Make My Yard Into A Food Plot???

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No dogs here for me yet... Right now the turkeys cruise right by my house almost every day. Never seen them in the yard though.

Slayer, what do you recommend for a seed blend? The yard is small. I'll take a picture later. Plus I want to whack down a few more hemlocks to let more light in.

I also want to start to make a couple of acre field. My land is all forested right now. Mostly hardwood, there is a section of mostly hemlock with a small trout stream through it. The field thing is a couple year project. I'm also gonna include apple trees in there somewhere.

Awesome Antlers, Pure Clover or Crimson Trail would work, but I could custom mix you a blend that would be better for a yard if you want. It would include high sugar grasses, some small burnett and a high quality fairly low growing clover. I think the latter would be the best and I have all of it on hand.

Once you have those fields cleared out it will really get fun. When the time comes get a hold of me and I might be able to help you out on some decent trees at a good price. In fact, if I remember right you live in NY? If so, St. Lawrence nursery is over in Potsdam and has a good variety of trees acclimated to your climate. Their prices aren't the cheapest, but their not terrible either. Plus they have Manchurian crab apple seedlings for like $3 apiece. Manchurian's make good trees for both deer apples and a rootstock to graft onto.

[Spysar]

Thanks Slayer. My biggest problem is sunlight right now. Plus my yard was originally a hemlock forrest, so for some reason it's hard to grow stuff where hemlocks have been...

Slayer, can you walk me through what I should do to test, and improve the soil? Do you have any varieties of seeds that do well in not so direct sun? The middle of the yard will have decent sun, and the south edge will have less. I think the original yard will grow stuff, but it will take a while to condition the soil where I cut trees. At least cutting trees will let more sun in.

[Spysar]

Here's a pic of the yard. It's not very big, maybe only 60'x60'... You can see the hemlocks on the edge that I plan on cutting out. I already cut a few...(that little garden with the turkey deek is where the bear walked through)










And here is the forest of hardwood that I plan on cutting my field into. This is kinda typical of what it looks like now.

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I think that if you read the last post in the following thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12747&start=15 (dated Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:03 am) you will understand how to take the soil test not only for your yard, but also for your future plots in the woods. I would take a separate soil test of both the original yard & the newly cleared area. The results from the newly cleared area can also be used for any additional area you plan on clearing to enlarge your yard.

From looking at the pics I would say you probably have quite acid soil, but only a soil test can tell you what you need to know for sure. As far as improving the soil goes, that is in large part what the soil test will do. It will tell you what to do to start that process. Then I can help you decipher the test results to determine what you have to do to build the soil. When you have the soil tested tell them you want it tested for a "rye & legume" mix. This will give a good starting point. After you get the results back you will know a lot more. Any of the mixes I mentioned would work for your yard, but without knowing more I would have to say the custom mix would likely do the best. There are three main things that will determine how well any food plot grows. Soil moisture, how many hours of direct sunlight it gets and following the soil test results.

How is your soil moisture? High water table, any flooding, dry, etc? Also, how thick is your top soil?

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I like to have the lab test the organic matter also, but unless it's sandy soil I don't worry about it too much. Sometimes it's included in a standard soil test so you might get that included anyway.