food plots

[maisie]

Hello All, and Happy New Year. I have 25 acres of shade. i need to put in some food plots. i was wondering if any of our friends out there know of any good seed i could plant that would do well in shade? Thanks

Maisie

[Legacy]

I would highly recommend clover. If done right you can get 5-7 years out of a single planting.

[Jolly II]

I wouldn't over look Chicory either. Deer and Turkeys will eat it. I just read some stuff on chicory this winter in the Conservationist. It's a native New York plant, and besides good nutrition, it offers deer some medicinal releif from from parasites in their digestive system.

As Legacy pointed out above clover is a good to grow too. It's great for food plots, and only a fraction of the cost of alfalpha. The clover and the chicory could be grown together in the same food plot.

I'm currently doing a little homework on this when I have the time this winter. My neighbor and I are planning on planting several food plots on our surrounding land. Lots of good sources on the internet, and place to buy seeds.

Good luck!

[maisie]

thanks for all the good advice. Maisie

[ray koziatek]

From what little research iv done chickory is a good idea ,,,also their are "roundup resistant" a weed killer ,,hybred seeds you can plant without waiting 14 days after spraying area to kill weeds,, also most important get your soil tested for proper ballance ,,,and dont take 1 sample from 1 area take several over the area of the food at the planting depth of the seed your applying,,, also food for thought all lime is not the same as far as release rate .. "Garden" (hydrated) lime breaks down fast and is absorbed into the soil for imeadete results , and " lawn" lime takes up to 30 days to be absorbed into the soil so you wont get topnotch results during germanation...

[jaychunter]

we grow a good variety .. but imperial white tail clover is the best on our huntin land. nutietion is the key to havind a healthy herd . imperial noplow, is a anual , is a blend of 4 different fooods , secretspot , a anual is also a blend and is great lateron in the year . chicmagnet , is chicory and imperial clover . and is hot all year .. you dont want shade , it all needs around 4 hours of sun . lime is a must . and round up before you do any prep work with your soil . fertilizers help to . . clover likes to be mowed , dependin on how much to deer eat it down ,last june they had my clover 3 in high and it was 6 inches high.

dont set up on a food plot , the thermals change all the time so 50 yards away is the min for land location ... dependin on the layout of the land also .

we put different seeds in the ground and let the deer tell us what they like best and clover proved to be the best .....

hope this helps . mineral lics , not the blocks , but powder in the soil also give whitetails what they need to ....

[goin deep]

Like Ray said, "Test your soil." I've been planting foodplots for years and the single most important thing to do is test your soil. Without giving your foodplot the nutrients it needs and not what you think it needs you will just be wasting your money. The one thing I learned is when it comes to liming your fields, it was a LOT cheaper to have someone do it for me and a lot less agrivation. DON'T skimp on the lime!!!!!!!

Good luck,

Brian

[maisie]

thanks for the good information, remember i said 25 acres of shade. we are trying to get rid of alot of the vines that have grown up in this wooded area. I have alot of vines and poison ivy. so, whre do i buy these seeds? I think the deer just pass thru. i need to have a reason for them to stay.

maisie

[jaychunter]

go to whitetail institute web site and look at there product line, the have test samples that we used and let the deer tell you what they like , i think its like 25 bucks and you get like 4 different blends , quarter acre packages

[chowder]

As a farmer w/ 500 acres in forage crops and as hunter w/ a lot of experience let me explain something to everyone about food plots. 1. Most food plots attract deer for the simple reason that the forage is a "new seeding". Young emerging plants ( a "new seeding") have very low NDF (neutral detergent fiber) and Lignin values. These values are an indication of the digestibility of the forage source and are used by nutritionists to compare forages in order to balance ruminant diets in farm animals. 2.What continues to attract deer to a food plot after the stand is "established" (three years later) has more to do w/ the variety and family of the plants that were sowed in the plot. 3. As a guy who winds up getting dragged into the establishment of these plots on some of the farms we rent, as a service to the landlord, I can tell you that very few of these plots ever make it to mature stands. Most food plots are too small, the soil is too acidic but most of all the deer ( tutkeys are even worse) just destroy the least hardy species in the seed mix. The result is a stand of the plants the deer like the least b/c they were left alone enough to get established.

