Jap pictures

[jwarwick]

The rains always produce good jap millet.
This millet has been in water 1" to 3" for nearly all its growing season and its doing fine. In dry years it is usually hit or miss, and has a lot of weed competition. The water on it makes it nearly weedless with no herbicide.

My only problem is that I barely avoid getting my truck stuck just getting into my place with so much rain this summer and the deer plots haven't been planted yet for the mud.

[richard b evers]

man, that is beautiful - seeing that, and this cold front moving in this morning, makes me want to go hunting

[jwarwick]

Semper Fi, Richard,

thanks- I feel the fall chill too... Awesome.

[pep]

looks good man, we planted chiwapa millet for the first time this year and had 6+ inches of water in it since it was ten inches tall, the seed heads are huge and the seeds dont fall out of the heads, ill post a pic next week

[redleg3316]

nice!

[jwarwick]

Pep,
I would really like to see your Chiwapa. That has been highly recommended to us by "SB" and others, but I just have not gotten any yet.
Along with your pictures, can you give some details about your planting date, soil prep, herbicide, fertilizer, etc.?

thanks- Jon

[pep]

i guess its the same SB from the mdwfp forum that recommended it to me also and that is why we tried it out. what we did was used an ag plain to fly it onto the mud right after we drained the water. it came up great, and then it got what i was scared would be too much water on it, but it continued to mature with the water on it.ill try to get some pics next time im over there

[pep]

also we did not fertilize or use any type of herbicide, the water kept the weeds almost completely out, planted it the first week in july if i remember correctly

[acornman]

That is a good looking stand of millet. In my work I try to explain to landowners how to grow either jap millet or the natural version, barnyard grass. It is an important concept to understand that millet can stand some shallow water (1" to 3") during the growing season. Actually, you can flood it up to 1/3 the height of the plant, i.e., 18" millet can take 6" water. However, that much is not always needed to control weeds.

Problem weeds like sesbania, cocklebur, etc. cannot tolerate the same amount of flooding that millet can take, therefore they are killed pretty quickly. It is the same process as growing rice. Water serves as a free liquid herbicide.

Good luck with your duck hole.

Acornman

[jwarwick]

Hey Acornman-
I wonder if I've bought some hardwood switches from you in the past?

Do you know if water coverage in this millet food plot will kill the few patches of burmuda grass i have there? I sure hope so... the disk won't cut through that stuff- just rolls over the top. I'd hate so see it expand through this plot.

Jon

[acornman]

I do not sell hardwood seedlings. However, I have handled the planning, purchasing and planting of some 30,000 acres in the delta over the past 11 years.

Bermuda grass is not considered very flood tolerant and can be killed by stress flooding like cocklebur and sesbania. It will spread into your impoundment when hot, dry conditions favor it over other plants. I would try to keep it wet up into the growing season (maybe July 1-15) to try and kill it; this would work in with your scheme of millet planting or moist soil management. Otherwise, you can spray it with herbicide and get it out of your duck hole.

We see a lot of Bermuda grass creeping down catfish pond levees into pond bottoms when they get dry enough for the Bermuda to take hold. However, if you flood the pond bottom at the right time during the growing season, you can kill it back. Also, it is a tough competitor of hardwood seedlings, and needs to be killed before you can establish a good stand of trees.

Acornman

[jwarwick]

Acorn- whats your take on Chiwapa?

[SSI]

jwarwick,

Take a second to look at this site www.chiwapa.com It will give you a little more information about Chiwapa.

Best regards,

[jwarwick]

Thanks SSI- Your chiwapa link looks good to me, but I kind of like the way jap slumps down some after drying out and flooding for hunting, exposing pockets of weedy/open water... Does the chiwapa stay upright TOO MUCH? For example it would be really tough to find birds if the chiwapa stayed good and tall in the winter, and there would not be much open water at all in my patch.

Have you hunted over it? What do you think?

[jwarwick]

Picture from today... December 16, '09.
Flooded on average about 3 inches depth. I may put some more water on it if the millet does not submerge more. Didn't see 1 duck today... not here yet.