I have a few long trails (few hundred yards or so) that are 8 foot wide and id like to plant some sort of grass in there that gets about 2-4 foot tall or so. They lead to all of my food plots and right now they are nothing but dirt. Is there a cheap seed that i can just throw down and let it grow without having to disc? i dont think i could afford to put anthing expensive in since it would take so much to do all of the trails. im not sure if im thinking of switchgrass but i see it on the edges of fields alot (yellow in color but probably because its dead heh). Might be a stupid question but id like to get started on what i want to do over the next few years up there. Thanks for the help

Are you looking for something to just hold the dirt in place or something beneficial to the wildlife?

I mainly just want something cheap to grow there and it just seems that the grass im talking about would be a good transition route from one food plot to the other for the deer. Ive also got a low lying area (about 1.5-2 acres) that i want to make into a bedding area but it floods every spring so i heard there is a type of switchgrass that is good for growing in this type of environment. any suggestions or comments would be helpful. thanks in advance

Most warm season grasses don't do well in wet areas. How about just plain old red & or ladino clover? How much sunlight does the trails get throughout the day? If they're shaded by trees, nothing is going to grow real well in there.

they get quite a bit of sunlight. We had the whole 50 acres select cut so a majority of the trees along the trails are about 8-10 foot tall. actually clover might work too, im just tryin to get some cheap ideas. thanks

Tom check into Alsike clover. It is used for cover on highway ditches and does well on lower PH. The cost for seed is not that costly and I am sure your deer would like it also. You could mix it with some inexpensive red clover. If you wanted to you could frost seed it now if most of your snow is gone. You should be able to find Alsike for under 2 dollars per pound.

BT,
I agree with TT. Go to a local feed mill and buy clover. Don't buy it in prepackaged bags at a store. Suggest a mix of mammoth red and white dutch clovers. If you can find it, I'd also toss in a couple pounds of yellow blossom sweet clover. The red/ white will get you long lasting clover on those trails, and the sweet clover will grow 3-4 feet tall for travel lanes bu tit will disappear fairly quickly in your area. For this type of seeding you can put on a mix ( red/white/sweet clover) of 6# per acre ( 2# of each), and get a very good stand. Many folks will tell you to use more, BUT..it IMHO, it is a waste of $$. Clover establishes itself very well at lesser seed rates. I would also do like TT suggests, get out there as son as the snow is gone, and seed it on the frozen/thawing ground. You can put it on with a hand spreader, just turn it down so you JUST start to see the seed come out. If you can see a lot of seed coming out, you are planting way too heavy. Note : For a 10 ft wide trail one acre will be 4350 feet in length. The 6# mix should be less than $30.

Thanks alot guys, ill definitely be looking into that. Ive heard a little bit about frost seeding but isnt that when the soil absorbs the seed in the spring so you dont have to till it? Im going up in a couple weeks to do some turkey scouting so is that too early or should i wait until the snow is completely gone for good? I believe we still have a couple inches on the ground there.

Tom if you have fairly flat ground where you don't get lots of runoff you can frost seed with a couple of inches of snow on ground. The main reason for not frost seeding with lots of snow on the ground is that if you get a quick warmup with run off it could wash the seed away. The way frost seeding works is that you broadcast seed when ground is frozen. The thawing during the day and refreezing at night pulls the seed into soil giving you good soil contact which in turn gives you good germination. Then as soon as it warms up your seed will germinate and start growing. The early jump that you get from frost seeding enables the young clover to take advantage of the spring rains. Which gives the clover a better chance of surviving a long hot and dry summer like we had last year.

went up over the weekend and limed and fertilized all 3 plots and started a small 1/4 acre plot. Going up in a couple weeks to seed. Checked the local mill up there and they have the clover so i think we are set. The ladino clover is coming up nice from last year but im just going to seed over it with the white/red clover. thanks again for the help guys, ill get some pictures next time i go up. I always get in a hurry and leave without one

went to the local grain elevator got 4# red clover -- 2# lading clover-- 50# verneal alfalfa see what happens

Wounded..Just a tip for the future. IMO, alfalfa is a high cost seed for wildlife food plots and it doesn't add that much more than a clover. You can get the same or better results with combinations of red and white clovers for the majority of plots. If you buy the seed at local feed stores/ elevators in bulk, you can save 40% + of the prepackaged mixes offered by most of the big "wildlife specialty" supply outlets.

I did I only spent $25.00 on all that besides the alfalfa was not all for food plot