Like all Whitetail Institute perennials, Imperial
Whitetail Extreme is designed to attract, hold and grow bigger and better deer
for several years and from a single planting. All it takes is Mother Nature’s
cooperation and a little maintenance on your part. While the general
maintenance goals for all Whitetail Institute perennials are the same, Extreme can
benefit by fine-tuning the timing of maintenance mowing in some cases.
Specifically, mowing Extreme as part of maintenance should
be timed, first and foremost, to prevent any annual weeds or perennial grasses in
the plot from having the chance to flower (make new seeds). Again, that is your
first priority when timing maintenance mowing. If you don’t have such
weeds in your Extreme stands, though, then consider waiting to mow Extreme until
after it flowers and the seeds in the flowers have dried (and so become
viable). Mowing then can shatter the seed heads and spread the seeds for new
forage plants across the plot, thickening the stand.
WHEN MAINTAINING PERENNIALS,
KEEP THE END GOAL IN MIND.
In his article, “Integrated Weed Management” (Whitetail
News, Vol. 18, No. 3), the Whitetail Institute’s Weed and Herbicide Science
expert, Dr. Carroll Johnson, III, classified the Whitetail Institute’s
recommended perennial-maintenance steps into three categories:
1. “Cultural Practices” are those that help maximize
the ability of the forage plants to thrive. Examples include choosing the correct
forage for the plot’s soil type and slope, adding lime to the seedbed if
necessary to achieve or maintain optimum soil pH, and fertilizing.
2. “Physical Practices” are those that mechanically
destroy or remove a weed or its propagules (seeds, rhizomes, etc.). Examples include
hand-pulling weeds, repeated ground tillage, and mowing weeds to prevent them from
flowering.
3. “Chemical Practices” means spraying herbicides (only
appropriate in certain, specific circumstances).
In the same article, Dr. Johnson also identified a single,
end goal of all forage maintenance practices: promoting forage health and
vigor.
“Any crop production practice that enhances
crop growth and uniformity also improves the ability of the crop to compete
with weeds.… Uniform crop growth is the single most powerful form of weed
control in any cropping system, including food plots.” — W.
Carroll Johnson, III, PhD
That’s why each maintenance practice, whether cultural,
physical or chemical, should be approached in a way that best serves the main
end goal when you’re maintaining your perennials: keeping the forage stand as
healthy and vigorously growing as possible. That’s also why all the maintenance
steps are interdependent; they should be considered and, if appropriate to the
situation, performed in a way that will best promote the end goal with the
other steps. In the same article, Dr. Johnson described that concept as a
three-legged stool, with cultural, physical and chemical practices each being
one leg of a three-legged stool. All the legs must be “integrated,” or working
together, if the stool is to remain stable.
It can be easy to miss that point and focus too narrowly on
the result of a specific maintenance step instead of the end goal. For example,
when asked what benefit mowing perennials provides, a quick answer we often
hear is, “mowing before the forage plants flower helps keep them even more
lush, nutritious and attractive”. Generally, that’s true for two reasons:
First, mowing to prevent flowering helps prevent the parent plants from making
the huge energy expenditures it takes for them to flower. Second, mowing can generally
stimulate plants to add more foliage at their lower levels. What may be missed,
though, is that these effects vary in degree among different plant types, and
understanding the differences can help you really fine-tune your maintenance efforts
in some cases.
The energy expense of flowering, for example, is much
greater in some types of plants than others. If you want to see the negative
effects clearly, take a close look at the ordinary white clovers that appear in
most of our lawns each spring. Bend down and take a close look at them before
they start flowering and make a mental note of the size of the leaves and the tenderness
of the stems. Then, check again after they flower, and you may be surprised at
how much smaller the leaves and how much tougher the stems are. Other
perennials, though, don’t suffer such drastic negative effects from flowering. If
you were to try the above experiment with Imperial Whitetail Clover, for
example, you probably wouldn’t notice much difference, since it remains lush,
nutritious and attractive even if allowed to flower. And while mowing correctly
can stimulate forage growth in a plant’s lower levels, the effect here is again
greater with some types of plants than others.
