Are Your Ducks in a Row?By: Steve Jordan Planting food plots is done in many different ways. Some very serious food plotters have two or four-row corn planters to plant corn or soybeans, and some also have six to eight foot grain drills for the smaller seeds. For years, I have been broadcasting seeds exclusively. This method can be done by hand by throwing seeds (almost like feeding the chickens on old western movies). You can also use a hand held crank or electric seed spreader or a pull behind wheel driven one. For bigger projects, you can hook up a PTO driven spreader to a mid-sized tractor. One question I often get when I talk about broadcasting is, “Doesn’t it hurt the seeds when you drive over them while covering and/or culti-packing the seeds?” The answer is always, “No!” If you spread the seeds on concrete and run them over a couple of times, I would say you would do some damage. In the soil, the seeds just press down nicely without getting harmed. I also get asked why I don’t use a grain drill for the turnip mixes, alfalfas, and other small seeds since I plant so many food plot acres in central Wisconsin. The main reason I don’t use a grain drill is that the average food plot is a half acre or less. One half acre of turnip mix is about a coffee can of seed which would barely cover the bottom of a six foot grain drill, and it just wouldn’t work. To fill up the grain drill with seeds and plant several different food plots at once is just not practical. Everyone’s land is different and is ready to be planted at different times. As expensive as these seeds are, hand spreading seems to be most efficient.
In the spring, when I am planting corn or soybeans for a fall or winter feeding of deer, I go through these steps:
For my summer planting of a fall plot, I do it a little differently. In the past, I have written about planting soybeans every three weeks during the growing season right up through August. This keeps the deer eating on the young, tasty plants all summer and early fall. This allows for the older patches to seed out for winter feeding. Once my window for planting a good turnip mix comes along (mid-July through mid-August), I still have the chance to plant soybeans. Here’s how I do it:
The soybeans come up and attract the deer immediately and will keep them coming to the plot daily up until the first frost. After that, the soybeans die and the turnips thrive. When talking about a good turnip mix, variety is the key. My custom mix consists of three varieties of turnips, two varieties of canola (rape), Swiss chard, two types of sugar beets, kale, two different brassicas, Korean lespedeza, crimson red clover, rutabagas and a forage radish. A turnip mix with this much variety encourages the deer to graze through the plot picking out different kinds of plants as the fall progresses. The deer hit this plot a lot earlier than a straight turnip mix. Now having soybeans coming up with my turnip mix really gets them in the plot early. Now let’s move on to row planting. I am starting to become more of a fan of row planting. I have a one-row wheel driven planter that hooks up with a three-point hitch and works great. I like to plant 45-inch wide rows for soybeans. This leaves plenty of room for a late turnip planting between the rows. The turnips will have plenty of room and sun to get started. If you did a good job of weed control all summer, and just have soil showing between the rows, then all you have to do is broadcast a good turnip mix onto the soil. The first rain will start the growth of these new plants. Wheat or rye can be broadcast between the rows as another option with good results. You may want to alternate wheat and turnips every other row. Forty-five inch rows planted in a pumped out reservoir in the spring for fall duck hunting works well. The wide rows allow the ducks to land and take off for a quick escape in the fall when flooded. One disadvantage of row planting over broadcasting is in high deer density areas the rows tend to get eaten off clean because there is not enough plants to withstand the grazing. Broadcasting will hold up better in these areas. Diversity and variety of different plants, along with row planting and broadcasting seeds can add to the quality of your food plots. There is no right or wrong when it comes to broadcasting your seeds or row planting. You can get your ducks in a row or use the shotgun method. Do what works best for you and your circumstances. Both can be very productive. The post Are Your Ducks in a Row? appeared first on Morning Moss. from http://morningmoss.com/are-your-ducks-in-a-row/
