this ground in this bottom is so full of clay that an inch of rain makes it so slick you can't do any thing for several days. This soil is actually known as Dunbar loamy sand, described as being a poorly drained, strongly acid sandy clay material.
That sounds a lot better than what I have at my house... building debris mixed with crushed limestone and topped with dusting of top soil. Nothing grows on it without fertilizer and watering.
Treefarmer in that picture where you're filling the drill with corn, for a split second I thought that you had a tribal tattoo on your ankle. Just saying! (Glad I was wrong)
:salute3d
Bossman, that tribal tattoo is the drive chain from the packer wheel that drives the seed plates. All you'll find on my ankles are scars and fire ant bites except on Sundays when you will find long pants, socks and shoes ;)! Treefarmer
Clover/corn food plot Day 22
25th day without rain. The food plot and its' clay content soil is baked as hard as a brick on the clover side and the clods on the corn side, from marble size through softball size are just as hard.
The clover may well be lost, plenty of crabgrass still coming up but it may have gotten too hot and too dry too quick. However a good little shower might change things as all those little seeds didn't germinate. If it works, great, if it doesn't we'll try again in September.
On the other hand the corn is doing ok, not great like last year, but ok. There are lots of "skips" in the rows where it was either too dry or the planter malfunctioned. Here a good shower might germinate the seeds if they are there. Planted 2 other small patches of the red corn and they are doing great, but they are on a different type of soil. One was planted on the 10th and it is 8-10 inches high, no skips, and the other planted last Friday the 24th was needling through this morning. These 3 corn patches are within a 100 yards of each other.
Unusual week for the game camera as not a single picture was taken. Burned the planted pines adjacent to the food plot in early March and there is plenty of green browse for the critters to feast on.
This weeks' picture show some of the March burn, the pines greened up and the corn side of the food plot. Notice the green on the right hand side of the picture, that is the clover side with all the crabgrass showing up.
Supposed to rain on the weekend. (They said that last week too!) It's a long time till deer season here in the panhandle, a lot can happen.
Treefarmer
Clover/corn food plot Day 29
Went 26 days without rain on the clover after it was planted and 17 days after planting the corn. Again, I don't hold much hope for the clover at this time but the corn will probably do well enough to make the deer interested.
The rain finally came to our place Monday, only 3/10" but we are very thankful for that, then yesterday afternoon we got 3/4", again, thank you Lord! Everything looks so good after a rain even if it makes things slick and muddy. The corn has some skips in it, but as I plowed it Monday morning, noticed there was plenty of moisture being pulled up by the track plows. This soil hold water well but the surface dries to a rock hard crust because of the clay content. Not a good thing for the clover seeds that need to remain near the surface but the corn is planted about 2" deep and packed to create a seal over the top and keep the seed tight against the moist soil in order for it to germinate quickly.
Lots of crab grass and other weeds on both sides of the plot. It looks good after cultivating, but the weeds and grass will continue if you don't use a herbicide. The corn will finally retard some of the weeds and grass by shading the ground.
This weeks pictures will show the corn has grown a little since last week, the competition the clover faces if it survives and what a gooey mess occurs when you get a couple of good showers.
Treefarmer
