Food Plots spring food plot

[splatter]

The friend of mine who's farm i hunt on has made me an offer. He will do all the plowing and get the ground ready if I will buy the seed for 5 micro plots on his farm. My question is if you were planting in the spring what would you plant. Also would you save a couple spots and plant later for the fall? New this stuff and just wondering.

 

[Jcalder]

Once spring hits I plan on planting beans. In the fall I'll add wheat and oats

 

[DoubleRidge]

We did beans and peas in our spring/summer plots....deer hammered them....then in late September we seeded a fall blend of wheat, oats, rye, crimson clover and rape in those same plots....we were fortunate to get some good rain and they are thick and green now......I will warn you though...you mention micro plots....small plots of soybeans and peas will get wiped out quickly if there is no other Ag in your area....I'm studying on an electric fence system to run around some of our smaller plots just to keep the deer off them until they are mature enough to handle heavy browsing....also pull soil test and if the budget allows....fertilize and lime per test results ...QDMA has allot of information about food plots as well as Growing Deer TV....tons of good reading material on the topic as well as videos....one big hurdle many guys experience is having the equipment to get the job done...and it sounds like you have that taken care of.....good luck with your future food plots!

 

[Popcorn]

In micro plots we can only get clover to stand the browse. To start I plant ladino with wheat or rye and some annual clover. As the clover establishes the weeds will fill in thin spots so each spring / fall add a little more seed. Throw in some turnips and radishes each end of august. Take soil samples, spray religously and mow when required. Treat it like a royal clover garden and that is what you will have.

 

[tfree]

Had good luck with rye and clover this year for fall growth

 

[Ski]

small plots of soybeans and peas will get wiped out quickly if there is no other Ag in your area

I planted peas in a tiny woods plot this fall. No other ag for miles any direction, and it's big open timber & hills. I was able to get a good one in October, and my brother got one in the plot in late November. It still had some stuff then but now it's mowed to the dirt. I'm thinking about throwing some rye down just to keep it green until spring. It served its purpose and we harvested a couple bruisers, but it was bare dirt by December.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I planted peas in a tiny woods plot this fall. No other ag for miles any direction, and it's big open timber & hills. I was able to get a good one in October, and my brother got one in the plot in late November. It still had some stuff then but now it's mowed to the dirt. I'm thinking about throwing some rye down just to keep it green until spring.

Good deal....topping it with rye will work to green it up.....as for the peas & beans ....that hadn't been my experience....we planted one plot around 1½ acre and another close to 3 acre..... soybeans, iron clay cowpeas and sunflower....got almost knee high and was looking good and then they totally slammed it!! By late September or early October there wasn't much left....Which we planted it for the deer....was just hoping they might leave a little for late fall...so we broadcast a fall blend of oats, rye, rape & clover into what was left then bush hogged both plots...got several good rains to follow and today they are green and the deer are hitting them hard... particularly in the evenings.....no doubt they are enjoying the fruits of our labor.

 

[MickThompson]

Summer micro plots (less than 1/4 acre) don't really exist. Or they don't for long after the seed sprouts.

Instead I'd focus on getting ready to plant perennials in September.

 

[megalomaniac]

How about grain sorgham for the summer (not really to feed the deer, but for the root system and to build biomass and topsoil for your fall killing plots)

 

[Popcorn]

I planted peas in a tiny woods plot this fall. No other ag for miles any direction, and it's big open timber & hills. I was able to get a good one in October, and my brother got one in the plot in late November. It still had some stuff then but now it's mowed to the dirt. I'm thinking about throwing some rye down just to keep it green until spring. It served its purpose and we harvested a couple bruisers, but it was bare dirt by December.

This late in the year you are not likely to get the rye to germinate, too cold.

 

[Popcorn]

How about grain sorgham for the summer (not really to feed the deer, but for the root system and to build biomass and topsoil for your fall killing plots)

Grain sorgham will produce a lot of bio mass but consider a blend to produce biomass, food, root systems and nitrogen and replace the sorgham with sun hemp.

