Planters What are my food plot attachment options?

[fishingreg]

Y'all have helped me with several items in the past, I bet many of you have several different methods of making food plots. I have A L3400 Kubota and I am looking for something about 5 to 6 foot wide to make food plots. I have a tiller but my ground has a good bit of baby mesquite and cedar that are cut with a brush hog. I have seen the true one attachment food plot makers with the discs, chissels, seeder, and culti-packer. Looks like they would work good but they start at about $5000.00 and I'm only looking to do a couple acres. I want to do some clover, legumes, maybe sunflower, and sesame.

Now if some of you have the one attachment plotter and love it or hate it, please tell me about it. I am not closed to one of those, I just need to save longer.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[foreman Etexas]

My ground is sandy loam,so cant really help that much did use a 7ft disc,now just run a fast pass over it with 74in.tiller,broadcast seed,another fast pass with tiller and roll it in(I forgot to mention I mow it as low as the shredder will go cple days before and allow all the cut grass die out)..
I would think for your ground a good first deep offset cut,maybe two...

 

[fishingreg]

So you basically bury your seed by another fast pass of the tiller? I had not thought about that yet?

 

[foreman Etexas]

So you basically bury your seed by another fast pass of the tiller? I had not thought about that yet?

Yeah just covering alittle tiller really not going go very deep anyways. I think your most important is getting it rolled in,I have a 12ft roller but have used my wide tires on my toyota on some smaller plots. I put out cow peas, plot mix(clover and stuff in it) and rye grass and mine have always turn out great. Timing it before or after a rain and add 100lbs of triple13 with it....

 

[EverythingAttachments]

A cultipacker is a good tool to run over the area with after broadcasting seed. The cultipacker makes v-shaped ridges in the soil pressing the dirt around the seed, allowing the soil to hold moisture better and the plants to sprout quicker. We have a video here showing one in action.(click the link and scroll down)

 

[fishingreg]

Thanks Ted, Since I am new to this type of planting, are you saying to disk/till then seed then cultipac or maybe disk/till, cultipac, seed, cutlipac again? I would think the second as disking then seeding would put some seeds very deep.

 

[bucktaker]

I used my Rachet rake from TSc to break up scratch the soil 10 daysafter application of roundup, broadcast the fert and a quick rake, braodcast the seed and a another light rake to set the seed. Roll it with a lawn roller to pack. Waiting for Rain.......

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Thanks Ted, Since I am new to this type of planting, are you saying to disk/till then seed then cultipac or maybe disk/till, cultipac, seed, cutlipac again? I would think the second as disking then seeding would put some seeds very deep.

I think you'd get the best results by running the cultipacker over it before and after seeding unless your seedbed is tilled pretty fine. This will break up the clods and prevent the seeds from going too deep like you said. There are many ways to get things to grow and you can approach it many ways and get similar results. Some will be better than others but you're definitely asking your questions in the best place to get quality answers from experienced people!

 

[kebo]

Thanks Ted, Since I am new to this type of planting, are you saying to disk/till then seed then cultipac or maybe disk/till, cultipac, seed, cutlipac again? I would think the second as disking then seeding would put some seeds very deep.

The latter is the preferred method, but you can do it the former method too. By packing the soil before you seed, you break up the big dirt clods and provide a firm seed bed at the same time. Then, once the seed is broadcast, you can run back over it with the cultipacker to press the seed down firmly. One point to remember, seed should only be covered no more than four times it's width. So, for clover which is very small, it should be about 1/4" deep. I realize with a cultipacker you can't adjust the depth that the seed will be covered, but I think it's a better method of covering after broadcasting seeds of different sizes to get maximum germination. You are correct, by tilling it or disc'ing it after broadcasting, you could have some seed covered up so deep it won't ever make it up out of the ground.

 

[fishingreg]

Thanks for all your help. Sounds like what might serve me the best and be good options are a cultipacker and a set of disks. Even for a nice heavy set it will come out at least $1,500 less than the all in one food plot maker and might serve more than the one purpose. I have a tiller but not sure I want to use it over the ground I want to break up, there are lots of little saplings and such. Seems like a disk set is in my future. Thanks again

 

[foreman Etexas]

I have two ways to throw out seed a big hopper for back of tractor and a atv one that mounts on rack(12v.). I would recommend the 4wheeler one if you have one for doing the small plots,it will hold 50lbs and I pre-mix everything in buckets. Maybe somehow can mount it were when you cultipack it first time can also throw seed out behind it,all in one pass.

 

[8ball3290]

You do not want to run a tiller over clover and smaller seeds, it will bury the seed way to deep. Get yourself a decent set of discs and a cultipacker like suggested. You can always run the tiller after disking. I only tiller over seed of its larger, beans corn etc that needs to be planted deeper then I run the culticker over it. I pull the cultipacker attached to the tiller and kill two birds in one pass

 

[dkhntr04]

If you are looking to plant more crop type plants such as soybeans, peas, corn, etc. look at building a no-till planter. I picked up a couple White 5100 row units and made a mini no-till planter by adding 200# of additional down-pressure to each unit, and using Danish s-tines with narrow ripper sanks mounted in front of the units as sod-rippers when needed. I spray glyphosate after to kill off the existing grasses on a first planting, or any weeds on a re-planted plots. Works really slick, very fast, no tilling, and in our soil type the "crops" do very good.

I can only dedicate 1 weekend to bring the tractor to where I hunt (150 miles one way). The no-till works great, I can seed 5+ acres of plots spread over 240 acres in half a day plus do a host of other chores over the time I am there. All the seed I use except for peas is glyphosate tolerant, so any time someone goes to the hunting land over the summer they spray the plots with the 4-wheeler to keep the weeds down. Works great.


Here is the Mrs. planting soybeans on the largest plot on the property.

 

[Johndeere3720]

One of my Jake Rake's would work great for what you need to do. Check out my website and see if it is something you may be interested in. :thumbsup:

 

[clemsonfor]

Look on Craigs list for a good used 5ft disk. I bet you can buy one easily for $300-400. Then get a packer if you want. I just have my disk really high just barely touching ground and go really fast to thow the dirt all around behind me. I know its not the best way but im doing it on the cheap and small areas, and i overseed counting on to deep seeds and bird predidation.

No way would i buy an all in one machine if "your only dooing a few small areas". If your doing it as a side biz its prolly a good investment as you will save time.

The 4wheeler pulled ones are junk i have used them before.

 

[kneedeep]

My method for wildlife food plots are to mow first then spray. Wait a few weeks for spray to work then disk plots deep and fast. I then set disk almost straight and drag 6' chainlink fence section with old tires tied on it to smooth sed bed. Mix fertilizer and seed in cone spreader, brodcast while dragging fence section and pray for rain!

One man operation and works with a mower, disk , spreader and fence section.

just my :2cents:

 

[sawtooth]

Yeah as another poster said if you want to do it right then go with cultipacker and disk harrow. buy a $1000 Leinbach 6 ft cultipacker and $1500 Howse 6.5ft HT series heavy disk harrow with 20" blades. I also have a high end Brown disk buy the Howse is best bang for buck. Then cut up the ground real good and pack it down. Then throw out seed and pack again. Make sure dirt is on the dry side and not muddy as it turns to concrete once it does dry. Now if your doing big seeds like soybeans and wheat you can disk then last runs with that disk don't go as deep but just level the plot. Then put out seed and cultipack. Good luck and have fun.

 

[sawtooth]

Also what ever disk you buy needs to have minimum of 50lbs per blade. That means you take weight of harrow and divide by # disk on that harrow.