Plants to fertilize for deer

[Harold Money jr]

I didn't want to interrupt the Oak fertilizing thread so I thought I'd post a comment here.
20 years ago I spoke with J. Wayne Fears for a long time about fertilizing trees. He was a believer and Convinced me to be. I came home and identified all the trees that I wanted to produce more and better acorns and I fertilized them. The results were not much different than before.
He also encouraged me to fertilize honeysuckle vines and keep and plant the black seeds for better browse where I wanted it. He said it was amazing how much the deer would target fertilized honeysuckles. Honestly I never tried that and had forgot it. Has anyone else tried fertilizing honeysuckles or other bushes trees or plants that really worked?

 

[Ski]

I tried spraying the Antler Grow stuff but found zero difference in plant health or browse.

 

[TNlandowner]

I don't fertilize them, but I cage and protect young Strawberry bushes to allow them to grow and spread. Once I remove the cages, deer come to them like a kid rushing to the candy aisle....

 

[DoubleRidge]

I've heard of fertilizing honeysuckle before but have never tried it?....what I have done in large areas of honeysuckle and blackberry is bush hog multiple strips through the area too stimulate new growth.... creating new browse and the deer will use the strip as an easier path to follow....creating "edge" and adding diversity to the area....all for nothing but fuel cost and a few hours tractor time.... fertilizer cost are high....so what fertilizer we purchase (if any) will go on the food plots.

 

[BSK]

I have not fertilized honeysuckle vine, but I HAVE added pelletized lime. In my area the soil is not that nutrient poor, it is just HIGHLY acidic. On our narrow hogback ridges, soil tests from newly opened food plots often come back with a pH in the low 4s. That's acidic enough to melt your shoes! When soil is acidic, it bonds nutrients to the soil particles making it impossible for plants to utilize those nutrients. Adding lime to neutralize the soil releases those nutrients for plant uptake. And yes, the growth rate of the honeysuckle dramatically increased after spreading lime.

 

[BSK]

That said, the best thing you can do for deer in the summer is simply to create more weeds. Although deer are classified as "woody browsers," eating the bud tips of woody plants, in summer, they are actually forb eaters. In essence, weed eaters. Even in agricultural regions, stomach content analysis in summer finds more than 50% of their diet is summer weeds, even when fields of soybeans are available. And the best way to produce more weeds is to disturb the soil in open areas. Burning and mowing promote grasses, but breaking the soil promotes broadleaf weeds. I highly recommend running a disk across open areas in early spring to promote more weeds. Not all of the area, just in strips. Tall grasses have their place too.

A case in point was something I observed last summer. I had just had a bunch of new big food plots bulldozed out along narrow ridge-tops, and after liming and planting a mixture of attractive beans and peas, I was excited to see the deer use these new food sources. And with the high-resolution video trail cameras I'm using, I could really zoom in on feeding deer to see which plants they were eating in the plots. And were they eating all those expensive beans and peas? Some, but what they were really chowing down on was young ragweed! All those expensive food plot plants and the deer were eating the common ragweed?!

I'm by no means downplaying the importance of providing high-quality agricultural food sources for summer plots, but no matter what you plant in your plots, more of a deer's diet will be weeds than whatever you planted. Do all you can to promote summer weed growth.

 

[TheLBLman]

That said, the best thing you can do for deer in the summer is simply to create more weeds.

And ironically, per hour of your time, per dollar spent, this can do more to supplement deer nutrition than cultivated food plots.

In the summer time, young ragweed is king.
And, ragweed's soluble protein level is comparable to clover.

 

[BSK]

And ironically, per hour of your time, per dollar spent, this can do more to supplement deer nutrition than cultivated food plots.

In the summer time, young ragweed is king.
And, ragweed's soluble protein level is comparable to clover.

Exactly. And in late summer (August into mid-September), pokeweed is King.

 

[Mtnfarmer]

I didn't want to interrupt the Oak fertilizing thread so I thought I'd post a comment here.
20 years ago I spoke with J. Wayne Fears for a long time about fertilizing trees. He was a believer and Convinced me to be. I came home and identified all the trees that I wanted to produce more and better acorns and I fertilized them. The results were not much different than before.
He also encouraged me to fertilize honeysuckle vines and keep and plant the black seeds for better browse where I wanted it. He said it was amazing how much the deer would target fertilized honeysuckles. Honestly I never tried that and had forgot it. Has anyone else tried fertilizing honeysuckles or other bushes trees or plants that really worked?

Yes ! One year I planted some Virginia sweet spire for my mom. Only had enough fert. for half of them. The half that did get fert got eaten bare. I learned that 25 years ago or so and have used fertilizer to attract deer since then. It's my belief the plant(s) that get more nutes. probably have increased oils that smell stronger than the rest indicating to the animal world a higher nutritional value.

 

[Blockhouse]

I knew a guy that had a rural driveway lined with day lilies. He said it was the only thing the deer would not eat. One year he fertilized with some left overs and the deer mowed them down. It does something maybe but would be expensive deer attractant today.