So all of y’all have inspired me to finally attempt to plant a food polt the right way. I decided to go with Imperial Clover from Whitetail institute. I sent off a soil test and needed to add 320lbs of lime for my 1/8 acre plot. Yes I know it’s small but it’s the only open area I have on my 160 acres. I used a tow behind disc behind my Mule to disc it in this afternoon. When I was about 90% done it started to pour which is great to get the lime to start working. I’ll go back to finish up the soil and move the protein feeder next week. I’ll keep y’all updated with pics as this progresses.

What I started with

90% done

Then it poured

Can’t wait to see the outcome and hear how it does with the deer

Great start....looking forward to photos.

Ran the disc again yesterday to finish breaking up the ground. Then ran a drag across to smooth it out. I wish I could just go ahead and plant the clover but I feel like I need to wait a month or so for the lime to do it’s magic and it’s probably still to hot. With all of this rain we have been getting it’s tempting. When I do plant I’ll spread the fertilizer then run the drag over it and then broadcast the seed on top. Not gonna lie I’m pretty excited to see how this turns out.

I’ve also decided to plant a small polt in the woods where I know he deer are traveling and gonna try and spread some lime back there today. Planting Whitetail Institute no plow back there.

Whats yall's thoughts on planting the clover this week? It's a little early according to WTI directions Sept 15-Nov 15 but with all of the rains in the forecast and temps below 90 I'm thinking I might be a perfect time to put it in to be effective for bow season?

I would wait. Just when you think it might be perfect it will get hot again.

Do you have a packer? A cultipacker could do well with the clover seed making sure it has good ground contact and doesn't have too much air psace int he soil, but other than that, looks good. Let the ground get wet, give it a week or two to see what sprouts, spray that with glyphosphate, then a week later run the drag and broadcast the seed on that bed. Don't need to disc again for clover. If you can, put down fertilizer (based on soil tests if needed) with the seed but not before.

That should come up pretty nice.

I would wait. I bet we see 100 degree weather before season opens.

I'm in east Texas, Cass County, and I am planting this afternoon because we have a possibility of rain everyday for the next 10 days. This is the earliest that I have ever planted. Otherwise I would wait til around the 21st of Sept to plant.

Got my plot planted and fertilized yesterday afternoon right be fore a 20 min rain shower came in. Ground looked great and should be a good seed bed. Once it comes up I'll take some pictures for y'all. Anyone have an idea how long it takes clover to sprout?

iirc, took mine around 10 days, that was for arrowleaf clover, some cultivars sprout better planted early Spring, some fall or over winter. Did you use inoculate for your particular type? Sure improves growth.

If by inoculate you mean a seed coat? Imperial Clover from WTI has all of there seeds coated to help with germination.

my areas were too wet to plow, so I hand tossed seed on top in hopes these last several days to a week of rain here in central Texas would make it happen. I'll be checking in the next week or so and let you know how that goes.

No, but it is a seed coat, what you are referring to is a moisture absorbing material, but, from what I read on anther blog, they do use inoculate, figured they had to, many now sell pre-treated seed, but some do not.

I've done that twice, right before a heavy rain and both times it came up fine.

So I’m doing this from my phone and don’t know how to post pics from here. Plot is coming in very nicely. I’ve had several nice rains about a quarter inch per shower. I planted this 8 days ago and two days ago the deer were already grazing what had come up. Last night a nice 8 was grazing the plot and I haven’t seen a buck in the last month. The pics I have are from a trail camera so you can barely even tell it’s coming up but the deer know it’s there. Hopefully they don’t hammer it all and give it a chance to grow. More showers are in the forecast Starting Saturday. Looking forward to seeing it next week.

Acorns are falling here pretty good now, if yours are, then that may take some pressure off your plot.

Post photos when you can.

Enjoying this thread. Keep us posted. We will plant saturday. Glad we waited. Past 2 weeks army worms reared their ugly little heads.

So it's been two weeks. I think it's coming up well. Tallest clover is about 3" tall. It looks like some of the seed is still just sporuting. I am thinking of over seeding again next week in some of the spots that seem a little bare. Y'alls thoughts. No army worms yet.

Go to your local feed store and get a 50lb bag of oats for $16. In about 3 weeks... this plot will be a field of green.

Looking good....this rain should help...

If you do this, make sure you get "whole oats", not steamed, crimped, rolled, just plain feed oats. Oats are a good idea as that clover will do the most next spring, oats provide some grazing cover for the clover and will be green long thru the winter.

You think you have clover now, wait until April-May if it takes a foothold for you and the deer don't wipe it out.

Dennis is right. If you want to keep them coning in all season... add purple top turnips and austian winter peas. Non of these will break the bank. And turnips are a great attractent after the first freeze. Call me if you want to chat.

Add oats if you can.

Well headed out to go spread some oats. I’ll update y’all as they come in.