if it's not covered or disced in. Put more out than required. As said above, you plant when you can.

Wait until oct 1st unless you can get some guaranteed rain the last week of September. Plots planted this early either fail (lack of rain and army worms) or do well and become woody. Deer like tender new growth.

Plant the 3rd week of September and it'll be up by the 15th of October . It'll be growing good and be tender, they won't be able to stay away.

We're well within the pocket of deer planting time. If you can go do it this weekend that would be just as good as doing it in two or three weeks. Don't try to plan around rain, just do it when you can. Seed more than is necessary. The recommended rates are usually low because you'll sell more bags of seed if people think you only need two bags to an acre versus 3 or 4.

Just based on historical weather data your better off planting in September if you want rain versus October. October is our driest month of the year. I've never been a big believer in army worms taking down deer plots unless you are planting near a pasture or active ag fields, that may be a different situation.

I agree with this



This part doesn't make sense to me. Seems like they'd sell more seed if they recommended more pounds per acre.

I was talking more about the high dollar seed mixes with things like chicory and arrowleaf clover in them, like the $45 a bag wms stuff they claim you only need two bags to plant an entire acre. Their recommend rates are low to avoid sticker shock. You'll often hear about people here supplementing their high dollar bag mixes with a bag of Coker oats or seed wheat to fill in the gaps.

Thanks for the replies everyone.



I was about to put off planting, but you’re post bumped me back to this weekend. I’m planting real world wildlife clover and chicory blend and some elbon rye to help fill it out. This plot is in the woods.

Also, another question related to this: I plan to put a spin cast feeder on this area also. Should I put it out this weekend when I plant or wait a few weeks? I didn’t know if this would effect the planting (extra animal traffic). The area gets some deer traffic now with natural browse- but I killed that off with some gly 2 weeks ago.

Just make sure you get enough sunlight to the ground and you'll be fine. If it's shady you might have some issues. With it being such a small plot it wouldn't hurt to use some milorganite to keep the deer off it for a while

We try to wait until the end of September. This heat and dry weather will burn it up quick.

I'm not planting until I get a decent rain in the forecast. You've got to plant when you can, but seed won't do much till it gets some moisture.

Last week end in September or first week end in October. Deer are almost always on them opening day of bow season

Planting without rain is like a drug dealer with no drugs. I have no use for it

Way too early to be planting now.
Wait until early/mid October.

Yep. A lot of folks get antsy to plant starting at Labor Day. These are the hottest and driest weeks of the year.

Actually, October is the driest month of the year in Alabama.

I don’t plant until the third week in October!

Too hot and too dry.

I'm doubting that. I would need to see statistics.
In my opinion the driest month is typically June or July.
But either way, September is too early for food plots. October is the best time to plant. No question.

October around rain. I will have ours ready to plant and wait on the rain.

Right, but September is very dry too. And much hotter. So why expose your plot to the 2 driest months of the year? I’ll keep my seed in the bag for a few more weeks.

Looking at the long range till the end of Oct, there's going to be a lot planting done in dry dirt. We may be wanting a mild TD in a month or so. Sure not going to be a wet fall like it's been the last couple years. I have a couple mud holes that are dry for the first time since 2016.

Be fine if it stays dry til November. Get this crop out. Feeders don’t need rain

In NE Bama September and October are the driest months , I'm confident records will back it up.

The records do back it up. Sept/Oct are the driest, on average. Certainly looking that way again this year.

Yep

September's sure living up to that reputation so far.

October is the driest month according to data. Average is barely over 2” the entire month. September is almost double that. That may not run true every year but it is a fact.

Rain chances going up next week. I'm getting seed in Friday on a plot or two if I can and cross my fingers.

Most people have to plant when they can, and just let the seed wait on the rain.

October is the driest month of the year (on average) because we've lost the heat/energy for thunderstorms and the frontal systems that bring rain during the winter haven't kicked in yet.

They are. Still way too far out though. I'll believe it when I see it.

I’d rather plant into moisture than bet on planting based on what wather guesser says might happen

And based on the other threads on here, I'm guessing that rain is based of a weather man's spitball guess on that storm coming into the southeast and Alabama and not heading further east.

If it’s super dry you can put the seed out but you need to cover it deep so other critters won’t get it. If there’s no moisture in the ground the seed will lay there in the dirt and not germinate and when a rain comes it will grow. The only problem doing it like this is and it turns like it did three years ago and we won’t a green fields up until December and some of the seed will rot. When we had that bad drought three or however many years ago we planted just like we always do right there the end of September or first of October and we didn’t have an ounce of rain until December. Our patches came up the end of December and were nice and pretty after we finally got a rain. If it stays dry the ones feeding will kill some bucks

As hot as it is now, there is no rush. But with that said, I am Expecting on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the first week of October. We plan to start turning some dirt on Monday and planting fri and sat.

My brother-n-law used to insist we always planted on Labor Day weekend. After watching army worms destroy our plots for about three years in a row, he finally decided in might be a good idea to wait a few weeks.