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Planting Austrian Winter Peas

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Aug 26, 2004
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Titusville, FL / Hampton, GA
This weekend we went and planted our fall food plot. The four wheeler died before we could finish and the winter peas were not able to be buried. We were only able to broadcast them on top along with the rape. Will the winter peas still take, or did I waste my money putting them out not being able to cover them?
 
Thanks sirhuntsalot! If I get get at least half of them to come up I will be happy. We overseeded the area really good because of not being able to bury them. I am hoping that the birds and turkeys don't get to them. We are expecting some good rain tomorrow through the end of the week. I am hoping it will help drive them into the ground!!
 
We ended dividing up the plot into sections as per recommendations from some folks on here. The area we planted with the winter peas is about 2.5-3 acres. We put down 200lbs of winter peas, 50lbs rape, and a few bags winter wheat. We put down so much because we couldn't cover it. We planned on putting out oats, but I know those have to be covered so we didn't put them out.
 
Did I read somewhere on here that you shouldn't plant peas on really small plots because the deer will pound them before they really get a chance to grow?
 
The total plot size is 7 acres. We divided the acre into perenial food and annual food. That is the reason we only planted about two and half to three acres worth of winter peas. There is ton of other forage in the same plot for them to browse. The other two three plots we were able to bury the winter peas before the four wheeler broke.
 
Will some germinate? Yes, but probably not 50%. I used to use a lot of AWP in my no-ground-turn plots, but germination rates were so slow I switched to other plants.

AWP are a great "candy" plant for deer. They grow quickly and deer love them. However, because of that, they don't last long (deer eat them to the ground). To replace them I now use buckwheat in my fall plots for the same purpose--candy plant to draw deer quickly and as a cover crop to protect my true winter plants from early overbrowsing. However, buckwheat will die with the first frost. Hopefully, they will have done their job by that time.
 
gil1 said:
Did I read somewhere on here that you shouldn't plant peas on really small plots because the deer will pound them before they really get a chance to grow?
Click to expand...

Yep,... BSK touched on it. Winter peas are deers candy. Even though they grow rather quickly,.. they are not tolerate of early grazing. For this reason,... i don't recommend them in plots less than 1.5 to 2 acres.
 
And with not a super high density. Right around 25 deer per square mile. But when the majority of a property is mature hardwoods with just a few acres of food plots, browse pressure can be extreme.
 

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