Illini_Sportsman

Anyone personally have any experience with it? Did it come up good and fast,and attract a fair amount of deer for you? Did you use lime or fertilizer when you planted it? Did you protect it while it was starting to grow so the deer didn't decimate it? Details are welcome!

ILbowhunter88

i'm trying it this year

Illini_Sportsman

Whereabouts in IL are you located? When are you gonna plant, and how much acreage? Are you gonna fertilize and lime and all that, or just throw the seed out and wait for rain?

AP deer hunter

I planted some last year. The day after i planted it it rained a little then it was dry for a month. That stuff still came up somewhat. I didn't see deer on that spot because of the drought that stunted it

Illini_Sportsman

Did you lime and fertilize or just broadcast the seed out? It says it has a "pH booster," but I don't know how reliable that is.

Rick James

I am planting a stripe of it in my largest plot this year. I will be seeding it in 2 weeks. I will let you know how it turns out.

Illini_Sportsman

I would appreciate that.

Phade

Secret Spot , like any other food plot seed, will grow better with the right soil. Get a soil sample, they only cost 10 bucks or so at a co-op.

Secret spot will grow in fair soil without additional lime and fertilizer, but it'll be mediocre. If there was no lime, or no fertilizer going in, I'd plant later to the end of the planting date suggestions. Reason being that PH booster is designed to jump start the growth, and it fades quickly in hopes of fertilizer and lime application (which makes little sense because lime does take a good while to work itself into the soil system). Planting later will allow it to be quasi-lush at the start of bow season.

The seed blend is just a mediocre sub-5% blend of several seeds. It'll attract deer under the right circumstances, but at what level they go after it is determined on a large number of variances. The ones you can control, should be controlled(ph, fertilizer, micro-nutrients [other than npk], location, seed planting, etc.). My question is, why even consider skipping one of them?

Illini_Sportsman

You're right, and I'm not going to. I found a Plotmaster I can rent and I plan to lime and fertilize prior to planting.

Phade

You are really going to be banking on the ph level as it is now, I hope you know that.

The lime application really is not going to be a major player until next spring. It'll certainly help, but understand that lime takes months to work into the system to the point plots can uptake nutrients noticeably better. As well, the plants will be more sought after by deer as compared to a lower ph offering.

It sounds like you are on you way to getting a good plot going. Hell, if you have a plotmaster, I'd be planting better blends! Secret Spot is the bottom of the chain if you have all the tools at your disposal.