Food Plots Anybody ever try the "three sisters" mix in any of their plots?
- Thread starter Bushape
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Depending on your deer numbers you would need to plant multiple acres of beans or they will never get out of the ground good. They will wipe them out as sprout. It's been my experience you need at least 5 acres of corn or beans for it to make it to maturity. I guess if your browse pressure isn't bad less acreage may work.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
First time we tried beans we had soybean's, cow peas and sunflower in two separate plots...one plot was around 2 acre the other around 3 acre...started out great but once the deer found it they hammered the plots to the ground...even stripped the sunflower... buddy of mine tried the three strand electric fence method and had some success...let everything get up where it can handle some browse pressure then take the fence down...I'd like to try this fenced method with the eagle forage soybean's some day.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Had a client willing to spend the money setting up electric fence around his Eagle Beans. It worked. Otherwise the beans were being wiped out the instant they came out of the ground.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
A couple summers ago I planted a mix with sorgham instead of corn in an 8ac field. It also had soybeans, cowpeas, forage beans, sunflowers, etc. Stuff grew so thick the deer couldn't even push into the middle of the field to forage. Beans climbing 5-6ft off the ground up the sorgham stalks. Crapton of biomass to lay on top of the soil during bushhogging... almost TOO much!
This past summer we planted 3 small plots in corn, beans, sunflower, and millet. We seeded about 6x recommended rate, the plots came up great! But once the deer moved in and the beans got about 8 to 12in tall, they wiped them out. Still ended up with a plot full of corn, but only 1 ear per stalk and they were only 3-5in long due to overcrowding or lack of nutrients.
This past summer we planted 3 small plots in corn, beans, sunflower, and millet. We seeded about 6x recommended rate, the plots came up great! But once the deer moved in and the beans got about 8 to 12in tall, they wiped them out. Still ended up with a plot full of corn, but only 1 ear per stalk and they were only 3-5in long due to overcrowding or lack of nutrients.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Fascinating stuff Mega. Love to hear about others' experiences.
Did it provide increased deer traffic during hunting season??
BSK
Well-Known Member
As an aside, before anyone pours huge sums of money into summer plots, first make sure you will actually be feeding the same deer you'll be hunting. In most situations, you are. But there's enough situations where you are not that it's worth considering beforehand.
I planted Power plant one year and had great success , great bedding.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
nope, but this was a herd that was in rebuild mode on land that was fallow and reclaimed and in need of (and still needs) soil improvements. The summer blend did great for that, and the fall crop that went in behind also did well.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Not sure what three sisters is. But yes, with beans you need some acreage. The bulk of our summer plots will be beans, with a couple pounds of dwarf sorghum mixed in per acre. I think a couple screening areas we will plant in corn and a little bit of sunn hemp mixed in with it.
All this will be drilled into the standing rye/wheat/crimson clover from this past fall. Hope that the summer crop shoots up and gets established several inches, then will crimp that fall crop from this past year right on top of it. Will be our first time doing this. Can't wait to see what happens. I'm sure we will get mixed results
All this will be drilled into the standing rye/wheat/crimson clover from this past fall. Hope that the summer crop shoots up and gets established several inches, then will crimp that fall crop from this past year right on top of it. Will be our first time doing this. Can't wait to see what happens. I'm sure we will get mixed results
ArcherDian
Member
Last year in our garden we did 3 sisters method. Unfortunately we didn't have fence around it. Deer didn't touch corn (coons sure did) but they decimated every bean plant on a regular basis, didn't matter what variety of bean. And for a bonus ate every small growing pumpkin and cucumbers. Cucumbers are supposed to be deer unfriendly.
I have soybean seeds ready to go for this spring. Will probably fence it in at first as others said.
I have soybean seeds ready to go for this spring. Will probably fence it in at first as others said.
"Three sisters" was Indian & early pioneer way of planting corn, beans & pumpkin/gourds together. Beans climbed the corn stalks while the pumpkin spread on ground
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
I googled that before I commented, but thought my search was wrong when I read pumpkins
. Interesting nonethelessthats exactly why i wont pull the trigger on soybeans unless the farmers plants the fields he leases from me to in soybeans as well. with our deer density, not worth the expense
BSK
Well-Known Member
Deer would wipe them out if the farmer doesn't plant them as well?
squackattack
Well-Known Member
The whole thing with three sisters is you need to use heirloom varieties. I heard about it and tried with normal varieties and didn't work in my garden. Did a bunch of research and found out that was the problem. I use to try all kinds of stuff with my garden. Straw bale gardening, cardboard mulching, and straw potatoes stuff like that. Really just pointed how bad my green thumb was.
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We have planted around 10 acres of eagle beans in two different plots for the last two years and it has made a big difference in the number of deer on our property year round even during hunting season. The plots are centralized on the property and I always over seed with winter rye around the first few weeks in oct or when the beans start yellowing. I think with beans you just absolutely have to have enough acreage or it's a waste of money but when you have 5 acres of head tall soybeans the amount of deer forage is unreal. Once the beans advance the deer browse and really take off your good to go.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I'm going to plant three spaced out plots in Eagle beans this summer and just let the other plots go fallow (although I will mow them all summer). We don't have enough resident deer in summer to make it worth the time/cost of planting all of the plots in Eagle beans.
