What's your habitat plans for next year?

[SB]

Duck season for me is year-round. I'm preparing 10 months of the year, so I can hunt the 2 months the season is actually in. After the this morning's hunt, I was already making plans on what I will be planting this spring and summer, where I needed to installing new water control structures, where to plant some cover to hide in, etc. I've already booked my millet, soybeans, WGF sorghum and corn seed at good prices. For cover is some wide open fields, I'm considering planting some "islands" and long strips of either Egyptian wheat or sudan grass. I've got a little time to make my mind up.

What are some of your habitat plans?

[hencutter]

one plan for sure is to plant some Green Ash ( fraxinus pennsylvania) around two seperate ponds. The other is to try to eradicate hycinth on 2 other ponds. The freezes that we have had this year may help on the hycinth, the past 2 years we really have not even had a good freeze.

[Tgrindlay]

I'm doing mainly water control for moist soil plants. Maybe buy 50 pounds of Jap Millet to spread.

[SB]

It seems like the best duck holes are often "natural" duck holes, the ones with moist soil plants.


We have a lot of Black Willow (Salix nigra) that come up naturally in our low areas, so much to the point they are often considered to be a pest. It has crossed my mind to take some cuttings from them to plant in the open areas for cover. I spend so much time fighting them, I can't bring myself to plant them, yet.

[jkb87]

corn and rice!!!!!!!!!!!!

[duckkiller]

well one of our best holes is coffey weed, and another is wild grasses but Scott if you wondering I am probably going to plant some millet again with the coffey weed. I am also gonna put up a few woodduck boxes this week jsut for the heck of it, and need to do alittle tree cutting on a few of my holes but all in all I am just gonna plant the millet and try to catch more water sooner next year

[jdbuckshot]

SB,

We planted some sudan last year, but with no water i cant really tell you how to ducks reacted to it. It grew 10'+ and produced about 2/3 the seed that Milo produces. The only problem we had is the deer walking it down to eat the seed heads. it will supply great cover though. Im also going to cut and stick some willows in our 50 acre wrp around our blinds to kind of break them up a little. I'll have pictures this spring!

Good Luck Guys!

[SWAG]

Some planting, alot more water management, and a little spraying. I saw one brake do alot better this season as far as numbers go just because of the duck potato that was present. Most years the water is not manipulated in a fashion to where the potatoes do well. Other spots I saw not do as well from the point that the water came off to late and was more coffeeweed present than grasses. Got some perennial smartweed to get rid of and will do some planting in those areas. My biggest management applications will be the manipulation of water. (maybe SB wants to help with that? )

[rboudet]

Got some perennial smartweed to get rid of and

Why would you get rid of the smartweed? Also is duck potato available commercially?

[SWAG]

I do not know of duck potato being grown commercialy. Selections and an increase have been made by NRCS and will soon be available to commercial growers. May be available by 2009 or 2010.

Perennial smartweed tends to be more of a pest plant when it takes over and you have a monoculture of just it. Annual smartweed is a much better seed producer and co-exist with other plant types.

[Wingman]

I was under the impression that early drawdown gave you coffeeweeds, where later drawdown gave you grasses.

I'm needing some water management help as well. Got a couple of ponds that are shallow and I want to drop the water so the grasses grow. I already know the smartweed and sesbania will be 10 feet high when the water drops. I need help in preventing that and getting barnyard and sprangletop to grow. Ground spraying will be out of the question as these ponds have been wet for about 20 years. Won't be able to get a tractor or atv in there this year. Sedges would be good, also.

[SWAG]

From what I have experienced Wingman, you get more grass early when soil temps are a little lower. Think about how you see weeds come up in fields from April through July. Your really nasty broadleaves are later when soil temps get on up. Of course if you already have a huge bank of coffeeweed seed there, then chances are that water manipulation by itself is not going to control it.

[jwarwick]

Wingman-
Hows about keeping the water on it until late summer (Aug1)- drain it suddenly then spread jap millet on the goopy mud with your 4wd atv and seed spreader. I've seen that work well.

[Wingman]

drain it suddenly then spread jap millet on the goopy mud with your 4wd atv and seed spreader. I've seen that work well.

Land machines don't fare too well in fishpond bottoms that haven't seen the light of day since 1980 something. About the only choice is to fly it on, but then you're gonna have to fly on some 2,4-D to control the sesbania and that won't work too well in July. I'd kill everything in a 5 mile radius.

[jwarwick]

Alright then...
Drain it now so you can farm it in July-August.