First time food plot
 

Greetings fellow hunters. After several successful hunting years on this particular piece of land, roughly 85 acres, I have decided to clear out three small sections to plant. I have them seperated by at least 500 yrds of each other, and plan to have each of them with different varieties of forage.

The largest plot is roughly 2 acres in size and is where I plan to mostly plant the clovers, chicory, raddishes, and probably a few rows of sweet corn.


The second plot is about half of that size and want to plant soybean, alfalfa, and other misc forage.


The third is where I am not so sure of myself. I have seen several turkey in this area, and even took out a nice 22 lb tom with a 10 inch beard during muzzleloader season. I want to put chufa (sp) in this area but am a little concerned that the squirrels and other pesty critterrs dont get to the seeds before they have a chance to grow. What types of methods can I use, other than caging or camping out with my .22 to keep the seed in the ground before the birds and critters get their bellies full?

I tried to add several pictures of the layout of the land but Im limited to a single embedded photo per post. I will post other pictures as we go along with the cultivating. Im looking for some good advice from the experts here that have done it with success.

Please tell me if I am doing something wrong, planting the wrong forage, etc.

Thanks in Advance

Jeff

RE: First time food plot
 

Number one thing I'm sure you know is take your soil samples. Your forage types are some odd mixes, I am assuming you will be stripping them and not in a mix. Skip the sweet corn you will not see any benefit from it as the critters will eat it before it gets hard, go with demple corn.

As far as keeping critters out of the chuffa I don't have any Idea. I've planted twice so far and have had no luck. I'm sure the turkeys are plucking it out of the ground as soon as I plant it. The only place it grows is inside my cages.

RE: First time food plot
 

I wouldn't touch that red cedar/white pine/young hardwood/maybe poplar edge. Thats a classic transitional edge that whitetails probably already use as bedding, cover and travel corridoor. If its on the edge of a good food plot - so much the better! In the foreground I can see where a plot might take shape.

As far as plots go - sounds like you have a good plan. I like it all except I'm not a fan of specialty plots like Chuffa. I think that a good clover plot attracts more turkeys in all seasons until hard frosts - because bugs are readly available - it doesn't get that high, and they'll always take some clover into their crops.

If you have many deer - you'll need at least one - maybe 2 acres of soybeans to withstand the summer feeding. Additional clover plots can help keep the deer out of the soybeans too.

Listen to the others - find out what your pH is and go from there.

FH

RE: First time food plot
 

Thanks for the input! I have a blown up aerial that better shows the areas of the cedars, sapplings, hardwoods, and the creek bottom. I will take your advice on the chufa, its the first Ive heard of the bugs.

If you have more for me...bring it on!
Jeff

RE: First time food plot
 

This is clearing of plot#2. Notice the hardwood treeline in the background. Just to the right of my skidsteer is a thicket of cedars and waist high bedding. We chose to only clear about 1/2acre here so that we wouldnt didturb any bedding areas that thedeer were using. If you notice on the arial shot, its right in the corner of the hardwoods and an open field of cedars, sapplings, and perfect bedding waist high strawgrass.

Jeff

RE: First time food plot
 

This is a good view of the bedding sawgrass, cedars and small saplings that cover the large field in the aerial view. About 200 yds just ahead in this picture is plot #2. You can see how the treeline comes together and creates that corner in the picture. Once I have the seed coming up I will post more pictures to update this honeyhole. All along the field are rubs on the saplings that tell of seasons, and seasons of different rubs.

Jeff

RE: First time food plot
 

That place is classic. Good luck it won't belong you will be having these animals you want in those plots as I'm sure that is a high bedding area.

RE: First time food plot
 

what are you planting?

RE: First time food plot
 

1/2 acre mixed clovers, 1/4 acre sweet corn, 1/4 acre chicory in one plot. 1/2 acre alfalfa in another, and 1/4 acre chufa for the turkeys.

Got most of it seeded and came out real good just getting ordinary seed from Southern States. We had our soil samples done and added a dumptruck load of horse manure, tilled and graded it all together.

We got lucky because the previous owners, several years ago grew soybean and oats for hay there. The soil tested real good for us...no lyme was needed.

RE: First time food plot
 

man ur lucky about that
where do you live?