Crop for combination of sun and shade

[TN Duck Daddy]

First of all, I'm not a farmer and I'm new to managing property for waterfowl. I've always hunted public (in TN not MS) until a couple of years ago. That said, I have a cypress break through one of our farm fields that has an open hole with the entire southern exposure open to sunlight. Is there any duck food that I can plant that will thrive in shade part of the day and sun part of the day? We stop up a culvert to flood the break for the season.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[JaMak84]

Can you drain it completely with the culvert or do you have to wait on the water to evaporate to expose the areas you want to plant? Does this break collect irrigation runoff during the summer or remain dry after unplugging the culvert? The more control you have over water levels and duration, the more planting options you have.

[TN Duck Daddy]

Unstoppng the culvert drains the break. It does not hold water unless the culvert is stopped up. We don't stop up the culvert until we want the water to back up for another duck hole.

[TN Duck Daddy]

Here is a view of the duck hole looking North from the South bank of the break. The brush and trees in the foreground would need to be removed.


And yes,that IS a very large cypress tree.

[JaMak84]

If you can control the water level and drawdown times, then these are the options I would look at it if it were my property.

1.) Moist Soil Management: The food's already there, you just got to get it to grow. Drawdown 3-4" a week from April-May. Divide the impoundment into 3rds and do light fall tillage on 1/3rd every year between Aug-Sept. This is more of an art than a science and every property is different. You'll have to experiment with drawdown dates and tillage to see what works best on this particular property. If this is an option your interested in, look in the "habitat resources" sticky at the top of this forum page and print off a copy of the NRCS Wetland Management for Waterfowl Handbook.

2.) Millet: Brown Top, Jap, Chiwapa. Most all millets can be broadcast into a prepared seed bed or mudflats. Jap and Brown Top are both 60 day. Chiwapa is 120 day. Jap and Chiwapa are more tollerent to wet conditions. Brown top is more drought tollerent. If it were me, I would go with Jap or Chiwapa.

3.) Hot crop: If you can hold a 3 or 4" flood during the growing season I would entertain planting rice. Drawdown late May, early June. Broadcast onto mudflats. When it gets 6" put a shot of fertilizer on it and flood it up.