While pulling into a soybean food plot with an ATV sprayer full of Round-Up, this photo (Plot #1) is what you want to see. A few short weeds being dwarfed by the immaculate rows of thriving soybeans in the food plot. One application of Round-Up should be all that is needed to propel this soybean plot into a successful deer magnet site come fall. But what happens if your plot site is not so picture perfect?
The plot site shown in the second photo (Plot #2) was planted on the same day as the first photo using the same plotting equipment and using the same variety of soybean seed. So what happened? Where are the immaculate rows of soybeans? Why is the weed pressure so much greater? The soybeans are there, but they are buried beneath the multitude of weeds. For starters, Plot #2 received an application of animal manure prior to planting. Any time manure is applied, millions of weed seeds are released into the soil along with the beneficial nutrients and organic matter. More weed seeds mean that the plot site needs an herbicide application of Round-Up a lot sooner than a plot that never received manure. Since that did not happen in this case, and since the soybeans will likely not recover to the extent that they can turn into a lush attraction plot come fall, I am looking at a food plot failure.
So what are the options at this point? The calendar’s date of June 29 means that there is still plenty of time to recover from this failure. If last week’s Round-Up application does not offer a good enough kill, the plan is to load up the ATV sprayer again with Round-Up and also 2-4D (a herbicide that only kills broadleaf weeds like pigweed and lambsquarter as seen in the Plot #2 photo) and to apply the herbicide mix by July 10 or so. This “nuclear bomb” weed control option should kill all of the vegetation at the site, including the soybeans, and it will provide a clean plot site that will be easy to work with yet this fall.
Once the weeds have been controlled, the next step is to strive for a new planting date between July 25 and August 5 (here in southern Minnesota). Next week’s Blog entry will take a closer look at planting day considerations. Until then, take a look at this lush attraction plot that was planted on August 2, 2013. The photo was taken on October 28, 2013. There is still time to remedy our food plot failures!
