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Someone Make it Rain!!

aimfirst said:
for those of you in SE Iowa or other parts without rain that use Dbltrees fall mix (WR/oats/clover/radish) are you going to wait for rain and then till? Or just put it in and hope? I only have this weekend and next open, but not sure I want to till that powdered ground and throw seed out this weekend. What you guys thinking?
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Plant and wait, rain will come.
 
aimfirst said:
for those of you in SE Iowa or other parts without rain that use Dbltrees fall mix (WR/oats/clover/radish) are you going to wait for rain and then till? Or just put it in and hope? I only have this weekend and next open, but not sure I want to till that powdered ground and throw seed out this weekend. What you guys thinking?
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I plan on planting a couple of small plots myself this weekend. Sure, it is dry, but the seed will be fine laying there until we get rain. I also will have Paul's son Jesse plant a couple of larger plots for me sometime after Labor Day weekend. These will all be some form of the cereal grain combo Paul promotes.

If the seed goes in early September, we have all month to get some rain on it and get it growing. Ideally, I would like to see a couple of nice rains earlier in the month than that, but after messing around planting food plots for over 10 years now I have yet to have a "normal" planting experience!! So give it a go and hope for the best.

As a bit of a hedge, I will just be drilling over the top of some late June planted soybeans that are half decent, but getting thinned more by the day. So I do not plan on tilling the dry soil at this time.
 
I am a transplant from N-MI. Since I have been here I have seen 3 yrs of flash flooding year round to ,,three years of record Heat, and drought. I don't know how this got to be an Agricultural State? Seems like about the worst place to grow anything!:rolleyes: Seriously though,,as far as food plots I am wondering if the best way to go is Red clover in the spring for summer, followed by Rye for the fall. Will this work? Year after year? Seems reasonable since late fall and early spring have the only dependable rains.
 
loneranger said:
I am a transplant from N-MI. Since I have been here I have seen 3 yrs of flash flooding year round to ,,three years of record Heat, and drought. I don't know how this got to be an Agricultural State? Seems like about the worst place to grow anything!:rolleyes: Seriously though,,as far as food plots I am wondering if the best way to go is Red clover in the spring for summer, followed by Rye for the fall. Will this work? Year after year? Seems reasonable since late fall and early spring have the only dependable rains.[/QUOTE

That would be a good insurance plan, but by putting the red clover with the rye in the fall it would take off quicker the next spring. Not sure how long you can do it before needing to rotate something else. I maintain a lot of clover and lightly disc then plant rye/radishes in the weaker areas. Clover seems to come back strong afterwards.
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Just thot clover helps rye---rye helps clover? I guess doing too much of anything sooner or later is too much. Just an idea. Other option-forget food plots.
 
No really that's a good plan to make sure you have something. Both help the soil immensely, go great together and may be the only hope this late and dry. Just suggesting to put the clover in with it in the fall. Next year disc it up again and redo in the fall. Wont need to do any planting in the spring. Clover builds up your nitrogen and the old rye holds moisture for next years plot.
 
Yea,,but red clover dies with freeze. Just got courage up to watch DesMoines weather guy at 6:. He said it is possible the next 10 days could be 95' to 100"! Said if that happens, many records would fall for consecutive HOT days especially so late in the Summer. Even white clover planted so late though would hardly get a start. I tried that last year. White clover and rye. Got so late clover didn't do anything and the way it is going I think decent moisture may not come until sometime in Oct.
 
For sure, our options are limited. I just keep overseeding weak places with rye and radishes and staggered several brassica and rye mix plantings, over the last 6 weeks. Some plots are fried to the ground in full sun, but so far the partially shaded and low ground areas still look good. Always plenty of time for rye:way: I just always throw red and white clover on everything, but july brassicas.
 
Have any of you looked into installing your own sand point well system? It looks like it could be done for well under $1000. A power source may be an issue but you may be able to run some sort of solar powered apparatus or run a bunch of extension cords from somewhere close.. I know it wont be enough for a giant plot but I would think it would be feasible for maybe an 1/8-1/4 acre.. I have a 1/4 acre food plot or so that Ive been keeping watered with my hydrant and about 150-200' of hose and it works great. I just have to move the sprinkler head around.. the sand point may be something to check into
 
Wife and I have been talking about a well just to water our trees in the yard,fruit trees and flowers. How do you know how far down or if you have well water at all? I have heavy clay. There are ponds across the road and one down at the bottom of my hill.
 
FORECAST: Slight cool down Sunday with anyrain far east like Chicago, and Ohio,, then our old friend the HEAT dome is back on us next week. This could go on all Sept! Sorry.
 
Irrigating your plots on a low budget

We are very dry here in eastern NE as well and last year my farmer friend found a smaller old jet pump (110 volt) that he thought came from one of their domestic wells pits. After figuring out it still worked we rigged the intake port with a 15 ft piece of 1.5" black poly pipe. On the end of the poly pipe we installed a cheap plastic, spring loaded "anti back-flow" valve and piece of mesh screen to catch debris. The "anti back-flow" valve was installed so one doesn't have to prime the pump/in-take line each time you the start pump (it keeps the line full when pump is off). I then bought a cheap generator and rounded up a couple hundred feet of old garden hose (many splices), purchased four - $1.99 plastic oscillating sprinklers (the ones that have both, an inflow and an outflow port) and a cheap plastic hose flow control splitter from Menards.

Under no pressure the old jet pump delivers about 4.5 - 5. 0 gal/min and I have found creating a continuous loop with hoses/sprinklers the water pressure is fairly equalized amongst all of the sprinkler heads….…not so without the loop. I did this by simply starting and ending the loop at the hose splitter. You just need one small length of hose with male connectors on both ends to complete the loop between the last sprinkler and the splitter. I can water about 30 yd x 30 yd area with this set-up. The generator will run about 7 hours on a tank of fuel, so I hope it's putting on some where close to a half an inch. Works great if you have a water source close enough for a hose to reach.<O:p</O:p
 
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I remember one Oct,boss and I made a hunt trip to Northern North Dakota, Oct 16th. Was still 96' up there! we sat in little shade we could find in our underwear in afternoons to keep from frying. On the 18th a front moved thru and next day was 50'! We had sweat shirts on. I wish I hadn't remembered that, now I am depressed:( 96' end of Oct.
 
Good News,,latest forecast from quad Cities, and Kansas City, is several cold fronts will edge there way to the south thru the weekend, and beginning of next week, bringing temps back down into the 70s and 80s for Iowa,,BAD NEWS- is no precip with the change. Been doing that all Summer. I can't figure it out, even though I am sort of an armchair weather person. Lots of cool downs across Iowa this summer,,but little convective activity. That is weather lingo for-little RAIN :(
 
Driest Aug on record for Burlington. Same scenario this weekend. Blistering heat until Sunday. Then back door cool fronts will push rain across Chicago, and Iowa will cool off, with the ring of fire rains setting up to the SW again. So next week SW Iowa may benefit once again. The rest of Iowa-grow tumble weeds!
 
Dry dry dry in my area. Put my iphone back in the pants pockets while walking the beanfield...did not want to drop it in one of the cracks :D
 
letemgrow said:
Dry dry dry in my area. Put my iphone back in the pants pockets while walking the beanfield...did not want to drop it in one of the cracks :D
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Now that's dry! Good one! :D Unfortunately, I know exactly what you are talking about.
 
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