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Wild Apple TreesBy: Lawanda JungwirthDo you remember the story of Johnny Appleseed from grade school? It is more than just a story; Johnny Appleseed was a real person named John Chapman, born in 1774. Legend has it that he spent years walking throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia and Ontario, Canada randomly dropping apple seeds along the way. The truth is that he was a knowledgeable nurseryman and a noted conservationist. Johnny Appleseed didn’t go around tossing apple seeds everywhere, he went around planting deliberate orchards. In the early 1800s, frontier law allowed people to claim land by developing a permanent homestead. One way to make a claim was by planting 50 apple trees. John Chapman did just that, planting apple seeds in orchards. Once planted, he put fences around the orchard and left a neighbor to care for it. He would return every couple years to check each orchard’s progress and when they were producing sufficiently, he sold the land. By the time of his death at age 70, he had covered 100,000 square miles and owned more than 1,200 acres of land. The apples Johnny Appleseed planted were not the sweet eat-out-of-hand apples we look for today. They were small and tart, called “spitters” because that’s probably what you’d do if you took a bite of one. The apples he cultivated were mostly pressed to make hard cider and applejack. Unfortunately, when Prohibition came along in the 1920s, FBI agents took the ax to the majority of Johnny Appleseed’s apple trees. The last known apple tree to be planted by Johnny is 176 years old and still stands in Nova, Ohio. However, there are trees that have been grafted from his trees still growing throughout the area of his travels. The apples we buy today in the grocery store and the apple tree saplings we obtain from nurseries are not grown from seed. They are the result of careful grafting of existing apple trees, forming clones that are genetically identical. Often, they’ve been grafted onto the roots of other types of apple trees to control how large they will grow. There are still “wild” apple trees to be found in Wisconsin, along country roads, beside farm fields, at forest edges, along abandoned railroad tracks and in cemeteries. These apple trees may have grown on their own from seed and the size, flavor, ripening time and color are purely left to chance. Sometimes these apples aren’t the best tasting, but sometimes they rival the sweetest apples in the produce aisle. If you come across a wild apple tree, sample the fruit. If it’s awful, wait a few weeks and try again. Even though the apples appear ripe at first taste, they may not have been ready for harvest. Since wild apple trees haven’t been doused with poison to control for insect pests and diseases, the apples may be wormy or misshapen. On the other hand, you may come upon a tree that is naturally resistant to insects and diseases and find a tree full of perfect, beautiful apples. You can always cut the bad parts out of less than perfect apples and use the good parts. You can’t beat free! Wild apples can be used in all the same ways as commercial apples are used. Pies, cakes, apple slice, apple crisp, apple cake, apple Betty, applesauce, apple jelly, apple chutney, apple cider, apple wine . . . a truly versatile fruit. Like commercial apples, they can be frozen, canned or dried for long term storage. The post Wild Apple Trees appeared first on Morning Moss. from http://morningmoss.com/wild-apple-trees/ Clam Pro TackleTMAnnounces New Open Water Tungsten JigsRogers, Minn. (February 15, 2018) – The secret to catching fish through the ice is out and being embraced by open water anglers. For many years, Clam Pro Tackle has been helping ice anglers achieve success by using the benefits of tungsten in a vertical presentation. With the launch of a new initiative, CPT365, Clam tackle innovators are giving all open water anglers a new deadly weapon for their arsenal— the Drop Tg Tungsten Jig. The evolution of Clam Pro Tackle continues in the form of the Drop Tg. This industry-first, multi-specie jig brings the many advantages of tungsten to all open water anglers. Bass, walleye, pike and panfish anglers that use vertical tactics will quickly see its benefits… Heavier & Denser
Helps to Stay Vertical Increased Sensitivity Makes More Noise Less Resistance Environmentally Safe Cleaner Water and Pressued Fish Drop Tg Tungsten Jig
“Anglers used to have find fish by time-consuming casting, drifting or trolling tactics. Now with more advanced electronics, they can ‘hunt’ and find the fish first, THEN fish for them,” explains John Crane, Clam Pro Tackle Developer. “Tournaments are being won by an angler that finds that one giant fish, groups of fish or baitfish, then vertically targets them. This ‘Vertical Drop System’ or VDS, is a new and evolving tactic — see ‘em, drop to ‘em, and catch ‘em — and Clam Pro Tackle is providing the tool to help it take off. Feel what you’ve been missing with the Drop Tg.” The post NEW Open Water Tungsten Jigs appeared first on Morning Moss. from http://morningmoss.com/new-open-water-tungsten-jigs/ Walleye Fly RigKyle Sorensen with OB Outdoors shows you how to tie a walleye fly rig! Catch more fish today!
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ABOUT MEWhats up. Im Todd. I like my dog, boats, the open water, the American flag and guns. Some might describe me as a "basic bro", but I'm really just a down home country boy. And a country boy can survive! Im usually out on the water in my fishing boat or canoe with my dog drinking a beer. Stuff on here is stuff I like. Cheers. Archives
May 2019
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