Food Plot Size
07-01-2016, 01:27 PM
#11
Typical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Martin, TN
Posts: 854
There's no minimum size for a food plot. Some things to consider though:
Make sure whatever you plant can survive wildlife grazing it. Legumes in particular tend to be vulnerable to early grazing pressure, so you might want to invest in a fence at first to let your forage grow and mature before the deer start eating.
Annuals are easier to get going, but only last a year. Perennials last multiple years, but they're a pain to get established. You might consider a mixture of both. For example, plant a mixture of ladino clover/cereal grains. The cereal grains like oats and wheat grow pretty quickly, so they can shield young clover plants from grazing deer until the clover gets established.
As someone already mentioned, get your soil tested and apply the recommended amendments. This is especially crucial in small plots that need to be growing vigorously. Fortunately, small plots are less expensive to maintain.
Make sure the trail leading to your plot allows you to stay hidden from both sight and smell. Make sure it's downwind from your plot and mostly free from leaves and debris that make noise when you walk. This isn't exactly to do with the plot itself, but it's crucial nonetheless. You wouldn't believe how badly planned the trails are on my friends' farm.
Make sure whatever you plant can survive wildlife grazing it. Legumes in particular tend to be vulnerable to early grazing pressure, so you might want to invest in a fence at first to let your forage grow and mature before the deer start eating.
Annuals are easier to get going, but only last a year. Perennials last multiple years, but they're a pain to get established. You might consider a mixture of both. For example, plant a mixture of ladino clover/cereal grains. The cereal grains like oats and wheat grow pretty quickly, so they can shield young clover plants from grazing deer until the clover gets established.
As someone already mentioned, get your soil tested and apply the recommended amendments. This is especially crucial in small plots that need to be growing vigorously. Fortunately, small plots are less expensive to maintain.
Make sure the trail leading to your plot allows you to stay hidden from both sight and smell. Make sure it's downwind from your plot and mostly free from leaves and debris that make noise when you walk. This isn't exactly to do with the plot itself, but it's crucial nonetheless. You wouldn't believe how badly planned the trails are on my friends' farm.
07-01-2016, 08:17 PM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
Try a plot of Jerusalem artichoke (Topinambur/Helianthus tuberosus). A hundred square yards is enough to begin with. The first year you may have to fence it or the Deer will eat it to nothing. Grows from root tubers and is fairly easy to spread out with a pitchfork after it gets going. Just fork the earth over and pick out the tubers and rebury someplace else.
Stands dry spells well, pretty much idiot proof. Grows in all climates south of Canada. Pretty much weed free if planted thick. It's a perennial and comes back every year, a little kernel fertilizer ( nitrate/calcium) every couple of years will keep it happy. After it gets established, over grazing won't hurt it for one or maybe two years.
Has some really pretty flowers in the late summer. Looks a lot like Sunflowers. Even my dogs eat it.
The American Plum I've planted and have spreading out as a hedge is a big hit with the Deer.
Apple and Pear trees are always a big hit with the Deer.
Stands dry spells well, pretty much idiot proof. Grows in all climates south of Canada. Pretty much weed free if planted thick. It's a perennial and comes back every year, a little kernel fertilizer ( nitrate/calcium) every couple of years will keep it happy. After it gets established, over grazing won't hurt it for one or maybe two years.
Has some really pretty flowers in the late summer. Looks a lot like Sunflowers. Even my dogs eat it.
The American Plum I've planted and have spreading out as a hedge is a big hit with the Deer.
Apple and Pear trees are always a big hit with the Deer.
Last edited by MudderChuck; 07-01-2016 at 08:35 PM.
07-02-2016, 08:42 AM
#13
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
I use the shotgun approach. A bunch of small plots for two reasons.
First reason is you can't really predict rainfall, disease or whatever catastrophe is awaiting your plot. Various species and locations and some success is almost guaranteed.
Second reason, some plants are spring favorites, some mid summer, some early fall and some after the first frost. If you can keep them visiting the same area for most of the year, your odds of success increase.
Winter forage is always the hard one. Some of the grasses are one of the few options. Winter Rape is another.
I don't know about your acreage, but if it is lacking in cover, planting bushes, hedges and thickets is a real benefit.
Letting a stripe of land to go wild (weeds whatever) is also beneficial. And some localities may even pay you to do so.
