Food Plots

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

Do you plant them, and if so, what do you plant, how much on what acreage and how has it worked for you?

Chuck???

I planted approx. 1.5 ac on my little homestead of 10 ac. last year. For the past 3 years all I saw were does, and this past year I harvested a 140 class buck. I planted Extreme, Power Plant, Biomass, Alfa-Rack and Brassicas. The deer never touched the Brassicas, but they hit everything else. I'm continuing with the Extreme and Alfa-Rack, but adding Tecomate LabLab, AlfaRack Plus and Secret Spot.

Within 1/2 mile are farmers fields that are planted in Soybeans and Corn, so it's not like the deer don't have anything to eat, but I thought that I'd plant some things to give them a reason to visit my little patch of ground.

 

[Loggy]

My buddies own 40 acres near my camp that has a small clearing that I planted the Imperial Whitetail Clover a couple years ago. The NWTF has a wild game seed subsidy program for its members and I bought thru my Local NWTF Chapter at bout 1/2 the retail cost.

Clearing is back in mtns (too ruff to get eqt. in) so it was one of those hand rake and hand sow type jobs. I roughed sowed approx 1/2 acre plot and it took hold in most & it being perennial, comes back each year. I have oversown once since my initial planting. The deer & turkey seem to mow it down as fast as it grows up.

 

[Admin]

I hunt on ground owned by my father in law. If I planted a food plot that attracted any nice bucks I would not get to hunt that property. I always have to hunt the ground no one else wants to hunt on.

 

[laker]

Blue dot the deer will not touch the brassica until late dec or jan but then the will tear it up. The plant takes a couple very hard frost to get the starchy plant to turn to sugar.. If you want a great very late season plant it is the ticket. I always plant full draw just in case I go that long without a deer. I have had awsome results with Imperial clover Biologic Full draw, Clover plus and am thinking about trying some lab lab plus.

 

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

Laker:

I thought so too, but in the past 2 winters, they never hit it at all. I'm going to try something different this Fall, I just haven't decided what. I had Full Draw planted, and Maximum. :? It gets cold enough here, and it does sweeten like you said (I tried it.......)

 

[Grouse]

I hunt on ground owned by my father in law. If I planted a food plot that attracted any nice bucks I would not get to hunt that property. I always have to hunt the ground no one else wants to hunt on.

What's up with that? :?

 

[Admin]

I hunt on ground owned by my father in law. If I planted a food plot that attracted any nice bucks I would not get to hunt that property. I always have to hunt the ground no one else wants to hunt on.

What's up with that? :?

I always hunt the ground that no one else wants to hunt. If I do something to attract deer on the properties I hunt now someone else will want to hunt it and I'll get shut out. I'm not sure how much ground he owns or leases but I always get the property no wants to hunt on. It's been that way since I started deer hunting. There's a bunch of guys who hunt on the ground my father in law owns and leases, friends and relatives mostly.

 

[big6x6]

Do you plant them, and if so, what do you plant, how much on what acreage and how has it worked for you?

Of COURSE I plant them! I normally plant both Crimson and White clover. They come up at different times, prefer different soils, and tolerate different soil wetness. I plant BOTH and one seems to always really take off. Whitetail AND turkey really like the clovers. I also plant wheat and ryegrass. Ryegrass is a little bitty seed and you REALLY get what you are paying for. Wheat is a big seed and it takes quite a bit to cover a plot. I plant anywhere from 0.5 acre to 2 acres. I don't want anything I can't shoot across! Food plots make ALL the difference in the world!

 

[schoolmaster]

I have a strip of Ladino Clover 200 yards long and 45 feet wide planted along the edge of a 10 acre woods with a 20 acre weed field that the narrow end butts up against. Planted it 2 years ago and we killed 5 deer off it this year. They hit it hard in the early spring.

 

[HighTechRedneck]

I have not had much luck with feed plots. I plant one almost every year, but even with getting the soil tested every year I can never get it to grow well. That has made me decide that fruit trees are the way to go in this area. I have close to 200 persimmon trees growing in about a 5 ac area rite now. It will be a few years before they bear fruit, but they are growning. Next spring I am going to plant a bunch of apple trees in about the same sized area. The year after that a bunch of pear trees. I have 44 ac to work with, and will contine trying with the regular feed plot. There is a lot of corn and alfalfa in the area, so I know that I am wasting my time and $$ on the feed plot, but I am going to keep trying it anyway. More as a hobby than anything else.

