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Native mix ideas?

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StucknAz

Active Member
My Ohio hill ground is gonna be scalped by the dnr to pull multiple wells. A handful of them are right in my bedding cuts on military crests and small flats within the hill bedding. Are there any seed mixes I could put in these areas.

My thought was add a few cedar trees to these pockets and plant something that invites bedding via browse where as it was, it was more monoculture spicebush and some AO.

Anyone have any experience with prairiefarm.com Whitetail’s habitat mix? It’s got multiple warm season grasses, Forbes, etc. since my primary cover was spicebush there wasn’t much browse in these bedding locations other than my timber cuts but deer naturally like to bed off the points.
 

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Interested in this topic as well. In recent years I've seeded several acres to a CRP CP25 mix (mixture of tall grasses and diverse forbs) and also several acres to a monarch mix that is nearly all forbs/wildflowers. Both have a very successful stand. I see deer browsing in the monarch mix when green through spring/summer. I see very little to no sign of deer using either for bedding or really any use at all in the fall/winter. I have another area that I would like to seed to something that will be used for bedding but unsure what to use based on my observation that they are not using my monarch mix or CP25 mix.
 
I didn’t add the grasses from that mix, here they are. Regard to LBs per acre it doesn’t appear to list
 
You likely already have quite a few of those seeds. Lying dormant in your soil ..free of charge.

The last couple of years, I've been discing/seeding/packing RWW and RC Big Rock switchgrass. If you plant at the beginning of the warm season, it comes up with a flush of forbes. Can always spray out any specifics (Spicebush, cool season grasses before planting, etc), but you'll have a mix/pockets of switchgrass and whatever natives come up.

The area on the right (where a few cedars are felled) is on its second year - A mix of switchgrass, big bluestem, ragweed, goldenrod, etc.. I only planted the switch. Some areas close to 8' tall now. Ridge field, upland habitat - not great soil by any means.

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One side note & splitting of hairs… if a guy is dealing with reclaimed or areas where soil is destroyed or degraded badly…. Not sure if that’s what u saying or not…. For sure add like Virginia and Canadian wildrye. I’d also add a variety of grasses like Indian, little blue, side oats grama - to make sure u get a few varieties that can survive those tough areas. I’d still add some switch & big blue & the forbs as well but u for sure wanna have some of the first listed as they can thrive in places where some grasses & forbs won’t. Huge diversity is key & what u have…. If it’s rough & u plant “20 things” - I’ll bet half of em don’t do well. Worst case, 5-10 things in there will do well & fill in if u add enough diversity.
If a guy says ground is: clay or rocky or total junk or it looks like ______ …. I can tweak a mix based on soil u dealing with.
If u got good soils- clearly u can grow more things successfully, like switch or big blue. Or most things in reality. It’s the rough soils that need more thought.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
That Mix is 4.061 lbs per acre grasses & .738 lbs per acre forbs. Price: $230/acre ("Buck on the bag" pricing)



Just an example (easy to tweak): 5.3 lbs grasses per acre & 1.423 per acres on forbs. Price: $165/acre

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Excellent, your stuff tall enough to make them comfortable? Do you have any larger scale pics of your mix, larger than what’s on the website? What would be prep and planting protocol?
 
StucknAz said:
Excellent, your stuff tall enough to make them comfortable? Do you have any larger scale pics of your mix, larger than what’s on the website? What would be prep and planting protocol?
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7-8' in spots. Best way is to drill into clean seed bed. If you can't drill you can broadcast but need a specialized broadcast OR cut it with pell lime or similar and then you can spread traditionally. Mow several times in establishment year.
 
StucknAz said:
Excellent, your stuff tall enough to make them comfortable? Do you have any larger scale pics of your mix, larger than what’s on the website? What would be prep and planting protocol?
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Here is a video. This was in the spring before grasses really took off to be over 6' tall.

 
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