Planting Japanese Millet For Ducks (Part 2) | One Month Update
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- This is the second episode from our waterfowl habitat management project where we have been planting Japanese millet for ducks at one of our waterfowl hunting ponds. We checked in on the millet we planted four weeks ago and got some awesome footage of what we have growing plus we decided to plant a little more. We've seen amazing growth from nearly all the Japanese millet we've planted so far with only one area lagging behind. I'm really looking forward to following this project and the millet as it continues to grow and hopefully we'll be shooting some ducks and geese over it before too long! Hope y'all enjoy!
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That's going to be a sweet spot this fall. Enjoying watching the transition.
Thanks Matt! Hopefully it'll keep growing at this pace
Thanks for the shout out Thomas! The plants in front of your blind look like chufa (yellow nutsage)... good duck food. Most stuff that grows in moist soil environments that look like a grass are general good for ducks. The millet you planted looks awesome! Excited for you brother.
Thanks for the tip Joel! Will definitely not be ripping it up..
This is so cool man 🤙 enjoying the series can’t wait to hunt it with you
Thanks Jordo! If you make the drive down I’ll let you shoot a couple woodies out there 😂
Great tips! I’ll be using the knowledge on the new property we are buying on the Trinity River Texas! 😎
Thanks! Good luck down there, feel free to shoot me any questions you have throughout the process
Looking great! Nice job 👍
Very interesting series..... Keep it up
Thanks Scott! Will do
Looking great
Thanks!
The staggered food source will help pull ducks all season long. You could possibly plant German brown millet in the drier areas. From my research it really pops as far as production and it holds up well to being flooded and takes a long time to die off.
Thanks Chris, I hope so! I’ll check that out, I’ve heard about regular brown top millet but never that
Will millet grow if you broadcast it into the water and grow up through it??
That looks great
Thanks Kraig!
Nice video gonna do this on my own next season
Thank you! It's incredibly rewarding work, hope it turns out well for you
Leave the natural grasses diversity is the key in good waterfowl management....good job........
Thanks Matt! We definitely will be leaving the grass, just wanted to make sure it wasn't something that was undesirable
Great vid! My millet on my pond has grown to 6 inches. Thanks for the update
Thank you! Awesome to hear! When did y’all plant?
Last week
Looks awesome I can't wait to see hunts out of there in the fall!!!
Thanks Josh! Hopefully some Sept teal or geese will drop by for a visit
Been wanting to plant millet for a couple years but never saw a Great video on it and how to do it.... until now. Great job, earned my sub.
Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words and glad to have you in the community!
Great Series! Very relevant to me! You’re about 6 weeks ahead of me. Thanks for your info. Really enjoy.
Thanks Tyler! Have you planted millet before? Glad you're enjoying the series!
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited I planted a trial plot in a wood duck slough last year. Seed took great, 3 weeks in we had some flooding and it drowned out the millet. This year I’m planting a 1-2 acre field should be less likely to flood. I’m waiting until August to plant. So I enjoy seeing your time line.
I also enjoyed your duck blind building videos. You have the appropriate ratio of video and talking. Good stuff man.
Thank you! I really appreciate it and the feedback helps a lot. Sounds like a fun project you've got. Keep me updated on how it goes for you!
You gonna have more than just woodies in that hole this year, just wait til they find that food
Don't get me too excited now!
The grass that came up is nutsedge it has small tuber roots underground. Not sure if ducks like it or not. You should look into the extreme blower products spreader. It would make planting that place 10x easier.
I appreciate you telling me! I've heard the ducks will eat the seeds from the nut sedge, not sure about the tubers though. I will look into it, thanks!
They may root around a little bit. I know they do with chufa and other tuber type plants.
Man that millet is looking good! Can't wait to see what it keeps in that honey hole.
Thanks Mike! Hopefully plenty of woodies and who knows what else!
@@HokeOutdoors yea buddy
Not a hunter , doing it for my pets.
Plan on doing the same on the pond behind my house this week up here in Michigan nice series GooseFace
Thanks Kevin! Good luck on your pond
Looking good buddy.....I done the same thing a couple of times.....but we sprayed miracle grow on ours....made bigger heads...just thought I'd share that with you
Thank you! I appreciate the tip! Will definitely look into that
Awesome content, I’ve been doing a similar thing here in NC
Thanks Carson! Y'all planting millet too?
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited Yeah but not as much as y’all it’s a smaller hole.
