kebo
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,928
- Location
- Lexington, SC
- Tractor
- 2001 John Deere 790 4x4, bar tires
Ok, I know there used to be a forum just for food plots, but couldn't find it so I hope the mod's will allow me to post this thread here. About 5 weeks ago I went over to the property I hunt on and bushhogged the area on the natural gas line where I wanted to put the food plot in. Then, about three weeks ago I hooked up the cultivator (the kind with six C shaped tines) and ripped it up with a number of passes. I made the plot about 25ft wide x 50yds long to start with. The cultivator worked really well, it only dug down maybe about 6 inches, but mostly it ripped off most all of the weed/vegetation from the top layer and piled it up at each end of the strip. I know... some of that may be the top soil, but that's how I did it. 
Last Saturday morning, I went back over it with the disk harrow set for maximum cutting angle. It disked it up pretty well and there wasn't very much undesired vegetation left living at that point. Now it was time to put out the seed, but I didn't have a nice smooth seed bed yet. So, I got creative and set the front loader bucket to a shallow angle relative to the ground. I then put it in float position, and went back over the entire food plot in reverse, dragging the bucket over it. This actually worked pretty well and got it pretty level. So, I then used a small lawn spreader to put out a 50lb bag of Rackmaster Fall food plot seed. I don't recall exactly what it has in it, but I think it is wheat, forage oats, winter peas, some clover, and some rape.
Again, getting creative, I just started driving the tractor over it repeatedly from one side to the other side, making sure the rear tires touched the edge of the previous track. The bar tires mashed the seed in pretty good, and left lots of ridges to hold the seed in and catch the water when it rains. I actually do have a cultipacker to level it out with, before and after seeding it, but it's 6ft wide. The only access to this section of the gas line is a trail that I just cut through the planted pines last summer to get to it. Right at the very end of the trail where it joins the gas line, I have a narrow 63" gap to drive through between the young pines, so right now the culitpacker won't fit. I hate to cut the property owners tree down, unless it just absolutely has to go. Maybe the pine beetles will get it next year.
So, today it rained a pretty good bit!! I think I'm in business now!! Hopefully we'll get a little more rain here and there to keep it going. If it does ok this fall, I think I will extend it another 20yds or so next year. If you look real close, you can see the condo just up the gas line about 80 yds from the closest end of the plot, which just got a new set of ladder steps built onto it the previous weekend. It's now in dire need of a new roof, but that will have to wait until after the season. The rifle season starts in two more weeks, I just don't have time to get it all done before then. Oh yeah, one last thing, just on the right hand edge of the gas line, where the tractor is parked at, is where I got stung by yellow jackets when I was bush hogging in there about 5 weeks ago. I started that thread about it "was bound to happen sooner or later", which I see is now up to about 400 posts.
Now if SCE&G would just send that helicopter with the saw blades hanging beneath it to cut all the limbs off the sides of the RoW, I'b be able to see up and down gas line much better!! Hope you find it interesting to read, I know I had fun doing it!
Last Saturday morning, I went back over it with the disk harrow set for maximum cutting angle. It disked it up pretty well and there wasn't very much undesired vegetation left living at that point. Now it was time to put out the seed, but I didn't have a nice smooth seed bed yet. So, I got creative and set the front loader bucket to a shallow angle relative to the ground. I then put it in float position, and went back over the entire food plot in reverse, dragging the bucket over it. This actually worked pretty well and got it pretty level. So, I then used a small lawn spreader to put out a 50lb bag of Rackmaster Fall food plot seed. I don't recall exactly what it has in it, but I think it is wheat, forage oats, winter peas, some clover, and some rape.
Again, getting creative, I just started driving the tractor over it repeatedly from one side to the other side, making sure the rear tires touched the edge of the previous track. The bar tires mashed the seed in pretty good, and left lots of ridges to hold the seed in and catch the water when it rains. I actually do have a cultipacker to level it out with, before and after seeding it, but it's 6ft wide. The only access to this section of the gas line is a trail that I just cut through the planted pines last summer to get to it. Right at the very end of the trail where it joins the gas line, I have a narrow 63" gap to drive through between the young pines, so right now the culitpacker won't fit. I hate to cut the property owners tree down, unless it just absolutely has to go. Maybe the pine beetles will get it next year.
So, today it rained a pretty good bit!! I think I'm in business now!! Hopefully we'll get a little more rain here and there to keep it going. If it does ok this fall, I think I will extend it another 20yds or so next year. If you look real close, you can see the condo just up the gas line about 80 yds from the closest end of the plot, which just got a new set of ladder steps built onto it the previous weekend. It's now in dire need of a new roof, but that will have to wait until after the season. The rifle season starts in two more weeks, I just don't have time to get it all done before then. Oh yeah, one last thing, just on the right hand edge of the gas line, where the tractor is parked at, is where I got stung by yellow jackets when I was bush hogging in there about 5 weeks ago. I started that thread about it "was bound to happen sooner or later", which I see is now up to about 400 posts.
Now if SCE&G would just send that helicopter with the saw blades hanging beneath it to cut all the limbs off the sides of the RoW, I'b be able to see up and down gas line much better!! Hope you find it interesting to read, I know I had fun doing it!
