Best Food Plot
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ponce de Leon Florida USA
Posts: 10,079
A lot of clovers will reseed each year, and deer like it. A simple perennial plant deer like is Japanese Honeysuckle as well as briars. Deer like a combination of foods, they will nibble on several plants while foraging
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 2,186
I do not have much experience with warm weather food plots, and what expereince that I do have with summer plots was not good. Drought beat us to death several years in a row, so we abandoned the effort. However the best summer crops we had as far as deer hitting them were soy beans, Iron Clay peas and cow peas, Lablab, and Wild Game Sorghum. We did not opt to use "Round UIp Ready" crops because of the initial cost of the seeds and the lack of any of us having HD spraying equipment.
Cool weather food plots have worked great for where I hunt ... SE Ala. Crops that have worked great has been a mix of Crimson clover, buck wheat, forage oats, Austrian winter peas, purple top turnips, and Elbon rye (a grain rye).
We experimented with a few of the nationally advertised food plot mixes, but none of these turned out to be any better at attracting game or creating vigorous food plots than a mix available locally at a farm supply store. And this mix cost less than 1/2 the cost/acre of the nationally advertised mixes. We did over seed with Crimson clover and turnips. I feel that this mix has been a boom for the deer and for attracting both deer and turkey from October through April.
What is wise to do is to is to have the soil tested and follow the directions as best that you can. The pH is a huge deal and critical to the quality of the crop, as is selecting the varieties that survive well in your particular area. Info from the state's agriculture university and/or your state's WGF folks should be available for little or no cost.
Cool weather food plots have worked great for where I hunt ... SE Ala. Crops that have worked great has been a mix of Crimson clover, buck wheat, forage oats, Austrian winter peas, purple top turnips, and Elbon rye (a grain rye).
We experimented with a few of the nationally advertised food plot mixes, but none of these turned out to be any better at attracting game or creating vigorous food plots than a mix available locally at a farm supply store. And this mix cost less than 1/2 the cost/acre of the nationally advertised mixes. We did over seed with Crimson clover and turnips. I feel that this mix has been a boom for the deer and for attracting both deer and turkey from October through April.
What is wise to do is to is to have the soil tested and follow the directions as best that you can. The pH is a huge deal and critical to the quality of the crop, as is selecting the varieties that survive well in your particular area. Info from the state's agriculture university and/or your state's WGF folks should be available for little or no cost.
#5
Fork Horn
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: IL
Posts: 168
I bought some ground(very SMALL 18acre) that is all timber...I dozed in a small section limed and fertilized and planted Whitetail Inst. Alpha-Rak Plus...Mix of clover, chicory, and alfalfa...Deer HAMMER it from Aug till Mid late Oct....Then after a couple of frosts it goes dormant and the deer abandon it...But Oct. is ROCKIN in this plot!! This is in West Central IL in Northern Adams County..
Last edited by bolton22; 03-19-2011 at 01:36 PM.
#6
thats great..til october...you can plant a winter plot too, usually round aug-oct..depending on how hot your summers are, and how long they last, and also how much water you have access too, so you can water the seed...plant too early, it wont make it,plant too late, well...you wont make it. get with the lawn guys, when they order a truck load of rye grass seed, thats when you should have your winter plot seed...when they are puttin it out...thats the time to plant. gl