Mass Builder/Fall Draw Plot

WOW! WI_Plotter, that's an awesome looking food plot!!!!

Noqs that's a great choice, please post some follow up pics, I'm eyeing on planting some for next year.

So far I've been very impressed with all of the mixes I've planted from John. Just took a walk around the fall draw and was astound to find a 7" radish that was pulled from ground and being eaten on by deer.

I love the GRO liquid plant foods! Nice looking plots WI_Plotter!!!

That is some great response. I switched up some of my plantings from my original plan. Just planted Deer Cafeteria 8/23. Will get some pictures when I get some growth. Unusual weather in northern LP Michigan. 41 degrees this morning.

Under a week since spraying field with 9-4-9

Before:

After:

Mass builder also responded well after spraying

Nope not a sill question. Honestly there's really no wrong way of doing it. The approach I took was that I walked the entire field with the nozzle on mist then I took a few more passes with it on a direct stream. I also watched the weather and applied it a few hours before it rained. My goal was to ensure I got good coverage on most the plants and then let the rain do the rest. Hopefully this helps answer your question.

Placed my order yesterday, seed and 9-4-9. Kinda silly question, do you "soak" it, spray just the growth or cover the entire field?

Noqs I used the amount posted above by adding 1-3 oz per gallon of water. When it came time of application I decided to purchase an affordable 2 gallon hand held sprayer from TSC, since our sprayer on back of ATV was filled with round up. Downside of doing it this way is it's more work and it took longer than if I had done it with an ATV.

I'll try to get back next week to show growth after spraying.

No problem!

Thanks for the info and update.

The site has been updated to show it now. Also you can click on "More" for further directions.

If you are asking on how to mix the 9-4-9, it ends up being around 1- 3oz per gallon of water or 1 - 2qts per acre. It should also say on the jug itself when you get it.

I will be getting some more seed from John for 2 fields and some 9-4-9. How did you mix it? I did not see instructions on this page.

AWESOME!!!!!

Just a quick update.

After being away for a couple weeks was able to make it out to the farm and check my plots. Only been 23 days since seeding and Fall Draw is over ankle high and starting to fill in nicely. I also took along some of GRO's 9-4-9 liquid foliar plant food so I could add micro nutrients on both plots and a bag of turnips to fill in spots that were bare. Needless to say as you can seen from the pics didn't need much of the turnip seed. I will however use what's leftover of the turnip seed and broadcast it into my corn fields.

Thanks. I want to see how it fills in.

Cody I'm right there with ya, can't wait to see how it turn out.

Noqs the method we used was we first tilled the soil with a walk behind, spread fertilizer and tilled in, broadcast one bag of fall draw seed by hand then finished by compacting it all by running over it with a lawn roller behind atv.

How did you seed?

Can't wait to see pics of it in a few weeks!

Fall Draw off to a good start. Initial observation is some spots were seeded to heavily while other spots not enough, none the less happy with how its turning out. Here's a picture showing 12 days of growth, taken on 8-5.

It is a beautiful thing and it is very satisfying. Congratulations.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I can honestly say that in these few short years since owning my property I've found that I get just as much enjoyment as I do being in the stand as I do planting food plots. Whether it's planting trees or planting a patch of clover, definitely feels good to give back when I can. I do not own any heavy equipment so most of what I've done has been done with atv's and walk behind tillers. It's a lot of work, but it's a labor love. Hopefully by sharing my experiences, both my success and failures, others will be able to take something from it.

Plot looks AWESOME! Great job!

Nice looking apple tree. You may want to think about trimming your apple trees to promote better structure to avoid problems as trees get bigger. Allowing multiple main stems may result in trees splitting as they get larger and heavier yields of fruit. Many nurseries and online tree companies have tree trimming guides availble.

That field looks great. You have it going on. Nice work.

Completed planting second half of plot, 7-24

Outstanding.

Last year I decided to increase the attractiveness of this plot by surrounding it with apple, pear and crab apple trees. Second year apple tree bearing fruit.

Update: Day 47

Following John's advice of taking half leaving half. It's been only three days after first clipping and you can already see it's getting great regrowth with very little weeds.

Pulled SD card and caught this guy feeding in the plot

Along with a few does and their fawns

That's looking great!

Outstanding! Don't clip too short. Take half, leave half.

Seeing quite a bit of deer activity in the plot. Just checked the trail cam over looking the plot and in roughly a weeks period have just over a thousand pictures. A majority of the pictures consists of does with their fawns but there's a few with bucks, including this guy.

Just wanted to give a another update on my mass builder plot. It's been filling in real nice since my last posting. Growth in the entire plot is well over ankle high and is soon coming up on it's first clipping.

Thanks noqs1, it's definitely a great feeling to see all the hard work that has been put into it finally payoff.

That is some really nice growth. Congratulations.

Day 30, I would have to say it's a success!

Thanks guys!

Hopefully tomorrow pending the weather, I'll be able to get out there and get some updated pics to show you.

Looks great!

Looking good. Keep us posted.