Long time lurker - I think this is my first post. I planted benne for the first time this year and figured some of y’all might benefit from what I’ve learned.
My main reason for planting benne was I wanted to plant something that deer wouldn’t mess with. It’s also very drought tolerant. The goal was to plant about 5 acres for dove hunting.
1) Read this cover to cover numerous times:
https://baylor.agrilife.org/files/20...rguide2008.pdf
2) Prepped the seed bed by mowing the oats/crimson clover, burning, spreading 200 lbs of 17-17-17 per acre, disking, disking again, then a final pass with with the Perfecta.
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https://youtube.com/shorts/rG9T9QtEsb0?feature=share
3) Sprayed Dual Magnum pre-emergent herbicide. There are no herbicides labeled for use on benne in SC, but one of the helpful guys at Sesaco told me to spray Dual at 21.3 oz/acre. Benne is very sensitive to most herbicides, so the application needs to be accurate and with the right soil conditions. You don’t want Dual in the root zone while benne is germinating. I was very dry in May so had to wait for rain. Finally got an inch, which allowed me to spray. I then had to wait for another rain event to incorporate the Dual before I could plant. After 1.4” 5 days after spraying, I was ready to plant.
4) Calibrated the drill. I use a Great Plains 706NT with 7.5” spacing and blocked off every other seed cup to get 15” spacing. I was hoping to plant about 8 lbs per acre with a germination of 84% (on the seed tag). I used the large seed box and set it to plant about an inch deep. Soil temperatures were between 70-80 degrees, which is essential for good germination.
5) planting was the east part - until my drill broke after 4.1 acres. Still not fixed, so I ended up with less acreage than I planned. Oh well.
6) 3 days after planting, I sprayed glyphosate to kill any weeds that had germinated before the Dual activated.
1 week after planting.
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2 weeks (today:
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