First reason is you can't really predict rainfall, disease or whatever catastrophe is awaiting your plot. Various species and locations and some success is almost guaranteed.
Second reason, some plants are spring favorites, some mid summer, some early fall and some after the first frost. If you can keep them visiting the same area for most of the year, your odds of success increase.
Winter forage is always the hard one. Some of the grasses are one of the few options. Winter Rape is another.
I don't know about your acreage, but if it is lacking in cover, planting bushes, hedges and thickets is a real benefit.
Letting a stripe of land to go wild (weeds whatever) is also beneficial. And some localities may even pay you to do so.
07-02-2016, 12:21 PM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Germany/Calif.
Posts: 2,664
Best bet would be to advertise in the paper and offer to dig your own in the fall. Or spot a plot and ask to dig your own in the fall.
With a pitchfork you get maybe half the tuber bundles and is actually beneficial to the next years growth, thinning helps them.
If I turn over a 30X30 foot plot (or even half that) I get a large Potato sack full of tubers and the next spring the harvested plot grows right back from the tubers you miss.
They say you can grow them from seed, my experience is seed is iffy.
A CO-OP feed and seed may be able to order you a fifty pound bag of tubers at a reasonable price.
I grow the red (tuber) variety. The leaves may get white mold if they stay too wet. White mold spray is cheap. Occasional cases of white mold is the only issue I've ever had with my plots, even the mold won't seriously hurt them. Other than the wildlife eating them down to the ground, I've never had any real issues.
Last edited by MudderChuck; 07-02-2016 at 12:24 PM.
07-05-2016, 07:22 AM
#16
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: MS
Posts: 343
I usually clear up a shooting lane & plant a small linear plot. Deer tend to come out more during day light hours rather than waiting till its pitch black out. They can slip in and slip out from the woods, not being exposed in the wide open feeling pressured.
07-06-2016, 01:34 PM
#17
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: a van down by the river
Posts: 8,939
There is not a "minimum" size for food plots. I would offer a couple of suggestions, as it isn't necessarily what you can do, but what you can do within your budget that will give you the best return.
Before worrying about the food plot, I would try to make all or as much of the acreage as deer and wildlife friendly as possible. Every place will have some native plants that are very useful, and some that are very undesirable. Learn to identify which is which, and manage to remove the undesirables and promote the useful plants. This will give you the biggest return for your time and money spent, so I would start there. Ask yourself if the area you are planning on converting from native plants to a plot would actually be better served by having the plot. Lots of people assume the answer to that is always yes, but it isn't.
For a food plot, you need to establish a couple of things. First, you need to identify gaps. Parts of the year, forage will be plentiful. Other parts, times will be lean. If you can use your plots and your management to fill those gaps between times of plenty, you will attract more wildlife and offer the wildlife the greatest benefit in return.
Once you have identified what you can plant, then identify where you can plant it. Can that location support tillage? Can erosion be controlled or minimized? Are you planting the right plant at the right time in the right location? Will the plants receive enough rainfall and sunlight?
As others have said, long plots generally are more favored by wildlife than round or square ones. Plots are for animals that are not on top of the food chain. They like to be able to bolt for cover. I have wildlife in my fields all the time, but the edges always get hit a lot more than the center, as the edges are a lot closer to the trees.
Before worrying about the food plot, I would try to make all or as much of the acreage as deer and wildlife friendly as possible. Every place will have some native plants that are very useful, and some that are very undesirable. Learn to identify which is which, and manage to remove the undesirables and promote the useful plants. This will give you the biggest return for your time and money spent, so I would start there. Ask yourself if the area you are planning on converting from native plants to a plot would actually be better served by having the plot. Lots of people assume the answer to that is always yes, but it isn't.
For a food plot, you need to establish a couple of things. First, you need to identify gaps. Parts of the year, forage will be plentiful. Other parts, times will be lean. If you can use your plots and your management to fill those gaps between times of plenty, you will attract more wildlife and offer the wildlife the greatest benefit in return.
Once you have identified what you can plant, then identify where you can plant it. Can that location support tillage? Can erosion be controlled or minimized? Are you planting the right plant at the right time in the right location? Will the plants receive enough rainfall and sunlight?
As others have said, long plots generally are more favored by wildlife than round or square ones. Plots are for animals that are not on top of the food chain. They like to be able to bolt for cover. I have wildlife in my fields all the time, but the edges always get hit a lot more than the center, as the edges are a lot closer to the trees.
