Paging NoColores

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Ok I can take you through my JV process. Hope this is helpful. I will try to take it chronologically and keep it organized.

There are two ways to plant. Either No Till or Till. If you till, get the ground ready and definitely use something like a cultipacker to pack the loose dirt. Then scatter your JV. Do not drag. No not cover. Just roll your cultipacker again. Do not cover the seed. You can use the least amount per acre here. As little as 10-12# per acre if you are doing a big field (2 acres or more). If smaller then you will need to go #15 per acre or so.

If you are going No Till, you need to clip about a month ahead of time. Then, burn down about three weeks after clipping. Then you can just scatter the JV. Preferrable right before a rain. You need about #25 per acre for this method.

You can also rent a No Till Drill. I have never had a lot of success with this method. I dont get a good stand. Either too shallow or too deep. Lots of skips. But this is more the fact that I am not a very good farmer. If you are skilled with a NT drill, then go for it.

As for fertilizer, no N or K is required. It really responds to P. You can use DAP or Triple Super Phosphate. About 30-50 units really helps.

Proper PH also helps.

Farm JV in your best dirt. Deep loam. Creek bottoms. Old farm ground. Etc. Do not put it on sandy droughty ground or heavy buckshot clay or heavy red clay. It can handle standing water way better than it can handle drought.

This is the time of year to plant. May and June.

As for herbicide: You can use Select or Poast for grasses. No problem.

We have big problems on our ground with nutsedge. It will flat take over a crop and it took several years to find something that would control it. But, Halosofuron Methyl 75 will smoke it. The expensive stuff is called Sedge Buster or something like that and is labeled for lawns. The cheaper stuff is called Permit and is labeled for cotton. Same stuff, either will do.

One half of one oz of the 75% active ingredient will kill it. And it won't hurt your JV. Not at all. It is a slow acting herbicide and it takes about 2-3 weeks to totally kill it at that light rate. But it will go down 100%. If you want a faster kill, use one full oz. That stuff is expensive. About $28 an oz at least. (The lawn stuff is sold by the gram. I've paid less for good cocaine....in my youth of course).

For broadleaf weeds, 2-4,d will work. But be careful. It will burn your vetch back. Stick with no more than one quart per acre per application. But the weeds will begin to fall out, and in a couple of weeks the JV will put on new growth and will grow out of it.

DO NOT MIX HERBICIDE CHEMISTRY. If the worst thing out there is grass, spray for grass. Then the next week or two, if sedges are bad, spray for them. Then move on to your weeds a week or two later. If you try to get two things at once by tank mixing, you will hammer your JV. Been there, done that.

If you have a bad weed problem that you are afraid to tackle with heavier rates of 2-4,d, then just mowe them down. Will not hurt your JV in the least.

In fact, JV likes to be mowed, clipped, grazed. When a deer nips the top of the plant off, that will kill most plants out there. But JV just sprouts like 10 new shoots right below the spot where the deer nipped it. They eat those, and each one of them sprouts more.

Before it is over, JV being heavily grazed will cover the ground like clover. It stays low and runs while sprouting new tender material. If it ever gets over about knee high, clip it down.

A couple of other things: The first year or two you plant, it might not get heavy use. I have heard this is for two reasons. One is that they just don't know what it is. And they need to learn how good it is. The other thing I have heard is that it is an exotic invasive legume. So deer do not naturally have the enzymes in their gut to digest it. So the first few times they eat it, it gives them an upset stomach. But eventually they will develop the right gut chemistry. I have no idea if that is true, but I have heard it more than once.

Also, don't get discouraged if it is slow to grow. It is a tiny seed. And it likes hot weather. It really takes a while to get going. You won't see a lot from it for the first two months. It starts taking off in late July and August.

Down here, the heaviest use will be in late August and Sept and early Oct. Basically when everything else is dry and rank. And the bucks are still growing horns. And the does are still lactating. It will be green and tender and 28% protein. I have filmed hears of 60-80 deer standing in it at noon in August. 92 degrees outside. Full sunshine. Field full of deer.

The other interesting thing is that they seem to use it in gender shifts. Like, at 4 pm one afternoon we will go to one of our food plots. And there will be 12-15 racked bucks out there in it. And then by 5:30 they are all gone. And then does come in. And it will be nothing but does until dark. Etc.

They also use the crap out of it in the mornings in the late summmer and early fall.

Another tip. If you want to bow hunt around it, try clipping it down in middle of Sept. Then the last week of Sept, No Till Drill wheat into it. You will have about a month or so of wheat mixed with JV. Absoltely deadly. Then, first frost will smoke the JV and the wheat will come on along just like your normal food plot.

I am sure there is more, but that ought to be enough to get you started. Cheers!

This was taken in late Sept of last year. The old man still likes to bowhunt around JV. He's 81.

I have put a pint of amine and pursuit on clover before. What kind of clover? I have a problem with some kind of sedge(not purple or yellow) and dock weed in some clover plots.

I’ll probably have to try that next spring. I can’t stand a dirty looking clover patch (any plot/field). I guess that comes from farming.

Been thinking of giving vetch a try instead of the milo, Iron and Clay pea mix I usually do.

Deer destroyed my clay pea before it even made it past the first 2 leaves this past year. First year, I guess they didnt know what it was, they let it get thigh deep before hitting it

That's what interested me in this post. We are in tensas. Deer herd has exploded since my neighbor and I started planting to keep them around

Sweet potatoes aren't much good. It's just a morning glory vine. Bitter and acidic and low in protein.

If I had to choose one thing behind Joint Vetch, the next thing on my list would be peanuts. The thing below that would be sunflower. If you have the area, and the money, planting a little bit of all of those three would be strong.

Did Tara grow peanuts when you were there?

I think sweet potatoes are pretty hard to plant. Only way I have planted them was with a 2 row transplanter. That took 3 people to operate just the planter and a couple people to Bring the plants to the tractor/planter. If you are just wanting sweet potatoes for deer... there used to be a guy a little NE of you that sold culls for cheap.

I have never grown peanuts for deer, but I have grown them (just get the seed plates for the planter). They were always crossing the levee in Greenville to eat them. I would imagine you could turn them over, then flood them and ducks would go wild in there. I think I saw a duck commander episode where they were killing ducks that had peanuts in their craw.

I have harvested peanuts and put them in big sacks to bait deer and they did love them. So, if you were to plant peanuts and they make I would imagine they will eat them until you flood for ducks. (Reminder- I have never tried it for ducks. I just saw that episode with them in the duck’s craw)

How shade tolerant is jv? I have some lanes by ladder stands in the woods I’d like to plant but of course the sunlight isn’t so great in these areas. I spread lime on them this past weekend.