Food Plots New plot

[Coker]

This is my first year of truly doing a food plot from start to finish. This area finished being timbered last September. just enough time for me to throw some winter wheat and rye down and hope for the best. Needless to say, that didn't do very good. I did a soil test and realized my pH was at 5 1/2 and I was low on most everything else. I put the lime, potash, and phosphorus to it in early February. I've run a disc over it twice and a drag once. It's roughly a half acre in size. I'll be spreading a mixture of chicory and clover as soon as the next rain. Give me your thoughts and opinion because, as I said, this is my first time and I'm always willing to listen

 

[Popcorn]

add a bag of wheat to your seed. it will sprout quickly and help protect the young clover. It will also help hold the soil and keep it cool and actually preserve moisture. spread a variety of clovers to improve your stand. one variety may thrive where another struggles. include a cool season clover like balansa, a standard like ladino and a dry season like arrow leaf. you should hold the ladino till this fall with some more wheat and maybe some pell lime.

 

[BSK]

That's some decent soil!

 

[DoubleRidge]

I've got a couple of plots where I need to do the same thing. I like Popcorns sugestion of multiple varietys. More robust verses a single specie. I would also add wheat to protect the clover and the soil.

 

[Coker]

Clover is best used with a PH around 7. I won't have that PH until spring 2026....hopefully. I had a farmer tell me "Do you want to plant a crop that will come up but not fully yield or do you want a crop that will flourish". Of course, I said I want a crop that will flourish. He told me "Then look for something that your soil will support". Therefore, I planted what my PH would support and flourish. What I decided on was chicory, which will flourish in a PH between 6-6.5. The small amount of clover, that I am mixing with the chicory, will add nitrogen to the soil. Also, chicory is a high protein plant that deer absolutely love.

 

[Creek bottoms]

Durana clover will tolerate a little more of the acidic soil.

 

[348Winchester]

Clover is best used with a PH around 7. I won't have that PH until spring 2026....hopefully. I had a farmer tell me "Do you want to plant a crop that will come up but not fully yield or do you want a crop that will flourish". Of course, I said I want a crop that will flourish. He told me "Then look for something that your soil will support". Therefore, I planted what my PH would support and flourish. What I decided on was chicory, which will flourish in a PH between 6-6.5. The small amount of clover, that I am mixing with the chicory, will add nitrogen to the soil. Also, chicory is a high protein plant that deer absolutely love.

The farmer is correct. However, he is raising a crop for maximum yield to realize a profit. Your goals are different. You are soil building. Clovers will help build your soil through fixing nitrogen that benefits other plants. A spring/summer plot will see usage by deer but at this season of the year deer have a smorgasbord at their disposal. Build your soil and focus on fall and winter crops. Those crops (wheat, oats, rye) will really draw in deer during hunting season and give them some extra forage afterward until spring greenup.

You want to keep something growing year round to buld healthy soil which, in turn, builds a healthy deer herd. Clover and cereal grains are the workhorses of a food plot program.

 

[Coker]

The farmer is correct. However, he is raising a crop for maximum yield to realize a profit. Your goals are different. You are soil building. Clovers will help build your soil through fixing nitrogen that benefits other plants. A spring/summer plot will see usage by deer but at this season of the year deer have a smorgasbord at their disposal. Build your soil and focus on fall and winter crops. Those crops (wheat, oats, rye) will really draw in deer during hunting season and give them some extra forage afterward until spring greenup.

You want to keep something growing year round to buld healthy soil which, in turn, builds a healthy deer herd. Clover and cereal grains are the workhorses of a food plot program.

Correct, that is what I'm trying to do. I will reevaluate my soil in the fall and go from there. More than likely, I will fertilize with more potash and phosphorus. Maybe disc up the chicory and clover and replant. That I have not decided yet. I am definitely learning and will make mistakes along the way, but I'm having fun doing it

 

[BSK]

The farmer is correct. However, he is raising a crop for maximum yield to realize a profit. Your goals are different. You are soil building. Clovers will help build your soil through fixing nitrogen that benefits other plants. A spring/summer plot will see usage by deer but at this season of the year deer have a smorgasbord at their disposal. Build your soil and focus on fall and winter crops. Those crops (wheat, oats, rye) will really draw in deer during hunting season and give them some extra forage afterward until spring greenup.