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited how much millet did y’all buy in order to plant that pond?
carson hollis 50 lbs and didn’t use all of it yet
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited thanks for responding so fast, I order a 25lb bag and barely put a dent in it that’s why I was curious as to how much it took for that pond
Hey man try throwing out a bunch of lime. Next time instead of raking the Lilly pads try to burn them so give the soil more nutrients. I’ve done that in the past and it helped my millet
You fell in!! Lol glad no one was hurt. Lookin good tho!!
Haha yeah it seems like if there's a hole I somehow always find a way to fall into it. Thank you!
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited lol 🤙🏼🤙🏼
When is it ok to flood some water over the seed?
Could you elaborate? You can flood the millet once it has started to grow but you just can't have it completely covered with water at any point. I'd say after a month you should be able to put a decent amount of water on it without running the risk of drowning it
Your gonna slay ducks there for sure, some folks don't understand how preparation like this can go a long way. ( Looks great)
I hope so! Even if we don't kill a single duck on there this year it'll be a success for me just based on how much I've learned about habitat management. Ducks will be icing on the cake though!
@@HokeOutdoors absolutely my friend
Longwood nice. I went to HSC. There is some decent public hunting out there.
Small world! A few of the guys I hunt with are HSC alum, spent most my freshman year on that campus too. Definitely agree about the public hunting, not great but better than most areas in VA
The grass you're talking about looks like nutsedge. If so, then it's great for ducks!
Looks like it! Certainly won’t be ripping it up
I'm with the nutsedge guy
Great information
I'm gonna try do the same thing I have a pond almost same is your
I hope it turn out like yours
Any idea where I can get wild rice in Ontario Canada
Having a hard time tracking some down hope the millet wont be the same keep the video's coming great job🍺😎🤙
Thanks! I hope y'all are able to make it work. I think millet would be your best option in your area since rice probably won't make it to maturity before your first frost. Not sure where to find it up in Canada though. I know River Refuge Seed sells millet online but I'm not sure if they ship outside of the US
Great job Thomas! You’re hard work will pay dividends. What drone do you use?
Thanks Will! We are already seeing some of the hard work pay off but really looking forward to what fall and winter bring! We have a DJI Mavic Pro that we use
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited I appreciate it, thank you for all the quality info you post! I live in northeast Pennsylvania, all the places I hunt look exactly like yours. I love the backwoods beaver swamp holes.
How many pounds of seed did you need to get what you have their?
For what we have so far it only took 25 lbs of seed and much of that was probably overseeded. The prescribed rate is 15-20 lbs/acre. We will likely end up having planted 35-40 lbs in the end, after we do our third planting.
How does millet fare in colder weather? For your stuff you plan on planting in August, if you get crazy cold weather before it buds out will it kill it?
It’s not very tolerant to cold apparently but I’m not sure exactly what it can stand up to. We typically don’t get a frost here till mid November so it should be just about done growing by then. I’ve heard the main thing cold does is make the plants drop their seed heads which would be alright as long as it had finished growing
Is Japanese or wild millet or anything else for duck food perennial? Is there anything for the old, decrepit, lazy man to just broadcast into flat land that floods 2 months in spring and 2 months in fall that grows well with super minimum effort? edit: trying to just raise ducks. Feed bill way too high
Wild rice or arrow arum would be the only thing that would fit that bill. Neither is a perennial but both should reseed and establish themselves over the years unless birds eat all of it. Unfortunately it’s virtually impossible to get wild rice at the moment and arrow arum can be tough to plant but those are the only two I can think of
@@HokeOutdoors Wow. Thanks for the info and the very quick response. I will start looking.
Just sowed millet in my Shenandoah valley duck pond...now just need some rain to help things along.
Nice! Yep, rain seems to make a huge difference with this stuff. Let me know how it works out for y'all!
Just did the same here in the northern valley. Fingers crossed for some rain.
We just planted (about a poun) of Japanese foxtail millet Echinochloa esculenta (A. Braun). This is intended for northern regions. Some remote Asian people still use this for their every day grain! It peaked my curiosity as millet I don't know what type) is an ingredient in the chicken feed. I wanted to grow some feed for our chickens saving us some money, but with quarantines, who knows what access we'll have to stores. I read that it used to be a back up grain and hay substitute for farmers. Two harvests are possible each year for some regions. I'll try it as a fodder, see what happens. I'm thinking that it could be a useful addition to a survival type garden as well. But yeah, turns out that millet is a great product. Are you growing a different variety?