My point is that it can be very difficult to compare seed mixes etc when the first reason that deer come to a food plot is b/c the plants are immature (not because there is something special about the variety planted). Additionally I am suggesting that you be very realistic about the amount of time you are going to put into developing a long term forage resource for deer in an area where they have unrestricted access to the forage, Third be careful about trying to make comparisons between different seed mixes b/c many stands never mature and those that do may have a very different composition than the same seed mix planted under different conditions.

This is not to say don't mess w/ food plots ( I don't but I'd rather go fishing) Just try and keep an eye on the big picture.

Thought I'd add another observation. Give plenty of forethought to how you are going to use the food plot. Human travel routes to and from stand are the first things mature deer use to educate themselves about hunting pressure, not just scent coming from a hunter "in position".

[Time Out]

Another good idea is to create natural forage throughout your prperty. Removing large trees to allow the undergrowth to establish itself will attract as many if not more deer than any food plot. Get the briars, maple seedlings, etc growing and you will have deer. Food plots are good, but the natural growth is the way to go. Food plots are just a supliment in their diet. Talked with one of the famous "Food Plot guys" who is no longer affiliated with a single seed company and believes this is the best way to attract the deer. Proper browse should cut your visability in the woods down to under fifty yards. if you can see farther than that, you don't have enough and the deer have to leave to find food. Browse trails can be created by cutting lines through your canopy, Deer will follow, and you can hunt. Its like a nonstop buffet with plenty of cover.

[jaychunter]

we have the same set up in wayne county , and we do no not hunt the thick ,it is like a hiding place for them , so i do agree to that.. we have trails and the deer use them year round. with only a few hunters and alot of browse , grapes cheeries apples , beechnuts and young sapplings we put in plots to give the game more . the only problem is coyetes . need to get rid of them .. this year the hard work should be mot as bad . cant wait to get the place started in the spring .

[Time Out]

I heard Spring is the best time to hunt them

[T_barb]

I think when it comes to food plots, the difference maker is giving them a good source of food in the winter..

The past couple of yers i have planted 2 to 3 acres of Brasica and I think it has made a differnce.. for the most part they don't eat it until late Novemebr or Early december, after it freezes and becomes palatable..

I was down to my camp last weekend and they have been hitting it hard, but there is still some left.. All the pics I got on my trail cameras are of good looking, healty deer..

If you can keep them well feed and healty over the winter, they can get growing strong in the spring..

Just my 2 cents and opinion..

[jaychunter]

we plan on doin that for this upcomin winter , they dont like turnips , 2 years in a row and they do not touck them

[T_barb]

I have used BioLogic Maximum the past 2 years and have had very good success.. This past year I got it in a little later than I wanted to, but the previous year, it was waste deep...

I also tried Imperial Winter Greens that same year and the growth was a fraction of what I got withh the Biologic....

Some of this is just finding what works good for you and sticking with it..

I just wish I had more time (...and money)!!

[Time Out]

Could be a ph thing. The deer love Turnips down at my camp, but our ph is around 6 after may years and tons of lime. Started with a 5.4 ph and blank stare from the guy that tested it for us asking what we thought we were going to grow. I can deffinatly see an impact on summer and winter feeding as our woods are covered in deer right now. During the season, its hit or miss with the plots, but we have acorns galore and standing corn fields arcoss the raod.

[jaychunter]

we planted wintergreens and the deer did not touch them or the antlerking at all . my father was down there today and our upper plot is gettin hit hard , no plow and secret spot and the clover are being pawed up pretty good . we tried soy been and the deer would not leave the young been plants alone for them to mature . so we will plant the same anuals , the clover will get fertilizer and lime ,if you can lime where there is plants growin , i think you can , any info on that would be great

[Time Out]

Yup,

Lime right over the top. A light disking and an overseed wouldn't hurt either.

[maisie]

jchunter

look for pm