You want to keep something growing year round to buld healthy soil which, in turn, builds a healthy deer herd. Clover and cereal grains are the workhorses of a food plot program.

THIS!

A big difference exists between farming (maximizing plant growth/production for harvest profit) versus growing crops for deer to eat. I would whole-heartedly agree that doing everything possible to improve soil quality is the right thing to do, but plants will grow (although not maximized) in a wide variety of soil conditions. Of course, this requires choosing plants that can handle poor soil conditions until your soil quality improves through adding lime and fertilizer. Eventually you can grow whatever you want once soils are improved, but there's nothing wrong with growing plants that will at least produce something until then.

For years I grew food plots for deer in soil that started at a pH of 4.3. These were small, isolated plots with no major road access. We could not get spreader trucks or buggies to these locations. However, we were able to throw out some bagged pelletized lime and fertilizer by hand. Over time, year after year of doing this, we improved the soil which increased the variety of plants we could plant. We started with cereal rye (which will grow on concrete) and over the years, moved up to wheat and crimson clover. Eventually we could grow some simple summer crops as well, like cowpeas. Now, we have the pH up to the low 6s, and we can even grow soybeans in summer. The soybeans don't grow anywhere near as well as down in an agricultural bottomland, but they do grow, and deer eat the snot out of them.

The biggest problem we've run into with small plots is simply food volume. If no other quality foods exist, even a moderate deer density will wipe out small plots, both summer and fall. Luckily, with fall plots, often we have acorns for the deer to subsist on, and the fall plots are only used once the acorns are depleted. But in summer, if you have no early-stage plant growth (summer weeds) for deer to feed on, their browse pressure will wipe out small summer plots very quickly.

 

[348Winchester]

Correct, that is what I'm trying to do. I will reevaluate my soil in the fall and go from there. More than likely, I will fertilize with more potash and phosphorus. Maybe disc up the chicory and clover and replant. That I have not decided yet. I am definitely learning and will make mistakes along the way, but I'm having fun doing it

You won't have to disc the clover and chicory. In late July/early August broadcast some buckwheat into the plot. In mid September broadcast some more buckwheat and some winter wheat into it. In mid October broadcast winter rye and more rye again a couple of weeks later. I like mixing my cereal grains with pellet lime when I spred them. It helps give a more even distribution of the seed.

If you get the rain you will have a thick, lush, salad bar of green goodness for your deer. The buckwheat will die with the first frost but it will have done its job providing moisture rich browse while mining phosphorus from deep in the soil. After a couple of seasons you will no longer need chemical fertilizers.

 

[TNTreeman]

You won't have to disc the clover and chicory. In late July/early August broadcast some buckwheat into the plot. In mid September broadcast some more buckwheat and some winter wheat into it. In mid October broadcast winter rye and more rye again a couple of weeks later. I like mixing my cereal grains with pellet lime when I spred them. It helps give a more even distribution of the seed.

If you get the rain you will have a thick, lush, salad bar of green goodness for your deer. The buckwheat will die with the first frost but it will have done its job providing moisture rich browse while mining phosphorus from deep in the soil. After a couple of seasons you will no longer need chemical fertilizers.

Good plan. It's like the mutual fund approach to a good plot. Diversification and variety. If something doesn't do well something else will. You could even add some beans in there as well if it's a big enough area.

 

[348Winchester]

Good plan. It's like the mutual fund approach to a good plot. Diversification and variety. If something doesn't do well something else will. You could even add some beans in there as well if it's a big enough area.

Multiple things can be added. Daikon radish, dwarf essex rape, beans, winter peas, or chicory.