Anyway, I'm growing sunflowers for them and next year will add flax seed.
great vid but what are you going to do once the season is over?
Thanks Bryce! Could you elaborate on your questions? Not sure what you mean
Sorry. What I’m trying to ask is what happens to the millet once your use for it is over. Are you going to leave it or till it. I’ve just been seeing a lot of duck vids saying that it’s a good food source and easy to plant easy to grow but not a lot say what the cleanup will be for the next upcoming season.
Gotcha, thanks for clarifying! With anything you plant for waterfowl like this can't till it or manipulate it unless you harvest it. We won't be harvesting this so we'll just flood it once it finishes growing and leave it be all season. If there's leftover seed that isn't eaten by waterfowl some of the millet may reseed itself but by spring all the stalks from this years crop will have rotted away from being in the water. Basically I don't think theres supposed to be any clean up unless you want to try and stop it from reseeding itself the next season
where can u buy millet from
Most ag stores sell it
That grass is nut sedge and ducks like it! Great video! You guys be sure not to disturb, cut, alter, or even walk through that millet once it heads out. Federal law
Thank you! Definitely won't be manipulating it at all
@@HokeOutdoors looking forward to seeing how it looks on opener! Great job fellas! Oh, and my guess on the lack of growth on the peninsula is soil saturation. I believe its lacking of oxygen due to long periods under water. Should come around as the water dries and air is able to enter the soil.
No luck on the walking today!
For real! I never have much luck with walking..
Should hold some ducks this fall, can’t watch to see some of the hunts there👍🏽
I hope so! Gonna be interested to see if any teal or geese pay us a visit before regular duck season
Awesome video but hey I’m a pretty young hunter here in Virginia and it’s pretty tough to find public lands to hunt. Do you know any good spots between Richmond and Virginia Beach? Thanks.
Thanks Anthony! Unfortunately I don't have any good public recommendations in that area. I would definitely apply for the Hog Island WMA and Princess Anne WMA (impoundments, not floating blind) quota hunts but that part of VA is so overpopulated that birds don't stick around on public unless it's a quota hunt place. I would focus your time and energy on finding private swamps and ponds close to where you live and knock on doors to ask permission. You won't have to worry about competition in spots like that and can manage them how you'd like to. If you shoot me a message on Instagram or an email I may be able to help you out more.
Where can we order the millet seed? Great series! Shared with our son, Drake. We need to do this around our pond & creek. New sub🙋🏻♀️👐💃🏻🦆🦆🦆🌱🌱🌱🌾🌾🌾
Thanks you! We bought our millet seed from a local farm co-op, I'd say that your best bet although you can order it online too
@@HokeOutdoors Great!!! Thank you! We will do some research. 🥰
It looks like your "point" is running parallel to a channel. I am wondering if they dug the channel and your point is actually a spoil bank. If so that is not top soil and thus may not grow as well. Just a hypothesis.
Interesting idea Jesse and I think you might be right. That is a natural creek channel there but they may have altered it when they built the pond. That point also has a way higher clay content in the soil than the other areas which would make sense if it was dug material
Just toss some corn 🌽 out lol!
Where did you purchase your millet from?
Southern States (farmers co-op). That said I've heard it's harder to find later in summer and I checked their website a couple days ago and couldn't find any listed on there.
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited makes sense I
Assume due to when supply is readily available. Can’t wait to see the early season result!
The grass in front of your blind looks like nutsedge to me... they should mature into big seed heads and I’ve been told it’s good duck food
Looks like that’s what it is! Thanks for the tip. Will definitely be leaving it be, pretty stoked it’s there now
First!
Deer do not eat millet so u dont have to worry bout it there
False
Do 3x applications of 19-19-19 at 10# per 1,000 square feet. Watch out for army worms and the deer will start tearing the seed heads up around August/September when the seeds are soft. Using milorganite will help deter any deer for 1-2 weeks per application of milorganite (depending on rain/rate applied)
Thanks for the info Brett! I'll be look into both the the fertilizer and milorganite for sure. Any specific equipment needed for the 19-19-19 or can it be hand spread?
Virginia Outdoors Unlimited Ideally as soil test should be done in January-March. Soil PH needs to be around 6.5-7 for optimal Nitrogen, Phosphorus & Potassium uptake. Apply Lime as needed according to soil test... Focus on that next year for even better results. As far as spreading fertilizer, get a shoulder spreader. Most hold 25-50# which will make your life a lot easier, but your current spreader will work.