Try this;

Sun Hemp at 7 lbs/acre
sun flower at 4 lbs/acre
Clay pea at 8 lbs/acre
buckwheat at 8 lbs/acre
Forage bean
tall type at 22 lbs/acre
Balansia clover at 2 lbs/acre
spring oats at 10 lbs/acre

Thats 7 species at 60 lbs/acre that will provide food all summer plus lots of cover, biomass, nitrogen and root systems to help with erosion control and loosening the soil. This is the soil building summer blend I use in rotation when not planting eagle seed gamekeeper soybean blend.
Follow this with a fall planting of cereal rye, turnips and diakon radishes plus another 2 lb/acre balansia clover at the end of august. The balansia is an annual clover that will readily reseed if allowed. very tolerant of cool weather but does not like hot weather. After the fall planting expect an explosion of clover that vines the following spring, knee deep and difficult to walk thru, just remember it will not survive the july heat. If you wish to follow the winter cover with a spring planted summer crop you will have to terminate the clover as it will out compete most anything.

If you wish to add sorhgum to this add no more than 2 lbs/acre as it will dominate and shade out other species.

 

[Ski]

Good deal....topping it with rye will work to green it up.....as for the peas & beans ....that hadn't been my experience....we planted one plot around 1½ acre and another close to 3 acre..... soybeans, iron clay cowpeas and sunflower....got almost knee high and was looking good and then they totally slammed it!! By late September or early October there wasn't much left....Which we planted it for the deer....was just hoping they might leave a little for late fall...so we broadcast a fall blend of oats, rye, rape & clover into what was left then bush hogged both plots...got several good rains to follow and today they are green and the deer are hitting them hard... particularly in the evenings.....no doubt they are enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Yeah I'm pretty certain I only got by with it because of the low deer numbers. We don't have the high density of deer up there(southern ohio) that we have here in midTN. This was my third year plotting that spot. First year it was just a spot deer passed through at times when they were in the area, so it wasn't much draw. It was clover and brassica then. The second year I did more brassica & clover and it actually kept a few deer around. This past year things took off with does and fawns and bucks hanging around all year. Planted the peas in late August and like you said, they got about knee high by October. They got hit pretty dang good. Deer seemed to love them. But now they're gone. Clover is still there, so they're not completely out of freebies lol.

 

[Thelonegoose]

I tried a micro plot (1/2 acre) of beans and peas this summer just to see what would happen. The beans did well, the peas not as well. It took the deer about 3 weeks to find it. I had multiple bachelor groups coming into it almost daily for about a month. I am planning to do 3-4 acres of beans, buckwheat, peas, and milo this may.

 

[casjoker]

I planted a little over 1 acre of diakon radishes, purple top turnip, clover, and rape. Deer haven't touched it. It went in late, September 25 but the greens came in good with some small turnips and a bunch of radishes. The clover was overtaken by something that kind of looks like clover but isn't. There have been several hard frosts and still no action. Now I only had about 8 different deer on trail cams on my property this fall so part of the issue is low density. I have 50 acres but 40 is a field and am surrounded by mostly fields. Lots of agriculture around me too. 70 acres of soybeans on one side 40 acres of corn on the other.

What's a go too one or two plant species spring crop and a one or two species fall crop that would probably guarantee results? This 6lbs of this, 7 of that 12 of this is too much to keep track of plus I prefer my venison to cost under $15 per pound by the time it hits the freezer.

 

[DoubleRidge]

From the description you have given....40 of your 50 acres is in field....with a corn field to one side of you and a soybean field to other side of you.... basically your surrounded by field......not to over simplify the situation but sounds like one opportunity for improvement could be to create natural cover to hold more deer in your area.....do you have the opportunity to allow any of your 40 acres of field to grow up? For the 10 acres that isn't field....is it open timber? If so can you cut the timber to allow it to thicken up?....only reading a description of the property it's hard to say for sure....but your food plot sounds nice and it sounds like there is plenty of food in the area already.....so creating thick cover for the deer might increase the deer numbers on your property and in turn increase the use of your food plots.

 

[casjoker]

One of my goals is to create more cover. The 10ish acres are big hardwoods that the deer mostly travel through. There were cows on the property through May and they have destroyed everything under 4' tall. The cows are now gone so I am hoping things will thicken up over the next couple of years. There are a bunch of cedar trees already there so hopefully, that along with the regular undergrowth should help make the deer willing to hang out a bit. There is a subdivision about a 1/2 mile away that has lots of woods around it so my guess is with the pressure of rifle season they are all hanging out in that area. I have a ton of rubs on the trees so there is definitely deer using the area just not my food plot.

 

[BigHatchie]

Deer density plays a factor, I have had ok results planting beans in small plots especially if you're planting several small plots in beans. In my case we don't have enough browse pressure to wipe out a small plot.