What food plot should i plant

Conditions like heavy shade or an overly wet site can require special seed selection to have a successful food plot. Crimson Clover 5 lbs. White Clover 8 lbs. White Clover 6 lbs. Many of the people who contact us about planting a food plot lack the necessary equipment to put one in by traditional methods.

Fortunately for those folks, there is still an opportunity to provide a nutritional benefit to the local deer herd and improve their deer hunting with a minimal amount of equipment. This can be accomplished by killing the existing vegetation with an herbicide application, giving the vegetation a few weeks to die back, and then broadcasting a mix of small-seeded species, such as clovers, alfalfa or brassicas.

The best time to plant is right before a rain, so the water will carry the seed into the soil where it can germinate. Another similar option for those lacking equipment is to frost-seed.

Frost-seeding is simply broadcasting small-seeded species like those mentioned above on top of frost- or snow-covered ground. The freezing and thawing of the ground will pull the seed into the soil, where it should germinate once the soil reaches the appropriate temperature.

Frost-seedings often require a selective herbicide application once warm-season weed growth begins. But if you just plant them and walk away, you may be throwing the towel in. Annual food plots may start to be invaded with weeds and perennial food plots can be outgrown. You can spot spray particularly aggressive weeds with herbicide. Mowing clover plots is one of the best things you can do, as it removes weeds and rejuvenates the clover.

You can plant the best food plots in the best location and produce tons of food for deer, but if you routinely hunt right on the edge of them and bust deer off your plots each time you hunt, the deer will quickly start to use your plots only at night.

Or you can hunt the deer trails that lead to the food plot to avoid spooking deer repeatedly and condition them from not using the plot. This is even more important for food plots on small acreage.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make though is to spend too much time thinking about it without any action. Most of them only grow for a few months. With the way that life goes, you can blink and the summer is over already.

So think about the process as an experiment. Learn about what works on your property and apply your lessons learned to the next year. With some luck and planning, you can avoid these common food plot mistakes. Your email address will not be published. Subscribe me to your mailing list. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.

This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. But the power of beans is well worth what is spent. The other big Midwestern crop, corn, is a top pick for deer food plots. Standing corn during deer season is an absolute must if you have the acreage. Both standing corn and cut corn are classic food sources that attract and grow giants. As deer season progresses and the cold returns, brassica food plots become a hotspot.

Brassicas are the term for rape, turnips, and rashes among the common and once the frost hits they are sweetened. The cold sends the sugar concentration on to the leaves. Some species such as turnips and radishes go beyond the greenery and provide late season bulbs. This critical time period can not only make or break your hunt this fall, but can get your deer herd on the right start with quality food sources. He can just work the tree line, just inside of the woods, and scent […].

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Correctly prepare the sites for planting. Regardless of whether your property is large or small, the steps that will take you from no food plots to a high-performance food-plot system are pretty much the same, and you should follow them in the same specific order.

One reason is that some steps depend on others having already been done. Whether your property is large or small, your best-case scenario is to have enough acreage in plots to maximize attraction and nutrition, but without planting so much of the property that deer have no reason to move.

Managers who use both hunting plots and feeding plots may plant 10 percent or more. Most folks who plant food plots for deer plant hunting plots.

Their main functions are to draw deer for harvest and provide nutrition. Feeding plots, when used, are usually larger than hunting plots, and their main function is to serve as places where deer can feed and feel safe. When feeding plots are used, they should be hunted sparingly, maybe just during the rut, so that deer have a feeling of safety using them. In such a situation, you might not want to stick with the formula. Instead, you might want to plant as much of your property as possible to maximize its attraction and available nutrition because you will be attracting and feeding so many deer.

It always pays to put some thought into where you put your plots. Before we get into that, consider that it can be equally critical to think about where not to put them.

When making that determination, be sure to consider that screening vegetation, which may be there when you check in the spring and summer, may be gone in the fall and winter. Also consider planting evergreens or other natural screening plants to help shield the plot from public view.