Water water everywhere....

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Staff member
Last year on June 2nd I started prepping our food plot. I had to pull out the pictures just to make sure, sure enough June 2nd and the low spot on the property I have permission to use was dry enough to bush hog and disc. We went down there Saturday and the dang thing was still full to the rim with water. This particular place has no control structure or pump. Nature fills it up every winter and dries it out by late spring. Not this year. I checked and last year we had about 17 inches of rain between Jan 1 and May 18. This year nearly TWICE that. To add insult to injury water primrose is FLOURISHING. It now covers nearly all of the 8 acres, from one small area to complete coverage in less than three months. Oh well, I'll just have to wait until June or July sometime for it to dry out and start working on the food plot. When it does I'll hit the water primrose hard with a glyphosphate and 2,4-D cocktail. It looks like it will be too late for grain sorghum so it might be a jap millet year. As long as I get something planted I'll be satisfied.

Eric
 
Jeff your not getting any of this rain??/Man we had gallons me son wetest spring in a while we had snow all saterday nothing stayed...we mite get half a day of sun here and there as of late...grass is growing 4 inch a week tho ,,,,hidy ho off to mow i go
 
I hear yah, I'm sure glad it finally stopped raining so much. Really has messed up our spring fishing down here.
Is 2-4-D soil active?
 
It has a short soil half-life. Should be okay to spray and plant a few weeks later. Good question though. You may recall how my application with imazapyr went bad.
 
That late a draw down and you may not have to plant anything. Let the wild stuff come up and see what you got. If it's smartweed and millet then let it go and maybe just fertilize. If it's cockleburr, sesbania, etc. spray away. If you do plant don't forget you have the buckwheat option too when planting that late. I've heard several places that have had a hard time getting millet seed so you have options.
 
We didn't get huntable water until late December but once filled birds were using it including mallards and Canadas. We had a few good hunts before the season ended. I took my employer and his guest last season and I think he appreciated the work we did last summer.

I kind of doubt smartweed and millet is going to emerge. Water primrose is growing at a crazy rate in there now and has the potential to choke all else out.

Just have to wait and see how fast it dries out and how much growing season is left. I'm not too worried. There is always plan B, C, D, E......

Eric
 
On September 13th, 2012, it rained. Our next rain was less than two weeks ago on May 10th, 2013. Yes, we could definitely use some more.
Al
 
Al

Come on over here and you can have the water you can pump. More rain headed our way tomorrow. Sick of it. Love me a mild drought.

Eric
 
OK Eric, that's enough. You can turn off the spigot.

My brook trout trip this year is planned starting on June 1, and the road into the camp isn't opened yet. They were due to finish grading and open up on Monday, but it's been raining since then and they now tell me they need 5 days of dry weather to get it open.

Rapidly making back-up plans--so please think dry thoughts.
 
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