dstubb

First off, I know absolutely nothing about planting food plots. That being said, is there anything that can be grown in the middle of tall hardwoods that will flourish enough to keep deer feeding throughout the season? I am talking about some kind of throw and grow that requires minimal sunlight.

timbercruiser

Japanese Honeysuckle and to some extent blackberry briars. As far as a magic seed as you described, not that I'm aware of. If legal a feeder would be the best bet.

farm hunter

don't bet on it. Walmart hopes that you'll try their magic "throw & grow bean" for $7-10 for a "patch". For this money - they figure many will decide its worth a try.

If its truly a woods - then it won't grow much. It'll germinate - and make a could 100 lbs/acre of forage - not the 2000lbs/year one deer needs to feed on to survive.

Very, Very little can be grown to really feed deer in a woods environment. You need at least 4-6 hours of non-filtered sunlight to grow the most shade tolerant forage -

Don't be sold on the "treestand patch" concept.

FH

dstubb

Feeders are leagal here in Ohio, and I do have a couple out there at my spot. Lately I have been doing some reading on baiting and keep hearing that a corn feeder will only attract deer on a daily basis during summer and early fall months.

ollie085

Cut down a few trees and let the sun do the work. The natural growth in the opening will increase ten fold with all the sunlight and the regrowth from the stump, especially maples, will get hammered by deer. And FYI, Japanese Honeysuckle may produce alot of fruit for songbirds and deer, but in a matter of a few years, it will completely chock out the understory and lessen your natural vegetation/feed.

2Poppa

I found out about this by accident. My brother had several bird feeders in the woods behind his house and he always keeps them full.

It seems that the seeds that fell to the ground are attracting deer in numbers ... not the seeds themselves but the plants that came from the seeds.

For his food plot for the last several years, he has taken two bags of bird seed to his stand and worked the ground a little with his boots and tossed the seed. Always make sure that it rains within 48 hours ... that is key!

The bird seed he buys comes from Wal-mart and the cost is minimal compared to the cost of other blends... Good Luck!

pikecofoodplotter

In your situation you need to look for native habitat spieces that are already in your hardwoods and juice them up. Much cheaper than a food plots, more difficult to learn about, but I believe they can be just as significant as food plots maybe more. For summer forage fertilize briar patches, (this next will get some looks) poison ivy is near 11% protienis a native food for deer. Then pick out some oaks and persimons fertilize them each year. Remember oaks may take two years to increase there production.