SOIL BUILDING 101 DEER HUNTING FOOD PLOTS HD 1080p
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Improving the soil health is an extremely high priority for many deer hunters and food plotters. Improving the soil, makes our food plots grow better and be more nutritious feed for the whitetail deer living on our land that we are trying to manage. In this video I go over some of the things we must stop doing in order to build soil, and some things that we need to do to start doing to build up the soil.
You know your stuff!!
Thank you sir! Appreciate you watching
I have found out that on small plots advanced Lime is well worth the Money advanced lime is not Liquid lime it is cooked lime pure calcium, Ten bags of advanced lime is equal to 60 bags of Regular lime. That makes it easier and faster to use.
We mix clay and sand when we can and modify Amend the soil, then the Micro Nutrients, then Fertilizers.
We keep it covered with cover crops and plant deep rooted plants, Cowpeas followed by Nitro Radish, the Cowpea roots get 15 to 17 feet deep and allow the brassica to develop a deeper tap root, allowing for a huge bulb loosing the soil even more than cereal grains and Radish alone.
Then the next year I rotate the crop with Soybeans and sunhemp, or Sugar beets planted in late may or June.
A mixture of Kenland Red clover and arrow leaf clover also works well in a summer rotation. The Arrow leaf will feed to July, and the Kenland red will feed all summer into Fall.
Clovers though do not have deep tap roots like Radishes and Cowpeas, Alfalfa does so mix some Alfalfa into the clover to help Bring up more Nutrients.
Just so thoughts on Building Humus which is actually what you are building in a no till program, bringing Nutrients to the top, trapping them in a Humus layer that protects the soil and improves soil fertility.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for sharing your experiences as always Carrol! Lots of great information shared! Thanks for watching
This quick video is a good basic intro to a whole course on soils that is short on specifics and needs lots more detailed explanation. I'm sure you have just about every kind of soil types you plant. Ridgetop soil, bottom soil, Hel (highly erodible land) soil, crawfish soil, land with almost no topsoil, and soil on slopes that are probably not good to plant, just to mention a few. Just need some far more advanced classes taught by the Plot Professor starting at Soil Building 101 all the way thru Soil building 500.
Thanks Clark, I wanted to see if this was something that interest my viewers or not before going into further details! Thanks for watching!
Thanks Wes, lots of good info
Thank you sir! Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching
I have been planting red clover and oats in the spring then tilling in before planting fall plots. Soil testing shows organic matter is increasing. Not sure no till would benefit me with such a short growing season up north.
That’s great that organic matter is on the rise! Like I said in the video, in my opinion soil building is not for everyone across the country. Sounds like you’re building soil already and have a good program going! Thanks for watching and good luck with the plots!
Thank you Wes I Realy get a little from your videos keep up the great work I wish you would cover CLETHODIM and how to apply it and what crops it can be used for pertaining to white tails
Thanks Wayne! I can’t try to cover clethodim in a later video! Thanks for watching and for the suggestion
So I bought my last farm a few years ago in northern Illinois. I was allowed two food plot locations in the CRP fields with my NCRS plan. These food plot locations weren't used by the last owners and were just part of the tall warm season grass mix. The fields were in this mix and maintained for 17 years.
When I pulled a soil sample the first year, the organic matter was in the 2.2 range and PH varied between 6.3 and 6.7. Two questions:
- If in 17 years of deep-rooted CRP grasses, my organic matter ended up in the 2.2 range, is it realistic to think that these same locations are going to exceed this organic matter level via cover cropping and soil building food plots? (I would think in theory the CRP should have been amazing at building organic matter with the incredibly deep roots and lack of tillage. Part of me is thinking that this is as good as it gets)
-Would the mid-6 range be my "natural PH" in this case? Over time, will the soil want to naturally land back in this range with or without amendments and fertilizer?
Thank you,
Yeah I’d say that’s your natural soil ph and without adding amendments it will stay close to that.
On the CRP i have 2 trains of thought on that, one just exactly what you said and thought.