Neither effect is very great with the perennial components
in Extreme, Persist forb and WINA- 100 perennial forage chicory. In fact,
mowing and flowering have so little effect on the nutritional quality and
palatability of Persist forb that you can pretty much discount them as factors
in deciding when to mow. The same is true of Extreme’s other perennial
component, WINA chicory. That can give you an additional option for timing the
mowing of Extreme if you don’t have perennial grasses and annual weeds in your
plot that should be controlled as your first priority. In such cases, waiting
to mow until after the Persist produces seed heads can add new Persist plants
to thicken the stand.
EXAMPLE OF A MAINTENANCE PLAN
FOR EXTREME
(Editor’s Note: Several of the steps
below include application of the Whitetail Institute’s Arrest grass herbicide.
In all cases, check the Arrest label, which is available on-line at www.whitetailinstitute.com,
to be sure Arrest will control the specific type of grass you want to control,
and for mixing and application instructions. If you have any questions about how
to use Arrest after reading the label, call the Whitetail Institute for
assistance before you spray.)
While all maintenance steps have the same end-goal of
keeping the forage stand as healthy and vigorously growing as possible, they
differ greatly in the importance of timing. Grass and weed control are the
number-one spring maintenance priority, and timing is especially important. That’s
true of any perennial.
Priority One: As soon as spring
green-up arrives, check the plot for signs of perennial grasses and/or annual
weeds. If you find either starting to invade your plot, determine
if any looks like it is about to flower (put on seed heads).
Grass: If you
see grass coming up, identify the grass and check the Arrest label to make sure
it is a type of grass Arrest will control.
If the grass is still young enough that flowering doesn’t
appear imminent, then as soon as possible after the grass begins to actively
grow, spray the plot with Arrest. It can also be a great idea to add Surefire
Crop Oil Plus to the Arrest spray tank in the amount of 8-10 ounces per acre of
spray solution, especially if the grasses to be controlled are perennial or
mature.
If you find that you’ve waited a bit too long and the
grasses and weeds are mature and starting to produce seed, then mow the plot right
away to prevent that from happening. Then, wait several days after mowing or
until you see the grass actively growing again (whichever occurs later) and
spray Arrest.
Upright, Annual Weeds: If you
see upright annual weeds coming up, make sure you keep them mowed to prevent
them from flowering.
Grass and Upright, Annual Weeds: If you
see both grasses and annual weeds coming up, then mow the plot to prevent
anything from flowering. Then, wait a few days after mowing until you see the
grass actively growing again, and then spray the plot with Arrest.
No Grass, and No Upright, Annual Weeds:
Watch the Persist forb in your Extreme stand. Once it
“bolts” (puts on a seed head), then wait for the seeds in the seed head to dry
to a dark, reddish brown, at which point they will be viable. Then, mow the
plot. Mowing will shatter the seed heads and spread the seeds across the plot,
thickening the stand.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Again, it’s important to keep in mind that the end goal in
performing any perennial maintenance step is to help the forage stand stay as uniform,
healthy, vigorously growing and free from competition as possible, and live as
long as it should. That includes keeping grass and weeds in check, so try to
start your grass- and weed-control efforts as soon as grasses and other weeds
start to actively grow each spring.
Also, weeds and grasses can, and usually do, return to our
food plots at some point despite our best efforts, so try to keep a close eye
out for weeds and grass during the rest of the summer. If you see grasses or
annual weeds returning, then repeat the steps set out above. In many cases when
Arrest is applied at the optimum time, one application will provide effective control
all year. If necessary, though, Arrest may be reapplied a month after the
initial application, again provided the grasses to be controlled are actively
growing.
If you have any questions about controlling grass and other
weeds in Extreme, give the Whitetail Institute’s in-house consultants a call at
(800) 688-3030.
Editor’s Note: As Jon
mentioned, our number- one goal when maintaining perennial food plots is
“keeping the forage stand as healthy and vigorously growing as possible.” With
that in mind, also remember that Extreme needs more nitrogen fertilizer than
other Whitetail Institute perennials, both at planting and later once it is
growing. It’s always best to perform a soil test through a qualified soil
testing laboratory so you’ll know exactly how much and what blend of fertilizer
to add. Absent a soil test, a good rule of thumb for best results is to
fertilize Extreme every year with 250-300 pounds of 13- 13-13 or 17-17-17 per
acre in the spring and again in the fall. At a minimum, fertilize Extreme at least
once a year with 400-450 pounds of 13-13- 13 or 17-17-17 per acre.
