The cheapest foodplot you’ll ever grow

[Ahawk116]

Years ago a Hunting mentor of mine showed me a little trick that I have used for years now that some of you may want to try.
If you find a preferred grass or forbe that the deer are feeding on it in your area take a bag of fertilizer in and spread it on it. It’s facinating to watch, but deer will walk past the same species of browse to get to the stuff that has been fertilized.

In my area the top of the list would be ragweed, but I’ve also used it in patches of honey suckle (the vining type we have not the brush that covers the Midwest). Poke berry, Partridge pea, and any other wild legume.

A patch of something along those lines that is fertilized adjacent to a bedding area can make a great early season kill plot, and now is the time of year to do it.

It’ll cost you ten or twenty dollars and some sweat equity so I would say it may be worth a shot in your area.

[Net Guy]

Interesting. What kind of fertilizer do you prefer?

[tim]

Cutting over grown “weeds” and the deer are on it. Deer forage and eat a lot of the stuff we call weeds. Cut it and those deer are all over that nice fresh stuff.

[Findian]

You can also find an old beaver pond that is still holding water. Then remove part of the dam so the water flows out and you have a very green and fresh young natural food plot growing at the time you'd want to hunt it.

[Ahawk116]

Interesting. What kind of fertilizer do you prefer?

I’ll just use 19-19-19.

[Ahawk116]

Cutting over grown “weeds” and the deer are on it. Deer forage and eat a lot of the stuff we call weeds. Cut it and those deer are all over that nice fresh stuff.

Yeah I’ve seen that it’s almost like they’ll come to a weedeater or bush hog lol.

[Ahawk116]

You can also find an old beaver pond that is still holding water. Then remove part of the dam so the water flows out and you have a very green and fresh young natural food plot growing at the time you'd want to hunt it.

Never done that but great idea as long as the beavers aren’t still there. That would be fighting an uphill battle. Aka the key word you said was (old).

[Hawthorne]

Great idea!Amazing what someone can do with a 4 gallon back pack sprayer with round up and a seed spreader also. If you time a rain. Just a chainsaw can create alot of food also. I watched a buck one year walk right thru my food plot one year to feed on weeds. Look like he was eating wild grape

[Ahawk116]

Great idea!Amazing what someone can do with a 4 gallon back pack sprayer with round up and a seed spreader also. If you time a rain. Just a chainsaw can create alot of food also. I watched a buck one year walk right thru my food plot one year to feed on weeds. Look like he was eating wild grape

Agreed. I’ve got a couple of small food plots like that. You can spray a half acre pretty easily with one backpack full. I find wheat especially would probably grow on concrete if the rain was timed well.

The deer know what’s good for them that’s for certain. One of the farms I hunt has a bean field that hasn’t been sprayed due to all the rain that we have had this year. The beans are still short because they were planted late and there is crabgrass growing in thick all in it, but the field had chicken litter spread over it which should equate to around 70lbs to the acre of nitrogen. The deer are eating the grass as quickly as they are eating the beans, and I have never seen them browse on crabgrass before.

[Ahawk116]

Years ago a Hunting mentor of mine showed me a little trick that I have used for years now that some of you may want to try.
If you find a preferred grass or forbe that the deer are feeding on it in your area take a bag of fertilizer in and spread it on it. It’s facinating to watch, but deer will walk past the same species of browse to get to the stuff that has been fertilized.

In my area the top of the list would be ragweed, but I’ve also used it in patches of honey suckle (the vining type we have not the brush that covers the Midwest). Poke berry, Partridge pea, and any other wild legume.

A patch of something along those lines that is fertilized adjacent to a bedding area can make a great early season kill plot, and now is the time of year to do it.

It’ll cost you ten or twenty dollars and some sweat equity so I would say it may be worth a shot in your area.

(Edit)I forgot to add it’s helpful to know what the soils in your area typically need. Around here for example most soils need about 300lbs to the acre of 10-10-10 and two tons of lime to produce optimally. You can figure that out by doing a soil test or asking a local farmer what is the norm in the area.

That much lime is too big a pain when you are just fertilizing weeds, but the fertilizer is doable. A bag of 19-19-19 per quarter acre will get the job done.

[Mike32]

Great idea, thanks for mentioning it.

[BKMississippi]

The guys from the Miss St Deer Lab do a podcast that I really enjoy. It covers hunting and habitat improvements. There's one titled Mineral Stump that's very interesting and informative. Their studies show that when hardwoods with established root systems are cut, the tree responds with rapid growth that's has great nutritional value.

They're certainly not advocating going in and cutting valuable timber, but you can clear out bow spots by strategically cutting trash trees in the understory during the summer thus giving the deer new growth that they love. The rapid growth is the tree's natural defense. One example mentioned was a red maple that after being cut, had new growth with a higher protein content than soybeans grown in the same region.

https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/articl ... nutrition/

[Lockdown]

One annual food source near one of my public spots is a grass hay field. I see deer on it all the time. One thing I picked up on during summer observations was some clover growing in it. The clover is very sparse in the majority of the field but there is one spot in particular where it grows fairly thick. I’ve watched quite a few nibble their way across the field only to spend 10-15 minutes grazing in the same 30 ft patch. I’ve seen a few trot directly over to it.

Young growth is important. Out west they’ll cross monstrous CRP fields to graze in the mowed grass. It’s all grass and all the same variety but they certainly prefer the new growth.

Same thing with livestock. Ever notice horses would rather nibble 1/4” spears of grass vs the abundance of knee high pasture? It’s young, fresh, and it tastes better.

[JoeRE]

Cutting over grown “weeds” and the deer are on it. Deer forage and eat a lot of the stuff we call weeds. Cut it and those deer are all over that nice fresh stuff.

That is absolutely right...I have had patches of weeds behind my house the last few years and its amusing to me how they sometimes walk right past various "food plot" plants like soybeans, sunflowers, turnips, etc and hit those lambsquarters, giant ragweed, quack grass and other "weeds"

I think the term "weeds" means nothing to mother earth and all the other critters with her. Its only a human concept!

[Twenty Up]

This method is actually legal on public, too.

Lime & Fert on native growth is that odd grey area. That is of course if you’re willing to spend money on a spot anybody could hunt.