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Small late food plot


HuntOrBeHunted
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If you guys were going to start a smaller food plot for this bow season and you were going to start tomorrow. What would you grow and why? Thanks

 

I just closed on my first piece of land. See a ton of tracks and typical sign. Going to start tilling for a small scale food plot and looking to see what everyone uses.

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This is the best time to start one.   Get the ground tilled now (I prefer that over using chemicals to kill the weeds because I like to keep the meat as "organic" as possible).   Till it again a few more times, until late August.   Prior to your last tilling, broadcast 5-10-5 or other low-nitrogen fertilizer at a rate of about 50 pounds/acre, then till it into the soil.   Next, broadcast wheat at a rate of about 50 pounds per acre, and soybeans at about 25 pounds per acre.   Use a cultipacker, drag a log, or use your ATV tires to push that wheat and soybean seed into the tilled ground.   Next, broadcast white clover at about 5 pounds per acre, then cultipack again (at about a 90 degree angle from your first packing direction).    

The soybeans will draw deer to that plot like candy as soon as they start to sprout.  The first good frost will kill what remains of those soybeans before they make pods, but that may not occur until well after October 1st.  In the mean time, nothing is more attractive to deer than green, sprouting soybeans, which are also very high in protein.   Next, the wheat will kick in and hold the deer on the plot thru fall and winter (Frost don't kill wheat).  Wheat is considerably more attractive to deer than cerial rye, besides being cheaper and easier to find (cost is about $ 8 for 50 pounds).  

Next spring, mow off the wheat before it goes to seed.  It serves the dual purpose of attracting deer thru late season, and providing a "nurse" crop for the clover, keeping the weeds under control.  As long as your soil is not too acidic (a soil test would be a good idea, and add lime if needed), you will find a lush crop of white clover after the wheat is mowed off in the late spring.   That white clover will give you several more years of prime deer attraction with nothing more than a couple annual mowings for maintenance.       

Edited by wolc123
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