james/d

I need some opinions on a possible food plot for a 40 acre chunck of land in Ohio. Last year we got permission to bowhunt 40 acres with White Oaks and about a 7 acre open field. The field has a old oil pump at one end of the field. The open field is kind shaped like a "L" with AWESOME White Oaks on its edges. I never seen so many acorns on these trees. Well, by the time we made it down in Nov. the acorns were all gone. The field is pretty much just grass. We seen a good amount of deer and nice bucks. I thought of possible planting some type of food in this small field that will pop up and be prime come Nov. and hold some does and bring in those bucks.

Is there anything the will pop up in Oct so its ready for Nov? Or is this a waste of time? I personally feel its not but I never planted food before. Any ideas and help would be great. I wish I knew where to get a topo map of this place to post on here so you have some idea of what I'm looking at. Thanks again.

James

Chasebaker

I would go with some Winter Forage type of plant...

Something you plant in early fall... Turnips are good

Matt/TN

If I were a betting man, I'd bet this post has earned a ticket to the Wildlife Managment forum.

Matt/TN

And to answer your question I'd say you will need to plant some kind of Brassica that will peak when it turns colder.

shed33

james we'll let it roll in here for a while then I'll move it over to wildlife..

I like a plant that keeps animals around all summer and fall... we plant oats.. gotta plant it every year but they really hold the critters

BobCo19-65

Coud also look at some late season apples or crabapples if you are looking for something more maintenance free.

Rick James

Anything that is going to do what your looking for will require a disc to turn the ground,spreader so that you can spread lime, fertilizer,a handseeder for your seed, and a sprayer to spray glyphosate (roundup).

You will need to get a soil test done, and will likely have to start with a good 1.5 ton spreading of lime per acre to get the PH balanced out. Get that done ASAP, it takes a few months for lime to start to neutralize the PH.

Once this is done, about 2-3 weeks before your desired seeding time I would spray the entire plot with your glyphosate (roundup) and let it rot down for 10 days or so. After it has had 10 days or so, spread your fertilizer on top of the dead field, disc it in immediately (that same day), to prevent the nitrogen from vaporizing, and seed it all within a few days of this to prevent giving weeds a chance to take over. Once the seed is down, use a simple drag to cover the seed, it should be just barely covered, any more than 1/8" to 1/4" deep and it won't make it. I use a drag made from a section of chain link fence to just disturb the surface after seeding to cover mine and it works well.

I'd plant two seperate sections in the same plot of Biologic Maximum, and Biologic Full Draw. Both are a brassica and should be seeded in early August. They will reach maturity and the deer will start to eat when they get about 2-3 hard frosts on them. The Maximum seems to be the favorite in my plots from about the second week of October till middle of November, and they eat the Full Draw from the very end of October all the way through February at my place.

If you do it right and put in the work, this is what it will look like..........

Maximum:



Full Draw:

james/d

Sorry, I didn't look around here enough to put this post in the proper section!

Rick James,
Thanks, very good info. Being from Michigan, looks like I better get going! Thanks again.
Thats what I am looking for.

James

TJD

I have had great luck with Full Draw...haven't yet tried Maximum but based on a previous post I may have to.

I would agree that some sort of brassica mix would complement the acorns nicely. And yes, field preparation is key. Spray, disc, spray again, disc again, drag...is a method I've used that seems to work well.

Best of luck!

GTOHunter

Looks like Rick James knows his plants......nice looking field!!!!!


I like the Full Draw,and have had good luck with it in our food plots,turnips are easy to grow and last well into winter,you can't beat the drawing power of clover either.In the early Spring I frost seeded some Pennington brand clover with 3 types of clover and it did very well along the field edges and mowed roadways.Another thing to consider is winter wheat,it will keep coming up after the deer browse on it and will last all winter long and the turkeys love it too.