dogdoc Posted April 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2014 Took a little drive on the 4-wheeler and snapped a few shots. I have probably 50 or so plum thickets throughout the property. They are all doing great. Kinda sad the flowers don't last longer as they sure are pretty when they are in bloom. My two pecan orchards. I had these areas cleared so I could enjoy the pecans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strut10 Posted April 15, 2014 Report Share Posted April 15, 2014 Awesome layout !! Those pecan orchards just BEG a longbeard Rio to strut there !!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted April 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 great day today. Didn't take many pics today. I tilled and planted one of my food plots today. Little less than an acre. Sprayed with glyphosate exactly 2 weeks ago and had a great kill so I tilled it with my King Kutter and broadcasted with my 3pt spreader. A local mix that is planted at 50# per acre. I used 35# of the mix and added another 25# of red ripper cowpeas. The mix includes white millet, milo, WGS, sunflowers, soybeans, cowpeas, clover, and alfalfa. I had a real nice fluffy seed bed after tilling so after I broadcasted I just cut down a large cedar tree and used it as a drag for the entire plot. I usually use the tiller just barely touching the ground but since I had some real small seeds I decided to drag. Check the plot after using the big cedar tree and saw very very few seeds exposed. First time I have ever used a cedar tree as a drag and it actually did a pretty good darn job. I think what makes it work good is the fact that the tiller makes such a "fine" seed bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted April 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2014 Went out today and did a little grafting. Grafted 8 trees today. I did bark grafting on 7 of them and a cleft graft on one of the smaller ones. I still have about 20 more trees to do but not all of them had leafed out. Weird how some have and others haven't. Maybe that's mother nature protecting some from a late freeze or maybe that is why some hang onto the fruit a little longer. I used electrical tape to wrap and toilet bowl wax to seal. I wrapped several of the scion with parafilm tape to prevent moisture loss and some I didn't. Just curious to see if it really makes a different. The bark was slipping great. Probably took me about 5 minutes per tree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 One of the driest spring on record but we did finally get some moisture during June--below average but at least it kept everything alive. I lost my clover plot that I planted last year with wheat. Just not enough moisture. So I let the wheat mature and then just broadcasted 75# of a local wildlife mix consisting of sorghum, millet, cowpeas, soybeans, mung beans, lablab, and sunflowers. After broadcasting I mowed the wheat to create a mulch over the seeds. Received a nice rain a few days later and now the plot is doing great. Providing lots of food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Fruit trees are coming along great. A late spring frost killed all the blooms but didn't have too many anyway and the trees are young so they don't really need to fruit this year anyway. Pear tree My sawtooth oaks that i tubed are growing like crazy. Planted the seedlings mid april and they are already popping out of the 4 foot tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Drilled 2 acres worth of eagle soybeans the first week of june. Drilled the beans then sprayed with glyphosate immediately after drilling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Still have some fescue that survived the first spraying and crabgrass has invaded so sprayed again yesterday with 5 quarts of 41% glyphosate in 50 gallons of water. Hopefully this will knock out the majority of weeds and grasses. This is what it looks like now. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 OK, so question about the apples Todd. Do you keep up with spraying them all? If so how and what are you using? We got another year of the blight here, trees in my yard I missed spraying this spring got hit pretty bad. As if that is not bad enough got japanese beetles also attacking them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 OK, so question about the apples Todd. Do you keep up with spraying them all? If so how and what are you using? We got another year of the blight here, trees in my yard I missed spraying this spring got hit pretty bad. As if that is not bad enough got japanese beetles also attacking them. You can just go to any Home Depot or Lowes and get some Bonide Fruit Tree Spray. That will take care of your fungal problems like rust and also your beetles. I think you can spray it every 14 days. Just don't wanna spray when trees are in bloom so you don't kill your bees that are fertilizing your trees. However, fire blight is another problem. What you wanna do with blight is cut off all affected limbs back 18 inches from the infection. Blight is a bacteria and this year (from what I am hearing from other fruit tree growers) is that this is a very bad year for blight. The best treatment is prevention and that is spraying with a copper based spray in late dormancy. If you prune off all the blight and spray now with copper spray then you might be able to prevent any further infection. There is no spray that will actually kill blight--only prevent. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Thanks Todd. Yep, cut below the infected limbs already, noticed a few more when I mowed the yard the other day. Almost impossible to keep it from spreading once one tree has it with the birds and squirrels. I lost my pear trees probably 8 or 9 years ago to the fireblight. One of those was a 20+ foot kieffer. I do usually use the bonide fruit tree spray in the spring. I ran out and they did not have it locally at lowes or wal mart, our closest rural king store where I bought it in the past closed up. Ended up ordering a half gallon when i ordered 2 4 d and glyphosate online from rural king and sprayed after noticing something was eating the leaves. Literally had beetles falling off the trees on me. Wondered with so many trees as you have if you do spray yours too? On another subject, have you ever tried clethodim for your grasses in your clovers? The stuff works well for killing crabgrass, but it is pricey, $60 a gallon from rural king. Still cheaper than the poast and other branded stuff specifically for food plots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 William--I have not personally used cleth on my clover plots for grasses but that is about the only thing most of the guys over at the QDMA forum use. I purchased a big jug of Poast several years ago. When I'm done with that I