Poor Food Plot Germination, now what to do?

F

Freeborn

Member
Well, I don’t know why but the germination rate on two of my food-plots is very poor. I planted 1.25 acres of Sorghum and 1.25 acres of soybeans by broadcasting and discing them in and then cultipacking. I would guess I have about 30% germination.

I need some help.
How can I tell what I did wrong when planting?
Is there anything I can just broadcast into my food-plots that will provide food for Pheasants?
When should I try seeding my food-plots?

For next year I am thinking about buying a JD 290 planter which I have heard is a good planter.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
My guess is that the seed was buried too deep. When I use the broadcast method, I disc, cultipack, broadcast seed, then cultipack again.
 
Another idea I had was to broadcast some additional seed into my food-plots and go ahead and cultipack it. Most of my plants are very small, less than 6 inches. I thought this might work for sorghum but I don't know about Soybeans. I have plenty of Sorghum seed left.
 
Don't know your location---it may be getting a little late for sorghum to mature to seed production. I have planted many sunflowers either as a double crop behind winter wheat(harvest in June) or as a stand along crop. On stand along sunflowers I usually planted between July 1st to July 20th to minimize(or eliminate) head moth spraying. You might consider sunflowers and I have planted sunflower seed from Wal-Mart or Orshlen or TSC with decent results.
 
How do I plant them and what is the normal rate (Lbs per acre) do you plant. Can I just broadcast them or would you recommend I cultipack?

I'm in west central minnesota with an average frost date of September 21-31.

Thanks!
 
It has been a long time since I raised sunflowers, but if you can get some kind of soil disturbance, then broadcast seed, then cultipack. You will lose a lot of seed to birds and not being covered with soil, but a bag of sunflower seed won't cost that much. Now a bag of seed for production is expensive. Don't know if there are sunflowers raised in your area.

I have ran an old grain drill through a plot to create some soil disturbance and furrows, then broadcast my seed then cultipack. Usually around here my soil is packed and hard enough that the drill really doesn't go in very deep, but does create a little soil to cover up the seed.
 
Freeborn said:
Well, I don’t know why but the germination rate on two of my food-plots is very poor. I planted 1.25 acres of Sorghum and 1.25 acres of soybeans by broadcasting and discing them in and then cultipacking. I would guess I have about 30% germination.

I need some help.
How can I tell what I did wrong when planting?
Is there anything I can just broadcast into my food-plots that will provide food for Pheasants?
When should I try seeding my food-plots?

For next year I am thinking about buying a JD 290 planter which I have heard is a good planter.

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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You might try white proso millet. It would have as good a chance as any thing. It is early and shatters early, but it will draw birds to your food plots. A little soil disturbance would be beneficial but if you gets some rain some will probably germinate. I am talking about the little white round bird seed. You can probably find it at a farm store.
 
I do have an old disc that I can change the angle so it has no angle or is straight. This would disturb the soil and hopefully not completly damage what I have comming up.

I understand winter rye can be broadcast without being tilled in and does pretty well germinating. Do pheasants eat winter rye seed?
 
Haymaker has a good suggestion about the millet. Very small seed and a good rain could provide enough soil cover to germinate it. It is a quick producer. Various varieties from an open head to a cigar or foxtail type head.
 
Freeborn said:
Do pheasants eat winter rye seed?
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They like anything with a seed head.;) If you're going to go the rye route I'd use oats. Pheas, huns, deer, rabbits, turkey all love it. It comes up with little effort.

Disturb the surface of the ground, broadcast, and drag or cultipack. I usually drag/"rake" it in. Works great. Of course the bird are going to go nuts over the seed so broadcast more than you normally would. They'll thin it out for you.


Freeborn, when did you put the seed in?
 
I planted about a month ago. I have not been up to my place for 2 weeks so it could have changed some, hard to say. The plants that did germinate i am certain are allot bigger and who knows maybe some additional seeds might have germinated even though I dought it.

I'm headed to my place this weekend so I'll get an assessment of the situation but based what I saw two weeks ago I expect about 30% germination.

Oats, is this a good time of year to plant them?
 
Freeborn said:
Oats, is this a good time of year to plant them?
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I don't know if you have any other options this late in the game.

I don't know how much rain you've been getting out there, but it may be a bit early to tell how it's going to look by Sept.


What did you do for weed control prior to planting your plots, and, are your plots getting weeded out by chance?
 
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The Soybeans and Sorghum I sprayed with gly before I planted and they look OK. The sorghum I sprayed Duall II Magnum as a post emergent. The Duall will probably cause me some problems. I would like to use some of the 100 lbs net of urea I used on the Sorghum but with Duall this might be a problem.
 
Not sure about your part of Minnessota but from what I've been seeing on the weather, a lot of rain has been going up north in MN and WI so you might be pleasantly suprised. I'd go with oats if it were me.
 
Freeborn said:
The Soybeans and Sorghum I sprayed with gly before I planted and they look OK. The sorghum I sprayed Duall II Magnum as a post emergent. The Duall will probably cause me some problems. I would like to use some of the 100 lbs net of urea I used on the Sorghum but with Duall this might be a problem.
Click to expand...

If your sorghum is not concept treated the dual will kill it and could very well be the problem with your stand.
 
If your sorghum is not concept treated the dual will kill it and could very well be the problem with your stand.
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My seed is from Pheasants Forever and is Concept treated.

I'll be reviewing the plots tomorrow and my local coop has German Millet for a backup plan. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed and I'm certain I'll get a decent plot.

Thanks.
 
Not sure about your part of Minnessota but from what I've been seeing on the weather, a lot of rain has been going up north in MN and WI so you might be pleasantly suprised
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You were right, I went to my place this weekend and I would say my plots were closer to 60% germination rather than 30%. I did not overseed millet into the field as it was not treated with concept and I thought the residual from the duall I sprayed would stop the seed from germinating.

Thanks.
 
I agree with Mr Byrd. it was too deep. never disck a broad cast. You can drag it with a bed spring or cultipac as said. Small plots you can drag with a bed spring or drive on it. I did that with my food plot and it worked well. I let it go while working on other things. But next spring I plan to do antler king clover mix the same way. It worked well on that stuff to. Even the grower sugested to do this in small plots. My dad did the same with his clover patch and it flurished. I would believe 100% this method will work for all broadcast apps. Flowers included, and certainly oats. I have some free oats seed bags for any one wanting them. Got them for a cover crop last spring and did not use it. It is dry and in 40 or 50 pound sacks I think. Stored in the garage in a cabinet. I will check but I think there is 2 sacks. Maybe 3.
 
I agree with Mr Byrd. it was too deep.
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I also agree. Next time I'll take it easy on how deep I plant them.

If your in Garfield your in good Pheasant country. My place is just North of Parker's Prairie and not to far from you.

Getting kind of dry now by me (sandy loam soil) and I'm hoping for some rain. We have had allot of rain this spring but it either comes all at once or not at all.

Thanks for the good advice.
 
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