 

[BSK]

I'm a huge fan of Winter Peas in cool-season plots. But one caveat: deer don't show them much attention in sandier soils. And I don't know the reason why. But west of KY Lake, in the coastal plain soils of West TN which have a higher sand content than the heavy clays of Middle TN, deer just don't eat them much. However, in the clay soils, deer often go crazy over them, picking them out of a fall plot first.

 

[348Winchester]

I'm a huge fan of Winter Peas in cool-season plots. But one caveat: deer don't show them much attention in sandier soils. And I don't know the reason why. But west of KY Lake, in the coastal plain soils of West TN which have a higher sand content than the heavy clays of Middle TN, deer just don't eat them much. However, in the clay soils, deer often go crazy over them, picking them out of a fall plot first.

They hammer them in my plots with typical clay soils. I wonder if the sandy soils drain too quickly and alter the taste of the pea by causing it to be drier. Clay soils hold water well and therefore the peas are wetter and sweeter as a result. Just a theory I quickly postulated.

 

[Coker]

You won't have to disc the clover and chicory. In late July/early August broadcast some buckwheat into the plot. In mid September broadcast some more buckwheat and some winter wheat into it. In mid October broadcast winter rye and more rye again a couple of weeks later. I like mixing my cereal grains with pellet lime when I spred them. It helps give a more even distribution of the seed.

If you get the rain you will have a thick, lush, salad bar of green goodness for your deer. The buckwheat will die with the first frost but it will have done its job providing moisture rich browse while mining phosphorus from deep in the soil. After a couple of seasons you will no longer need chemical fertilizers.

I like this approach, but my question is, would you disc all this up the following spring and start over?

 

[Iglow]

COKER! The heck with clover and that crap! Plant sunflowers and wheat then we can burn it a little at a time starting in august and shoot doves over it!

 

[BSK]

They hammer them in my plots with typical clay soils. I wonder if the sandy soils drain too quickly and alter the taste of the pea by causing it to be drier. Clay soils hold water well and therefore the peas are wetter and sweeter as a result. Just a theory I quickly postulated.

I honestly have no idea, but the idea of the sandier soils draining too quickly is as good a theory as any. All I know is, go to the west side of KY Lake and deer we leave them alone. Stay on the east side, and deer go crazy over them (the lake is the dividing line between the coastal plain soils and interior upland soils).

 

[348Winchester]

I like this approach, but my question is, would you disc all this up the following spring and start over?

No. frost seed it with more clover in mid February. Then mow it in late May/ early June. The clover base should come back strong. You may need to spray Clethodim on it if there are grasses growing in it. In late July scalp mow it (mow it very low) and start the process over again by sowing buckwheat into the plot.

Every few years you might want to do a burndown with a glyphosate/clethodim mixture and start over but thats only if weeds/grasses get out of hand. A very light discing could be done at this point. Discing, however, disturbs the seed bank and all those weed seeds from time eternal start to sprought.

Mowing, spraying, and overseeding can keep a plot going nearly indefinitely.

 

[BSK]

Mowing, spraying, and overseeding can keep a plot going nearly indefinitely.

I couldn't agree with this more. After dreaming for years of having the right ground-turning equipment, so I could get away from throw-and-mow planting techniques, I finally got all the necessary equipment and started tilling the heck out of my plots. This achieved what I most wanted - turning the soil deep to allow moisture penetration into my concrete-hard ridge-top soils - but I found out the hard way that no matter how much rainwater deeper turned soils will absorb, they still dry out VERY quickly in summer. Three weeks without rain, and those soils were right back to being dry enough to kill crops.

I listened to Megalomaniac's advice and went back to throw-and-mow, although I changed up HOW I did that, and now I have much more productive soils and plots that will live through long summer/fall droughts. Someday, I may have to till the plots a little to deal with all of the mulch build-up, but I will till them very shallow, just to take care of the mulch (or I could burn the plots to get rid of any excessive mulch).

And by the way, I don't drill in my seed because the ground is super rocky. I don't think a normal seed drill would survive trying to drill into plots littered with rocks the size of cantaloupe.