Food plot questions
 

Im new to the whole food plot thing, and i have a few questions.

1: I know there's deer around my area, Will they go out of there way to come to my food plot.

2: Whens the best time to plant?
Id like the deer to know where i food plot is and eat from it but i don't want it to be all eaten out by deer season.

3: whats the best seed/plant?
where I plan to plant is in the woods of Maine I don't know the ph levels or whatever.
I want something that will grow pretty much anywhere, or more forgiving on the ph levels and stuff like that.

1. Yes, but very possibly after dark. Can depend on you, but on small properties your neighbors can make them nocturnal too.

2. Depends on what you plant.

3. Figure out the fertility and the pH and fix it. A half-hearted attempt is just throwing money away. A fertile field of weeds will do you more good than a high dollar buck on the bag seed mix thrown on unamended soil.

1. Yes, and Hossdaniels is right about nocturnal deer.

2&3. Corn tolerates low pH (6.0 is preferred), but takes a fair amount of work to grow successfully. Peas/Oats mix (or oats alone) tolerate lower pH, plant in late summer (mid-August), but will die out at about 15-25 degrees. Winter rye or winter wheat will tolerate low pH, plant in mid-August to early September, and will survive the winter providing food until spring. In general, grasses do best in poor soil. If the ground is flooded, not much will work. Buy seed from a local ag supply business, they have varieties that will work in your area.

Suggest you get in touch with local county ag agent or Maine's ag university. Should have freebie, probably on line, information on what game attracting food plot crops do well in your area. The pH correction is a must in my book. Usually relatively inexpensive if you are willing to put in the work to spread bulk lime. If you do not correct the pH, you'll waste a bunch of $$$ on fertilizer that never gets to "feed" the crop.

I am in same situation in Maine and just sent a soil sample to : Soil Sample testing Lab at UMO. You can find it on internet. For a standard test it is $15 + Shipping, unless you get them the sample before march 1st then it is $12.

We got a small tool about 30 $$, looks like a meat thermometer, put it in the ground and it tells you the PH of the soil....... We use it for our corn we grow to make whiskey...

Let's assume for the sake of argument that the $30 tool is accurate (a huge assumption).

What good is knowing the pH? You dont know how much lime to put to correct it without the buffer ph or cec. Organic matter also plays a role. Then you still have no individual fertilizer recommendations like you get with a soil test.

Best option is to read up on these forums here. Read through the sticky topics. Lots of great information. There is alot of info out there and lots of different routes you can take.

Also planting in the woods under the canopy is hit or miss. Plots need at least 4 hours of sunlight to grow.

Keep us updated and good luck.

1) They may but it may take a while for them to find your food plots. Deer are creatures of habit and survival. If your plot is secluded and near to a known bedding area it will see more usage than a plot just randomly placed out in the open.

2) The best time to plant as Hossdaniels pointed out depends on what you plant and the expected usage for the plot. Example oats can be planted in spring or fall, depending on when you want deer to use them.

3) you are searching for the same thing the rest of us are, the holy grail of food plots. Unfortunately no one has found it. You have to first consider what purpose you want the plot for, spring food, summer food, early fall, or late season/winter. from there you can select seed(s) which meet your needs. You should already have a soil sample and correct any lacking fert/Lime requirements.

Timothy and clover works pretty good up here.. The white clover will not do a lot in the first year as it is quite short then. After the second year it will rebound pretty darn good and is quite forgiving with different soils and shadey areas.. If you want better results in the first then red clover would be needed. The red clover unlike the white clover is less forgiving to different soil content but will grow great the first year once the ph is right. It will die out though after the first winter here.. Good Luck to you ..

I am thinking about purchasing some Lucky Buck to plant this spring in my area..

Tried a lot of stuff that was recommended by the "experts". The biggest flop was Austrian winter peas: The deer never ate them. Finally went my own way. This year we will plant about 30 acres on our three widely dispersed properties.

The spring planting will be iron clay peas with some milo in places. The fall planting will be horse feed oats and daikons. The plots at one place will be irrigated, if required.

Up this way a lot of fields that have the Timmothy and clover in them attrack deer. They also use some alfalfa as well. This we can buy at almost any Blue Seal Feed store by the bulk. The clover is pretty hardy for the most part and can be planted in almost any soil with some results..

Re what to plant
 

Start off on the right foot and get a complete soil analysis, not just a ph test. See what your soils are lacking in macro/micro nutrients.Macro/Micro nutrients can be added to your fertilizer for about $6 per ac for granular fertilizer. Instead of lime use a product called Solu-Cal It will correct your soil ph in about4 to 5 weeks instead of 6 months for ag lime.It will give you a faster green up and last longer in the soil than ag lime.For your areas soil temps should be about 59 to 60 degrees to start good germination. As for planting in your area if using annuals and wanting to help keep deer on your property make sure your plots are big enough and have high tonnage per ac. The average deer eats 5 to 6 lbs of vegitation per 24 hrs. Do this times 365 days per year. About 2500 lbs per year per deer. Plots need to average at least 6 tons per ac minimum but try to get them up to 10 tons per ac. For what to plant in annuals try using lab lab, ebony peas, iron clay, burgundy bush beans and some milgarra butterfly peas, Add in a few rows of corn for these vine growing beans to grow on. A small amount of wildgame food sorgum in the mix will be fine also.Your getting good tonnage with this mix and a good three season annual and withstands hard grazing. Look at clover, alfalfa and chicory for your long term year round planting. You can get 4 to 5 years from them and can hold up well in cold weather. Also A blend of oats, nutrigreen winterpeas wheat and triticale will be a great late season winter mix. Year round nutrition and good bedding cover are two of the main keys to holding deer on your property.If we can help you out further just ask.Thanks and hope this helps out.

This will tell you Ph only...If you want to grow a good food plot get a soil test done where you can tell them what you want to plant and they give you Ph and lime - fert recomondations per acre so the seed/plant will grow. Not a huge fan of BB SEEDS but Whitetail institute has seeds that will grow in Main and there soil test is 10 plus shipping.If your plot is under around an acre buying seeds from places like this is perfect.We use there soil test every year !! You will get out of it what you put in..... Do it proper the first time and you will be killin deer on it this fall...