Of the plots that I did this year, I would only call two a success. One is a new clover / cerial rye plot that I planted in September using dbltree's recommendations of fertilizer and lime without a soil test. The other is right beside the first and is a RR soybean plot that I disked in in June. When the leaves started turning yellow in September I broadcast cerial rye, some GF Radish and half of the plot in Red Clover. The intent is to move everything into dbltree's rotation blend. Both of these plots are getting hammered by at least a dozen deer per night, right below my house, with very little cover. Due to their location I've been able to monitor them and have been very impressed with the way they have drawn in deer.
My other two plots are flops. One was planted last year with a brassica / clover blend. The deer didn't touch the brassicas and the dead leaves covered the ground this sping. Dispite raking the entire plot, very little of the clover emerged this spring and I ended up with a mostly weed plot, dispite mowing twice this summer. The other is a new plot that I soil tested and fertilized accordingly. I over planted the brassicas due to misjudgement on it's size and fear the same result as the plot that flopped from last year. I'm hoping that the deer get a taste for the first year brassicas and take care of the leaves but so far they are not.
Next year both of these plots will be started early fall with the clover / Rye and then switched over to dbltree's blend.
Good luck!:way:
