YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!! I'm through with my outside activities for the day. I disked some fire breaks and was surprised how much moisture was still in the ground. Another week and it won't be there.

It's bad. Real bad

The plant in question a few posts back is called "Purple Vervain".....

Never heard of that. Interesting

Coming up on week 5. Got a pretty good canopy across most of the field now. There’re still a lot of small patches of thatch showing though due to the heavy browsing on the buckwheat and peas. You really want to have a green “umbrella” over your thatch at this point. The canopy effect combined with the thatch over the soil surface will help hold onto moisture through periods of hot, dry weather. This is just a salad bar of lush browse for deer now. It simulates a diverse, natural prairie but sweetened up a little with the species that I choose to keep, add, or eliminate.



The buckwheat seems to be tolerating the browsing pressure so far. Most of it has branched out and while the deer eat the top out of the plant….the rest of the plant seems to stay alive and continue to grow. The ability for a plant to withstand browsing pressure and bounce back from it is a function of plant health and vigor.



My watermelon sprout is still hanging in there and finding a niche amongst the milo. It actually ended up in a pretty good spot where it has a little room to vine out. I think it’ll grow just fine under this milo if the deer don’t demolish it one night. Going to have a few crimson sweets before the summer is over.



Actually still have a little hairy vetch blooming here and there around the field as well. That would be something I would to add to your fall planting mix this year if you are going to throw and mow long term. A good plant to have in the mix.



Will the field be able to withstand this???? I’m really not sure but it’ll be a good test.

CNC I didn't take any pics but my fields are doing considerably well. since I've mowed the white clover has really started growing and is seeding out. The peas, and sunflowers are about 8-10 inches tall and there are a few weeds starting to grow because I didn't spray. my question is should I fertilize my fields even though there are some weeds coming up. I just really don't want to fertilize the field and have all the fertilizer wasted on weeds. what do you think? I'm on day 20 after planting

Any fertilizer that is being taken up by a plant in your field and growing biomass for future OM gains is not wasted. When those plants eventually die and begin to decompose back into the soil then those nutrients are recycled. Do you remember the short video a couple pages back where the professor was standing in the field looking at a soil profile and talking about how much organic N was available to the plants in that field on a continual basis due to building organic matter? This is where those nutrients come from. It comes from biomass taking up nutrients…decomposing…and recycling them. The vast majority of the real wasted fertilizer that food plotters are throwing out is coming through leaching and washing due to poor soil structure….no holding capacity…erosion..etc.etc..

Look at the pic of my field as an example. The whole field is a nice green color no matter what plant specie you’re looking at. The field has all kinds of plants growing in it that folks would call a weed. The deer are also hammering nearly everything in field. The deer will consume some of the vegetation and some will be recycled back to the soil to increase fertility. The more I increase my organic matter and my fertility,,,then the more you’ll see the field boom with lush growth. The cycle will feed on itself sort of like a snowball effect. If you just keep trying to grow only beans and sunflowers and eliminate the rest of the plants in the field….then when those plants get wiped out, you won’t have any biomass to add back to the soil and your fertility will not change.

So to answer your question….yes, go ahead and fertilize the field. Don’t worry about the other stuff that’s growing in the field unless its just something really nasty like the sicklepod. Spot spray those kinds of things and let everything else just grow as much biomass as it will produce. It will actually benefit you greatly long term if something like crabgrass would produce a good crop in your field this year. That would be a nice crop of hay to get the soil OM headed in the right direction.

Here's that video again. Only a couple minutes long.......

Nutrient Recycling

I had some soy beans in the mix but they've eaten all of them already, I do have some millet in the mix as well. the majority of my fields are white clover though and I figured as much N as the clover is putting into the fields along with the peas that I might need to use a fertilizer with no nitrogen in it. any suggestions? I don't know too much about the different types of fertilizer is why I ask

The need for nitrogen can usually be seen with your eye. The field should be a nice deep green color. The more it starts running N deficient then the more it will become a lighter shade of green and then more to a yellowy green.

You may have told me this already….Have you had a soil test recently? What has been added since the soil test?

I hate to just blindly throw fert out. I like to know what holes in my bucket need filling and concentrate my money on those areas. If K is lacking for example, then you will get a lot more bang for your buck to throw out a couple bags of 0-0-60….rather than spending the same money on throwing out a couple bags of 13-13-13 blindly. It may be that adding lime might be the best use of your money if that’s the most limiting factor. What is the pH??

its lacking P and K. I put out the recommended lime last summer and have not retaken soil samples. my average pH was 5.2 before liming average P and K recommendation was around 60- 80lbs/per acre of both

Sunflowers

Sunn hemp

Corn. That badly needs some rain.

Was this 1/2 acre?

Nice 257.....Fields are looking good.

no per acre. but my fields are half acre

JUST NEED RAIN!!!!!!

You could basically use a shot of everything so go ahead with 2 bags of 13-13-13 for now….retest around the end of Aug or first of Sept and we’ll make further adjustments from there.

On a complete side note to throw and mow…..My truck magnets came in yesterday. Really excited about this upcoming season. I’ll bring this back up closer to the season getting started and get on the tracking dog list but I just wanted to let any of you guys in southeast AL know that I’ll be tracking in our area. I’m in Macon Co and I plan on covering anything out to around 50-75 miles. Maybe as far south as Troy and as far north as Alexander City or there about. I’ll try to cover Lowndes Co to the west and all the way to the state line to the east.



BTW……I use a black panther to do all my tracking. He finds the deer great but taking it from him afterwards is becoming a little tricky.