Food Plot question????

[katie]

Was thinking of planting a food plot.  What do you guys plant and what time of year do you plant it.  I want something I am not going to have to re-plant each year.  Thanks

[Gatekeeper]

Katie

I use a mix of ladino clover, alfalfa and chicory. All of these will flourish and give you good tonnage in the spring and fall. The clover will thin out in the summer months but the alfalfa and chicory will continue to produce good foliage. During the winter the plot will go dormant.

All of these plants are perennial and a plot should last three to four years. I fertilize once a year with 300# per acre of 13-13-13 and get great results. The time to plant (for me) is April or mid August. Another time to plant would be in winter when everything is dormant but you will have had to prep the ground first.

To prep the ground:
1. I spray with Roundup, wait 10 to 14 days and spray again if needed.
2. Wait 10 days and then disk the ground and let the ground set for 3 days.
3. Then I disk again to break-up the big clots of dirt.
4. Spread the fertilizer and drag a chain harrow over the ground. This works the fertilizer into the ground and smoothes out the seed bed.
5. Spread the seed. I mix all the seed together and spread them all at one time.
6. Drag the chain harrow with a weighted sheet of plywood behind it over the plot. The chain harrow covers the seed and the weighted plywood presses the seed into the ground.
7. Wait for rain.
8. Mow the plots a few times during the season to keep the plants tinder.

There is a series of videos out called Whitetail Paradise, produced by Bob Coine. He shows different ways to put in food plots like using a small sprayer and yard rake to produce a small food plot to heavy equipment used to plant a whole field. It’s a good series of videos with a lot of information.

 Good luck and have fun! Food plots can be very rewarding.

[Junction hunter]

If you are building soil use buck wheat in the spring and rye grain in the late summer.
If ground is good black top soil do Rape. When the frost hits it is like candy to the deer. However this can only be planted for 3 years then you need to switch up.
A good clover is good for an perenial is PH is high enough.
Good luck.

[Dan Reeves]

I agree with the others, we try to keep a smorgasbord available to keep them interested and to have something year round.

Our staples are clover and chicory in the spring, kale/turnips (rape) and oats in the fall.

If I was only going to plant one thing in the fall, it'd be oats.

One more tip, use an exclusion cage to see usage, we stake down a 24" diameter x 3 foot tall cylinder, this will really tell you whats going on. Otherwise you might think your crops didn't do well when they are actually getting eaten.

Here's some oats from last season:
 

[flatlander37]

whitetail clover from whitetail institute has worked well for us in two different foodplots.  One is 11 acres and one is 6-7 acres.  Hope this helps.  Mark

[leatherneck]

One of the mistakes alot of people seem to make is planting too little of a plot. If you have a good deer population you need to plant a larger track food plot or the deer will have it destroyed before it has time to grow right to it's potential.

[katie]

Thanks guys