But on the other hand, with warm season grasses your soil is 100% covered but the amount of organic matter made could be less than a cover crop, with multiple generations over the summers. Warm season grasses won’t hit the ground running until the soil temperatures warm up, so for several months of the year, dead thatch is all that’s on the soil. If you were really trying to boost organic matter, I think cereal rye planted in the fall then buckwheat planted in the spring would make more organic matter than warm season grasses alone. Hope this helps! Thanks for watching
Thanks for the videos Wes ! Are there any areas in the country with too high PH ? I know it's not upstate NY. hahahaha
Haha it’s not western KY either. But yes there are some places in the United States that have to had sulfur to bring their soil ph down. But not nearly as many areas with high ph compared to low ph. Thanks for watching!
I've been no tilling for the past 5 years now here in KY. I feel like one of my best crops was just after the field was cleared and worked at that first year. I almost wonder if plants wouldn't do better in the suboptimal soil types typically found here with some tillage. I get the concept of the hard pan with tillage but seems you eliminate it yearly by re tillage? Do you think it's ever beneficial to do some tillage and then drill into that vs just no till?
Yes I think there are some occasions where tillage can be a plus. And also I completely agree with you, that tillage is the best scenario for a successful plot, especially if you don’t have a no till drill. I do a variety of no till and conventional tillage, but just try to keep the negative effects of tillage to a minimum by only tilling when the soil is dry and also by getting a crop back growing quickly! Thanks for watching
What are your thoughts on foliar sprays that claim to add micronutrients? My guess is that they may give the deer some nutrients when eaten but I assume all nutrients have to come through the root system. Thoughts??
Roy, great question! As with any fertilize or lime I’d recommend to check the label and do the math to see how many pounds per acre you’re getting with these products. But with that being said many of the micronutrients are needed in such small quantities that is extremely difficult to spread that tiny amount over a 1 acre field. So if the soil test requires very low amounts of micronutrients, liquids can be a good way to feed that to the crop. Thanks for watching
I need to improve my soil
What if we don’t have a no till drill?
And we only have an ATV?
Should I just broadcast my fall brassicas and cereal rye into my tall spring weeds….spray glyphosate and then lawn roll everything down?
Or should I disc it?
When should I fertilize in that process
Yes that will work….the only thing I say about that is it can be challenging to get as good of a stand doing it like that. A good rain event is more important than ever when doing it that way. When planting like that, you’ve got your cereal grains to fall back on in case the fall plots aren’t as thick as you would like. Thanks for watching
@@DIYfoodplotpro
My weeds in the acre plot are chest high to be honest, so would you disc the green weeds in for organic matter?
Or roll it down and spray it and leave it on top of the soil?
You can do it either way, disking will typically get you a better shot at a successful plot, but seeding into the standing plot, then rolling it all down will work as well. The rolling option is better for the soil, but the disking option has a higher success rate.
The portion of your video showing the young corn plants, was that planted using your no-till drill?
I'm asking since I also have a drill (don't have a formal corn planter) and have wondered if I could get a decent corn plot using my drill.
No it was planted with a corn planter. Corn needs wider rows so you would need to cut off some of the rows on the drill. Also it’s very critical to get the spacing correct with corn. I’ve never tried planting corn with a drill, since I don’t own one….but i think it can be done, it would just be alot of work to get the drill setup initially. Thanks for watching!
I did it last year with a Genesis Drill. Use the spacers like mentioned and it did surprisingly well. Def not as precise as the corn planter but a solid stand for deer/screening.
When is a good time to do a soil test on these plots that has crop on them year around?
Spring, so you have time to adjust things! Lime takes time and every one needs lime added
I generally take mine in the spring but you can take them anytime of the year. Thanks for watching
Im looking for something to plant for a summer soil cover. Its 100+ degrees from late june until September with no rain.
No plants will do well with zero rain and 100 degrees for multiple days. Sun hemp, cow peas, and soybeans are also somewhat drought tolerant but like I mentioned above, with zero rain very very few food plots will do well. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the reply. Im going to try a mix a sorghum, millet, sunflower, sun hemp, and cowpeas. Keep the videos coming.
Yeah I forgot sorghum, it really likes the dry weather. It should do well in that environment. It’s always been a crop I’ consider when average rainfall amounts aren’t high enough for corn. Good luck with the plots