 

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

HTR:

Did you get the trees from the State, County or ? How tall are they?

 

[big6x6]

I have not had much luck with feed plots. I plant one almost every year, but even with getting the soil tested every year I can never get it to grow well.

Get a sample of your soil and send to Auburn University. They'll tell you what it needs. Probably a simple solution.

 

[HighTechRedneck]

Blue-Dot
I actualy started the persimmon trees from seed in what used to be a garden at my parents farm. I think it was 2 years ago when I started them. I kept them watered, and fertalized until I transplanted them in the woods about 2 months ago. Most of them are between 3' and 3 1/2' tall, and yesterday when I took a walk in the woods it looked like they are still doing well. The other trees I am probably going to have to buy since I can not get either types of seed to grow. The guy that my aunt is dating told me about a nursery in KY that sells the trees cheap, and will guarentee them for 2 years. He claims that he purchased several 3' apple trees from them for only $1.25 each. Thats extreamly cheap for apple trees especialy since they guarentee them. I will post their contact info if I remember to when he gets it to me. Rite now I have a bunh of cherry trees that are around 6" tall in the yard at my sisters house. Thinking about transplanting them instead of mowing them down like I do every year, but I do not know if anything except birds eat cherries. I guess that it can't hurt anything to transplant them and see what all will eat them in the woods, but it will be a lot of wasted work if nothing that I want to feed eats them.


big6X6
Do you have an adress to send the samples to? I have been having the local CoOp tsend the soil samples off. Not sure where they send them to. The last 2 tests they said it only needed lime so the plot got the ammount of lime that they reccomended. At first the plot grews well, but when it gets about 6"-8" tall the broom sage takes over again. Maybe I need to double the ammount of lime that they reccomend, or relime with the reccomended amount after the plot gets about 3"-4" tall. That way the lime will stay in the soil longer, and keep the acid neutralized longer.

 

[Spitpatch]

Do you plant them, and if so, what do you plant, how much on what acreage and how has it worked for you?

Of COURSE I plant them! I normally plant both Crimson and White

Over and over??

 

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

HTR:

There is a herbacide that is grass specific, Poast Plus is what I use. I usually have to hit the food plots 2x/year with it to keep the grasses from overrunning them. There are a few large weeds that pop up, I wait 'till they are 12"-18" tall then take a cotton glove dipped in a strong glyophosphate solution i.e. Roundup (50% stronger than recommended) and wipe the plant (I've got rubber dishwashing gloves on under the "glove of death"). That is working so far! I take the soil sample to the local co-op in the Fall. It takes them a couple of weeks to get the info. back to me, but I pay the $10.00 and get a full work-up, not just the N-P-K and pH.

 

[HighTechRedneck]

I have been paying $6 for the N P K and Ph. If the local CoOp only charges $10 for the full workup I'll have that done this year. I am still going to rely on my fruit more than the normal food plot though. Like I said there ias a lot of alfalfa, and some corn in the area, so normal food plots probably won't do much anyway.

 

[Spitpatch]

I have a friend who swears the best food plot he has found for deer are pumpkins. :shock: He grows them every year and the deer see this as an alternative source of food so my friend really can compete with the other usual ag crops here in Iowa. Loggy this seems like something you might try. Yes?

 

[Rifleman]

I can attest that deer love pumpkins, every fall at the range we had the Indiana shoot they have a class 3 shoot. One guy always brings a truckload of pumpkins for targets. Afterwards in a few days the deer come out and start chomping them down. I have seen the tracks all over and you can actually make out the bite marks from where they ate on them. They are all gone for the most part in a week or two.

 

[iisabigone]

I dont plant any food plots. However, I lime a few large orchard grass fields and honey suckle patches around old home places. These are great locations to set up in the evening during rifle and muzzleloading seasons just to kill a deer.

I typically rely on hardwood mast to attract the deer when hunting the woods.

I also have access to countless clearcuts(browse, bedding, security) that atracts a lot of deer.

When the rut kicks in I hunt funnels and travel corridors between feeding and bedding areas that the does are using.

We have so many deer here now its not difficult to kill a deer. It is often dificult to find an area where a nice buck is using that isnt pressured by other hunters!

I enjoy many group activities. However, hunting is something I enjoy doing in solitude.