mountainman08

I suggest planting a small 20'x20' vegetable garden with sweet corn, turnips, and soybeans in your back yard first, that will give you practice for your bigger (and more expensive and tiring) project.

mossbergman11/OH

ok but HOW DO YOU PLANT CORN???????

mountainman08

You plant it in rows 30-36" apart, space the seeds 6-12" apart in the rows, put the seeds 1-2" in the soil. Corn is open pollinated so plant it it square sections as opposed to one long row. You can sow the seeds whenever the soil is 65 degrees or warmer. You can plant it with a corn planter or simply put the seeds in the ground with your finger.

mossbergman11/OH

what do you mean by this? ^^^^^ (the red part)

gregrn43

To plant soy beans your gonna need a few acres unless you have a low density herd where you are hunting. I planted one acre many years ago and they ate it up as fast as it came up. Hopefully you have a tractor to use, this will make the work much easier. If i was planting your plot the first thing I would do is spray it with roundup or generic roundup, the generic is much cheaper. Work it up and let it sit, seeds that are dormant in the ground will sprout and when they make a good stand i'd spray it again. If you want to plant the oats or winter rye,work your ground really good and then drag it off to make your seed bed. You can boradcast the oats or rye then drag it again. After that is when I start broadcasting the rape, turnips, or chicory seeds. They are very small seeds so cover them lightly, bury it to deep and it will not germinate. When I plant my corn I lay off rows with a 3 row culvator that I have, this makes your seed bed. I have a 1 row planter behind my tractor that I plant corn with. I buy the roundup ready corn, so I can spray with roundup to control the weeds and grasses. Roundup ready corn is expensive I can tell you that. I have had some deer eat the corn when it is very small, but not that often. Usually I get a good stand of corn. Row crops 5 minutes away is not very far, trust me the deer that you are hunting are making trips to these fields, maybe at night, but there using them. Ohio is a big farm state just like Arkansas, I would bet money that your county seat has a extension service if not surely it has a soil consveration service. These test are done for free here. I really enjoy making food plots it a lot of fun. I have one plot that is 4 years old made up of whitetail clover and chicory. It looks a little shotty this year so come spring im gonna replant it.

mountainman08

What I mean is instead of having a corn field that is 20' wide and 200' long, you will be much better with a couple fields that are 40' wide and 40' long. Square instead of rectangle.

ebc187

If you want a great source for foodplot information, go to www.QDMA.com and look at the forum section. There are thousands of questions just like yours, and the people on there have a wealth of information.

Corncan be ahard and expensive crop to grow for the begginingfood-plotter. Corn takes alot of nitrogen to get a good result and does not compete well with other weeds, so you will be investinga substantial sum of money in fertilizer and herbicide ifyou plant corn. I wouldstart of plainting aclover plot. Clover produces nitrogen in the soil which can be usedbycorn in later years. Clover is also palatable to the deer for a number of months throughout the season. If you plant corn and don't get ahigh number of ears/plant, then the remaining portion of the plant is useless to the deer for feed.

If you insist on planting corn, you can plant cornthree ways. You can no-till it into the sod and then spray RR, You can disc the field and use a planter, or you can disc the field and broadcast the corn and then cover it. Which ever way you choose I would recomend the RR corn seed. Its more expensive, but will greatly improve your chances of success, especially with a first year plot because you will have dormant weed seed that brought to the surface when you till the ground. Put on as much nitrogen as you can afford. Spray the field with gly (roundup) once at planting and once again when thecorn is 1-2 inches if the weeds are coming back.

Corn is a great deer attractant and cover, but there is a lot more to it then just throwing out some seed and waiting for rain.

IOWABUCKHUNTR

For a late season plant, I would recommend winter clovers, but since you do not want to plant clovers that wouldn't work for you. Maybe check into the thread about powerplant. I know that it only survives the warm season, til about September, but when it stops growing the food source is still there, possibly for months. Other than that, the sorghum that we plant normally lasts until at least january, that might be an option for you, everything else seems to be demolished before the late season in most of the plots.

mossbergman11/OH

i dont really want to plant clover becasue my neighbor has a huge hayfield with clover in it.
is this stuff any good?
http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/products/pure/

gregrn43

There are lots of different seeds to plant besides clover. There are several mentioned. If there is lots of clover near you I would want something different to. Try the oats or rye and top seed with turnips and rape. These make a good combo.