will switch over to cleth. I have only sprayed my trees once this year. I sprayed them mid spring mainly to help prevent cedar rust. I have had very little insect damage so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkeygirl Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Frost did in our apple and fruit trees here. I like your idea of broadcasting the seed then mowing to cover the seed with mulch. Think that is what I'll try with my food plot because I want to plant forage oats end of august/beginning of September so I think I'll broadcast then mow over the existing crop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Frost did in our apple and fruit trees here. I like your idea of broadcasting the seed then mowing to cover the seed with mulch. Think that is what I'll try with my food plot because I want to plant forage oats end of august/beginning of September so I think I'll broadcast then mow over the existing crop. I've broadcasted oats into an existing soybean plot and it did great. I think broadcasting then mowing would work great with oats. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted August 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2014 My large bean plot ended up being a failure. Due to lack of rain and getting it planted so late the young beans just never got established good. I will start over next spring but I did get all the fescue killed with the two sprayings. I will be tilling everything under here in a week or two. Already have my seed purchased. I will be planting wheat. rye. ground hog radishes, rape, and crimson clover. Then next spring I will return to eagle beans so I can spray the field a couple more times to eventually get a handle on all the weeds. My small eagle bean plot that I planted a month earlier is doing great. I am even getting some flowers so hopefully will have some pods this winter The Eagle beans are handling the pressure great and the deer are enjoying the nutrition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted August 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2014 I broadcasted some rape into the beans and received 1/2" of rain last night so hopefully that will get the seed going. date on the cam is off by one month My throw and mow plot is doing great. Lots of forage and security for the deer Got some nice seed heads for the deer to munch on this winter and a fairly nice buck visiting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OKstate Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 Thanks for posting the progress on your place! It is always nice to learn from someone who is close to home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted August 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Got my 2 acre plot worked up and seed broadcasted yesterday. I originally had this 2 acres planted in Eagle Beans but due to a late planting and very dry spring the Eagles never had a chance to get established. As soon as they popped out of the ground the deer were plucking them out. I did not spray prior to the planting but it had been sprayed twice during the summer. There was some crabgrass and nutsedge in the field but hopefully I will be ok with it being a fall planting. Tilled the 2 acres the broadcasted 75# of wheat, 75# rye, 25# of AWP, and about 30# of cowpeas, 5# of Ground hog radishes. I then dragged the field with a harrow. After dragging I hand broadcasted 10# of crimson clover and 5# of rape. Here is the finished product. Now just gotta hope the 90% chance of rain tomorrow holds. The large bush in the middle of the plot is a button bush. Creates some neat white round flowers and is a heavy seeder. The leafs are browsed by deer and the seeds are eaten by many songbirds and ducks. Nice plant to have around so I didn't sacrifice it for the plot. I just worked around it. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted August 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 couple bucks feeding on the Eagle Beans. Doe and her baby on the beans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted August 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2014 Apple tree I started from seed this spring is starting to pop out of the 4ft tree tube. My new tower stand that will overlook the 2 acre plot. Made it a little bigger now that I seem to always have a kid hunting with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 Received 0.8 inches of rain on tuesday--hopefully that will be enough to get the plot going. Plots are done!!!! Finished up my last two fall plots. Now I gotta finish one tower stand, hang one tree stand, and put up 3 ground blinds then I am ready for season. Here is my main food plot. It currently has Eagle beans and and my "throw and mow" plot. I sacrificed about 60% of the throw and mow mix to plant my fall plot. The plot was just too thick to do a no till so I mowed it a week ago to let all the vegetation dry out and did a shallow tilling. Planted pretty much the same mix as my other plot I planted last week. Rye, wheat, AWP, cowpeas, GHR, and DER. Eagle Beans to the right. Spring plot to the left. Lots of WGF sorghum, millet, and cowpeas still producing. It should last well into the first freeze then the deer will eat the seed heads of the sorghum/millet/milo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 I made 3 little "hidey hole" plots in the spring mix to add some security. All "hidey holes" are great shots from my shooting tower. There is quick cover on 3 sides of the little plots. Eagle beans are an Amazing food plot. They take a licking and keep on ticking. Plenty of browsing pressure but they just keep producing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 My last plot is a 3/4 acre plot that was a total failure this spring due to invasion of maypops. That is one tough plant to kill. Glyphosate will set it back but will not kill it. Next spring I will till up and then hit with a good dose of 2-4D before planting my spring plot. I might even sacrifice a spring plot to get that plant under control. This plot follows the contour of my creek and planted with the same mix except I had some really old Alsike and Red clover that I actually found in a sealed bucket in my garage. I did a ragdoll test and it had about 20% germination so I went ahead and put it down. Here is the tower stand that I am in the process of building for the above plot. Got about 1/2 of it done. It was all I can do (safely) by myself. Hoping to get it finished this weekend or next week when my dad can help me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 Finished the tower Put up 3 ground blinds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 Plots are coming along ok---been very dry. Main plot: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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