Posted By: maturner05
Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 01:44 AM
Fellas,
Any of y'all have good luck with food plots in really sandy soil? If so, what seed are you using?
Posted By: maturner05
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:04 AM
will try spring….if i can't get anything going soon, i'll just start working on getting the soil ph right for fall planting
Posted By: Tye
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:33 AM
Some of our plots are deep "play sand" type fields. As far as spring crops go, all the peas we have planted have worked great. The only thing we haven't had luck with Spring or Fall, are clovers and chickory.
Pretty sandy
Fall plot
Spring crops
Posted By: stxranchman
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:36 AM
Like Tye posted any of the pea or bean legumes will work. Lab Lab does excellent in sandy soils.
Posted By: Tye
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:38 AM
I planted 40% cowpeas, 40% lab lab and 20% buckwheat this year
Posted By: maturner05
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:38 AM
what do y'all think is the optimum ph level for growing? mid 6's?
Posted By: eyedoc
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 02:44 AM
would recommend putting down a pre-emergent, if using peas as most sandy soils in our part of texas are loaded with grass burrs, really cuts down on the competition if rainfall isn't perfect, the yellow pre-emergent is fairly cheap and comes in liquid or a granular form that is easily put in the soil
Posted By: stxranchman
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 03:00 AM
The beans and peas will grow in ranges from 5.5 to 7.5 from what I have heard. If you have a weed problem you can go with Roundup Ready Soybeans also. It will take care of a lot of late emerging weeds in your area. Croton, Senna Bean, Sand Burrs and Sicklepod all do not usually start to grow in your area till about now till mid May. Pre-emergents do not work at all on them IME. Timing along with rain is everything with pre-emergents. One of your biggest problem weeds can be Nutgrass also.
Posted By: TexasPI
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 04:40 AM
Alfalfa will also do really well in sandy soils. There are lots of varieties out there, so do your homework if you go this route. Do it right the first time, and you can get many years out of a good stand of alfalfa.
Posted By: Bbear
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 04:37 PM
Had good luck with Madrid Clover in Llano county sand years back. Check with the biologist in your hunting area, he/she might have a good word on something.
Posted By: Navasot
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 04:43 PM
cow peas in spring and oats/vetch in the fall... race horse oats love the sand
Posted By: Erich
Re: Best seed for sandy soil - 05/07/14 05:13 PM
water is more a problem than soil. our soil too is very sandy. oats do fine in the fall as do turnips. in the spring clay peas do well...that's all I've ever planted. I planted some milo this year...it hasn't gotten much rain though so its pretty tough to tell.
those pea plots pictured above look incredible.