This is the second of a series of videos on how to plant food plots that are great for soil health and better soil conservation.
#FoodPlots
0:00 Start
01:16 Advantages: Weather
02:45 Water Conservation
03:13 Soil Temperature
04:22 Soil Life
07:57 Weed Protection
09:07 Fertilizer Needs
10:04 Roots!
13:33 Release Process
14:17 First Steps to Start
15:55 Principles of Soil Health
17:26 Benefits
To recap how we plant food plots:
As an outline...
1. If present, terminate weeds with a herbicide. Do not till as that will bring more weed seeds to a depth (shallow) where they can germinate.
2. Choose whether you are patient and don't wish to add any synthetic fertilizer or wish to use the "wean-off" approach. If you don't wish to use any fertilizer, plant the crop - and almost always a diverse blend that includes grasses, small and large forbs, and legumes. I'm currently planting the Summer Release blend (GreenCoverFoodPlots.com).
If you wish to wean off synthetic fertilizer do soil test at about the same time annually and the first year apply 75% of the recommended amount, 50% the second year, and 25% the third.
3. Pull any aggressive weeds such as marestail, pigweed, etc.
4. Plant directly into the standing crop during the next planting season and then terminate the standing crop with a crimper.
Seeds from: Green Cover Seeds, greencover.com/product-catego... from:
RTP Outdoors, www.rtpoutdoors.com/
Case IH Tractors, www.caseih.com/northamerica/e...
During the spring, plant when the soil temp is 60 degrees at 9am and when there's not a strong cold front approaching. During the fall, plant 45 to 60 days before the average first frost date.
There's much more information in our videos at our website.
We've been planting food plots for MANY years. Initially planting food plots using the traditional process of breaking the ground and either broadcasting by hand or using a planter. Then started planting no-till food plots as it reduced that extra step of plowing. On moving here to Southern Missouri, the choice to use no-till was the only choice because our rocky soils are basically impossible to till/disk.
As time passed the additional benefits of a no-till food plot became clear. We continue learning and the best system - what we’ve done the past two years is to plant green - which means to plant into the standing crop.
We’ll soon be sharing more in videos about planting to show this process. We've been amazed at how much of the soil’s potential has been released in a few years! The soil at our place is now literally dark and smells rich like Iowa soil and I live in the Ozark Mountains near Branson, MO!
This spring we'll be planting a blend with 10+ different species that work together to rapidly improve soil health. We'll get this from GreenCoverSeed.com and it will cost about $55 per acre plus shipping. They ship a huge volume so shipping prices are good. This seed cost per acre is a much better price than found elsewhere.
By planting these blends and getting seed from Green Cover versus companies with fancy bags with a big buck on the front, there’s much more savings! Many food plot companies’ products are $100+ per acre. Green Cover - sales millions of pounds of cover crop farmers - has way better prices - typically about $50 per acre.
We're very confident you will enjoy and appreciate the Release Process and watching the soil and deer at your place improve in quality!