Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Throw n Mow Q&A

I let my fall cover crop all seed out. Drilled through it standing. Shattered seed everywhere and the fluted coulters stir the ground ahead of the openers. All it took was that soil contact and it’s all off and growing. It’s ok it’s just for deer in my sun hemp and buckwheat mix. But I may 24D the clover and radish out of my millet

Any recommendations on when and what to spray on grass in WMS Corn & Lab lab plot?

I would think Clethodim would toast your corn, so I have no idea. Gly will toast your beans. Probably should have gotten a handle on the grass situation first.

I sprayed 5/22 with Gly and thought I had good kill. Didn't spray 2nd time because we were forecast to get +5" rain and I wouldn't have been able to get equipment back on this plot. Below is pic after I spread seed and fertilizer, mowed and cultipacked

You’re gonna have that unfortunately. I just dealt with it and rolled on. You will need that thatch for fall anyway.

What kind of grass is that in 270wsm's pic? I'm dealing with that on one of my plots

Looks like crab grass.

When in doubt, crab grass.

270, when spraying for grass, or any other plant, you have to do it before it goes to seed. Gly kills the plant, not the seeds. It would have been better to have bushogged it down, waited a couple weeks and then sprayed. That would have given it time for the seeds to sprout. Ideally you need to spray earlier in the spring before everything is headed out.

Looks like Johnson grass to me. Will be 3' tall in 3 weeks.

Here’s some of the cool season crops that weren’t supposed to come up yet

blumsden- Thanks I'll keep that in mind in the future. In this case I couldn't have avoided the grass competition as the plot had just dried up enough to get equipment on it to spray due to all the rain and flooding we had this year. Then I was forced to plant the day I did due to the rainmaker that hit us June 5th.

hitek- I think it's johnson grass too, but we'll find out next time I'm at camp

tough day at the lease.... went out to spray a few pea and lab lab plots only to find that the timber company has been using them as turnarounds for there log trucks... Only 2 of our 6 summer plots were spared. All the others were bare dirt except for small patches in the middle. Those patches and the 2 that weren't driven in looked really good though.

planted on may 28th and they we're probably torn up shortly thereafter. Loggers should be totally off the property around the first of August. Would it even be worth replanting in peas and such at that point?

Throw and mow is no longer an option on these fields due to the fact that they're totally bare dirt from all the traffic on them.

That’s always nice to see.

Unfortunately, I'm having to report my first T&M failure in this three-year experiment. This is the first summer my WMS pea patch failed. I'm not sure, but I think it's a combo of a few things: (1) less rye planted this year, as rye was really expensive, and I was trying to get more foods the deer would eat, (2) waited until end of may/first week of June to plant, and I think some other grasses started to take over the fields, and (3) rain, or lack thereof during the month of June, as it was fairly dry.

I honestly thought we got just enough rain, so I am leaning on 1 and 2, as when I cut, there wasn't a lot of standing rye/wheat/oats left. Very little. Then, grasses didn't quite all die out from cutting, and may have outcompeted the other seeds. The buckwheat came up well, though. I also had lots and lots of turkeys in all three patches I've been trying this in.

It seems to me that if you are T&M into a heavy planting of rye, you have plenty of biomass and your weeds are just not there as the rye does a good job of keeping them out. The downside is that I swear that deer don't like it as much as they do wheat and oats. I'll either (1) go back to planting rye, (2) get a sprayer to spray before I T&M, or (3) go back to the old fashioned way now that i have pretty decent soil layer going. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

I’d think spraying is a necessary part of the process. Without it there’s too much competition.

You either need a good layer of thatch to cover the seed, or a lot of rain. The layer of thatch will hold the moisture to the seed, allowing it to sprout. If you don't have thatch, well then you need a lot of rain. I have cowpea's waist high right now. At the time of planting, my thatch was lacking, but they were calling for 4 days of rain, and we got it. I plant based on the weather, and if your going to do T&M, you need to as well. When disking, you plant whenever and just wait on rain. I always plant before a significant rain event. It's definitely harder to T&M in the spring and summer than the fall. Seeds are larger, but once you get that good layer built up, its easier The turkeys you speak of probably eat up your peas, if they were not covered.

I had a decent layer of thatch. Not as good as years when I have done rye, but pretty good. Must have been the lack of rain.

Lack of rain will be T&M or regular tills Achilles heel. No rain=not good