hunter74079

I hunt on 160 acres behind my house and have tilled up my food plots the other day. Just waiting for some rain in the forecast to plant. I purchased some wheat, oats, and rye grain seed for my local feed store. I have planted several plots in the past and have always struggled on not covering the seed enough so it can get good soil contact. This usually ends up with the birds eating alot of seed that doesnt germinate and leaving me to plant small seeds like clover or turnips to have something come up. This year I found on craigslist a cultipacker for 100 dollars and jumped on it right away!

My question is after i broadcast the wheat, oats, and rye grain should I lightly disk over it or just cultipack?? As you can see i can get the ground really worked up with my rototiller for my tractor so ground prep is not a problem. Just know that a cultipacker is used for this purpose but want proper seed depth. Thanks for the responses ahead of time.....

Pics of the plots are below....sorry about all the pictures....

Just a couple of my trail cam pics from this year for your enjoyment!!!















AND NOT TO GET OFF TOPIC BUT A PICTURE OF THE ONE THAT I SHOT WITH MY BOW LAST YEAR ON OCT 4TH BUT HIT TO HIGH!!! WILL MAKE YOU SICK BUT HE CAME BACK 2 WEEKS LATER UNDER THE SAME TREE ANS GOT PICTURES OF HIM UP UNITL I TOOK MY CAMERAS DOWN AT THE END OF JAN!!!! HOPE HE IS STILL AROUND!!!!

timbercruiser

A disc will work if you straighten out the blades and go slow and just tickle the seeds in. I like a chain tooth spike drag better for covering seeds.

rem700man

Hunter74079:
1st,,,let me say that those are some beautiful bucks,,,and that plot prep looks great to say the least!
Theres alot of guys on here with alot more knowledge than i have but if it was me and i was planting those cereal grains i would seed and then cultipack. I planted the rackmaster elite this year and it had some cereal grains in it and they wanted that planted to 1/4"-1/2". i dont own a cultipacker yet so i used a regular lawn roller filled with water and pulled it with the 4-wheeler,,and it's coming up beautifully. Good luck with your plots and the upcoming season! (hope ya get that one ya stuck too hi last year)

hossdaniels

Oats like to be a little deeper, around 3/4-1". Wheat and rye around 1/2". Broadcast grains on fluffy soil, then cultipack. For small seeds like clover or brassica that need to be around 1/4" deep, cultipack first, spread seed, then cultipack again.

hobbyfarmer85

I would recommend using a cultipacker... and if you're looking for an affordable one, I got mine from OMNI manufacturing. They've got a super simple design & they've recently started putting ductile iron wheels on theirs (vs. regular grey iron wheels)- which means no broken wheels!! Here's the link to their cultipacker page on their website:

http://omni-mfg.com/Cultipackers-C110177.aspx?sid=10512

WV Hunter

5yr old thread. ??

farm hunter

yep - how do you propose we increase the posts in the foodplot section - to like it used to be 10 years ago?

Those of us that plant - must have ideas to share - right?

Mojotex

Ditto Hossdaniels' advise. we have used a "Do All" like planter for about a decade which gets out larger seeds wheat, oats, grain rye, Austrian winter pea) in the ground and culti-packed. We over-seed, by hand, purple top turnips then culti-pack again. Works great.