Duck pond crops

[willametteriveroutlaw]

I am going to get started planting here soon, any reccomendations on what to plant in my ponds.. They are all pretty much seasonal except the sloughs which will have about 10 ft of banks exposed when the water goes down.

[NeverGuess]

There is a guy in Brownsville that has a wild rice & seed company. He also owns a taxidermy catalog. He sells all kinds of seed and is full of knowledge. He is a great guy, and when you go pick up your seed and see his property you will not want to leave. It is paradise. A huge marsh full of wild rice, waterfowl, quail you name it.

Smartweed is one of the best things you can grow. Some people say if you can grow only one thing, that is it.

When considering yield per acre, many natural crops like smartweed beat any cereal grain due to the invertabrates they support. Smartweed grows from moist to submerged.

During the season, you will sometimes see ducks avoiding a field of corn for some weird other location. The reason is because their bodies are telling them they need some other nutrient not provided by the cereal grain.

[sprigkiller09]

Originally Posted by willametteriveroutlaw

I am going to get started planting here soon, any reccomendations on what to plant in my ponds.. They are all pretty much seasonal except the sloughs which will have about 10 ft of banks exposed when the water goes down.

I say corn!! It will last a long time especially if you can control flow. It is not the most desired but it will keep the birds in your area much longer. Other things are smartweed, white proso millet, buckwheat (good for deer too). The bad part about these though is that once water is there it will last about a week depending on how much you plant.

[HuntNFishAddict]

I had a lease the last 5 years or so. We planted both corn and millet. The corn is great cover to hide blinds and is good for cold weather feed. The millet once flooded is great for bringing them in. I have also had them land in dry millet while using field decoys.