Wednesday, August 22, 2012

"Growing Deer": Starting a Food Plot




What this image shows is the result of a lot of soil prep. The area to be planted is one half acre in size. It took three steps to get it to look like this:
  1. First, I removed the previous cover of reed canary grass by mowing.
  2. Next, I needed to break up the thick layer of rhizomes, or the roots that makes reed canary such a prolific invader of native plants. Here was where the hard work started. I used a six-foot disc pulled behind a tractor to break up most of the thick mat of roots.
  3. Finally, the last step in soil preparation was conditioning the soil. I used a soil conditioner attachment on a Bobcat skid-steer. This helped further break up root and soil clumps. Those last two steps took six or so hours!
I will let this rest for a day or so and then plant. Check back for updates


