you can buy a soil ph tester for less than $10 one ton of lime per acre will raise ph 1 point ive not seen many plots around here ever be too high in ph unless it was over limed add enough to get it around 6.8 and remember it takes several months to a year to completely work. plant it and fertilize it dont overthink it your growing a food plot not a cash crop. if the ph aint right your wasting money on fertilizer

Actually, your soil type and lime particle size, will decide how fast lime will raise your ph. Smaller the particle size the faster it works. Sandier soils react faster, but also allow lime to leach away much faster. I've raised ph in 3 months on sandy soil.

Come up to Sumter county and Ill show you plots that have never had a single drop of lime on them and some are as high as 7.9. Cant get wheat to grow in them at all. They do love yellow sweet clover and my bees love it so I guess ill keep with that.

then put sulfur to it my point was you dont need every single nutrient perfect on every greenfield youll run yourself crazy get the PH right plant it 2 bags triple 13 to one bag seed hit it with nitrogen in november youll have good fields

2 bags of triple 13 per acre ain't much plant food. I'll just stick to more fertilizer on well maintained dirt.

guess it depends on the seed you use but most of out fields are about 1/3 -1/2 acre we use one bag seed per field and 2-3 bags triple 13 per field and they are knee high. when the acorns dry up and frost hits theyll be mowed down to the ground by the deer

Still not much plant food

On 13 total acres of food plots, we drilled 78 pounds of wheat and 78 pounds of oats per acre. Used spreader to put down 350 lbs. of triple 17 per acre.

Now that's what I'm talking about there!

Dam son. That's fertilization right there.

Before me taking it over, they'd been using half that. That recommendation came from the local Co-op as the "general rule of thumb" without having soil testing. Next year, we will be more prepared.

500 lbs/acre of 13-13-13 right here

Holding optimal levels in the soil and efficiently recycling nutrients long term is what should make you say…. “Dayum!”……Not throwing out a chit load with each planting. What I mean is…..I may have only added ¼ of that rate…..but if my K levels were already in the 180-240 lbs/ac range then I’m golden. I may not add any P because my soil levels are already 75 lbs/ac….. I’m still good to go…….I actually haven’t added any fertilizer other than some N…It's more about how well you can hold the nutrients and deliver it to the plant than how much your throw out of a spreader. There's no telling how much is just washing off into the ditch with a lot of plantings....

CNC, you know how how bad that Russell county sand is. We need to work on soil improvement big time, cause right now we can’t hold any nutrients whatsoever. Hence the 500 lbs/acre

Are you adding all of that in one application?

Depends on the spot. Some of our fields are in spots that are hard to get to, especially after a rain, so we put it all out at once in those. The fields that are easier to get to usually get a dose at planting and a dose and another dose a few weeks later before a rain.

Our fields look great every year and always hold a ton of deer. I have no complaints with them. But if you have a suggestion that can save me some money or that you think will improve them, then I am all ears. This is just the way we have always done them.

There’s a more efficient way of going about it…..but it would really require you to change your whole management approach away from heavy tillage. Applying your fert in smaller doses spread out over time would help some..... but long term you need to build up organic matter in that sand so that there’s something to hold the fert other than just sand. Sand has almost zero holding capacity.

We talking about throw n mow?

I’m just talking about the principles of soil health and proper soil function……But yes, going to a no-till method is what it will boil down to on sandy soil. You could try very light tillage but I’ve found it to be so fragile that even the lightest tillage is harsh on sand.

A lot of being more efficient with fertilizer also has to do with erosion control and water infiltration. The problem in a lot of your tilled fields is that they have poor soil structure and they form a crust on top……..thus resulting in poor water infiltration……When that happens, then you start getting a lot of runoff…..which then results in your top soil and nutrients also running off with it. A chit load of fertilizer just gets washed into the ditches and streams every year. Erosion is not hard to recognize.

The only way to really correct this issue of run-off, erosion, and nutrient loss is to keep the water from building up steam and running off in the first place……. and instead have it soak up in the ground. This comes through improving the soil structure so that the soil is porous and has air space for water to easily infiltrate through…..It comes through leaving a thatch layer of hay across the top of the soil to take away the energy of the falling rain drops before it hits the soil surface….also to help stop/slow down any surface runoff so that the water has more time to be absorbed and doesn’t cause erosion. If you control where the water goes then you keep your nutrients and topsoil in the field instead of the ditch.