What to plant in low/wet spot in field?

[hangoo]

I am looking to plant clover or something along those lines in a 1/4 acre area that is always too muddy to farm....aside from late july - august, its always muddy. Will anything live and grow in that area?

[smsmith]

I am looking to plant clover or something along those lines in a 1/4 acre area that is always too muddy to farm....aside from late july - august, its always muddy. Will anything live and grow in that area?
Alsike clover will take ground that is too wet for other clovers. It also tolerates some acidity. Various annual clovers like strawberry will also take damp areas. Ladino clover likes moisture and can tolerate short term flooding.

[huntingforhabitat]

I am looking to plant clover or something along those lines in a 1/4 acre area that is always too muddy to farm....aside from late july - august, its always muddy. Will anything live and grow in that area? broadcast sudan grass will grow like a weed. strawberries are good for jam not so much deer.

[tednruthy]

I am also very interested in the responses to this original question. I just purchased 40 acres of low land with lots of wet areas. I want to make lanes for travel by me with equipment to do some food plotting and to improve the cover for deer. These trails will also be heavily used by the deer I expect. I want to get all feedback on how to start this out this spring. I would think I would want to maybe disk up some areas if I can drive on them by May or June. Then hit it with some roundup just before I fertilize and lime before I plant a clover variaty or something else suggested here. How does buckwheat do on wet soil? Maybe this is a good place to try some of Ed's RR sugarbeets, what do you think? RubyCreekTed

[smsmith]

I created some trails in a low, damp area last year. I used a backpack sprayer and sprayed a gly./Triplette mix in late May. At that time I broadcast pell. lime heavily. In late June, I hit it with straight gly. and broadcast more pell. lime. In mid July I hit it with straight gly. again, and hand spread some garden lime. In early August I planted it to a mix of crimson, apache arrowleaf, Alice white, New Zealand, and Freedom Red clovers. Some Falcata and Travois alfalfa was also in the mix. By late September I had some very lush clover trails. No tilling required, of course the lime will take much longer to have an effect by not working it in. So far, that doesn't seem to be a limiting factor.

This area is always damp, even in a drought. Early spring it floods frequently. We'll see how the clover survives if it floods this coming spring. I'm betting it will do quite well.

[tednruthy]

SMSMITH, Please do keep us posted on how that mixture does this spring.

[doublelunger]

Hangoo I'd ask EdSpin04 what he'd reccomend planting in that area. He is the foodplotting master. If anybodied know what to plant there he would.

[koz bow]

I am taking advantage of a couple of low spots in my farm field, where the crops struggle.

My plan consists of using my tractor and/or hiring a dozer to create ponds and birms around the ponds. Then I am planting the area around the pond into an orchard. I would imagine that the birms will also become good locations for a planting of legumes as well, such as clover and alfalfa once I manage the PH appropriately.

Could be an option for you.

In your low spots, if the ground does not grow crops well, I would think that many other food species would not do well in that area either.

[hangoo]

I am taking advantage of a couple of low spots in my farm field, where the crops struggle.

My plan consists of using my tractor and/or hiring a dozer to create ponds and birms around the ponds. Then I am planting the area around the pond into an orchard. I would imagine that the birms will also become good locations for a planting of legumes as well, such as clover and alfalfa once I manage the PH appropriately.

Could be an option for you.

In your low spots, if the ground does not grow crops well, I would think that many other food species would not do well in that area either.


Even though there isnt a natural spring, would a hole dug hold rain/runoff water?

[koz bow]

The answer to that question is "depends". If you are wet in that location already, and you dig down a few more feet, the saturated soil in that location certainly would create a pool of water. Whether or not it would hold water through the dry months of the summer is another question.

I have one pond now that holds water all year long and has some excellent warm season grasses and willows growing around it. The deer will go to that pond to drink versus drinking out of the river that runs through my property.

I would think that by digging out the core of the low area, you are going to pool water. The other advantage is that by mounding around the pond, (or low spot you dug out for that matter) you are creating a terrain change and the mounded dirt will remain dry so it would more likely generate a food plot well.

Just my two cents, we will see if the plan works.

[DanSS26]

Birdsfoot Trefoil does good in wet areas and will tolorate poor soil and low PH. Here are some links for more info.
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uc087.pdf
http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_loco6.pdf

[huntingforhabitat]

Even though there isnt a natural spring, would a hole dug hold rain/runoff water? If its clay and if you can make the surface catch area large enough. will hold water for a long time that would be better then a average foodplot plus other wildlife would benifit.

[shell waster]

Alsike clover will take ground that is too wet for other clovers. It also tolerates some acidity. Various annual clovers like strawberry will also take damp areas. Ladino clover likes moisture and can tolerate short term flooding.
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