Food plot ramp up

[Treejunkie]

Who is starting to think about what they are going to plant to make their place the "Kitchen" of the whitetails enhabiting their area?

I will have plenty of food plots going. I plant about 8 acres of stuff on two different properties. Corn, soybeans, sugar beets, rape, turnips, clover, wheat, oats & rye. My rape, turnips and wheat, oats and rye are my fall plots. Thinking about digging a small pond this spring also.

[dan]

Get video and pic's for us tree! Most of my spots are public, but might put a couple plots on a small private farm this year...

[Casper]

I tried planting a small plot of clover one time, turned out pretty good. Still had clover in it after two years without maintenance, I was pretty happy. I cant wait to own some land someday so I can plant a bunch of different things.

[Treejunkie]

Get video and pic's for us tree! Most of my spots are public, but might put a couple plots on a small private farm this year...

Can do.

Here are a few pics from previous years.

Pic of my clover field butting up to my corn on my place a few years back. I have since reseeded the clover in more of a long and narrow strip to keep the deer from feeling "open". Was extremely dry and my clover was going dormant.


A pic of how I try to keep my entry/exit (tractor) trail clean from vegitation to keep my scent down.


A pic of my old clover field with a caged in apple tree in the background.



Pic of my approx. 1 acre clover/soybeans behind my mother's place. Has since expanded about 2x

[BackWoodsHunter]

I was going to start a new thread but I think I can build off of this! When do you start prepping your plots and how do you go about? This is in general not just for the specific plots above. I'd like to start some new plots which will obviously require more work than replanting established plots. About what time of year do you start the plot prep work spraying chemicals? tilling? putting down lime/seed etc etc?? I think I will be starting the second weekend in april clearing brush and putting down a large dose of roundup to kill everything back on the plots. Hoping end of april/beginning may to get the tiller in and disc everything up and cover the plots with some fertilizer and most impoartantly seed. Wondering when everyone else is thinking of putting down the hunting magazines and shutting down the computer (on the beast site of course) and gettin out the work clothes to put in their plots.

[Treejunkie]

Well I live in NE Wisconsin so I start my plowing around the last week of April if it is dry enough. After about a week of working my land I normally wait a few weeks after the local farmers plant their crops which is usually about the 1st week of May. I want my crops maturing after theirs so I try to plant mid May.

I use all round up ready soybeans and corn since my fields where once used for spreading liquid manure years back when my aunt owned it. Foxtail is thick our there if not sprayed. When my corn comes up about 12" high I have a large boom sprayer on my tractor with 110 gallon capacity and go to town spraying.

I own a small (38hp) tractor with implements that I have picked up over years. I have a 2 bottom plow, 8' disc, cultivator, 5' brush hog, 12' spring tooth, cultipacker, 110 gallon boom sprayer and a John Deere 2 row corn planter. Took me about 4 years to find all this stuff. Before this I borrowed my father-in-laws stuff. Was a hassle but it worked great until I broke his tractor. The Mrs. said "no more"!!!! Go buy your own stuff.

Clear your brush as soon as you can get on your land. I would take a soil sample to find out your PH. You might not need lime??? You will not know if you do or how much until you get a sample. I would not spray until everything starts to green up and really start growing. Round up only kills growning plants not pre-emerging. You can purchase pre-emergents to spread but I use a generic Round up. I buy 5 gallons of Razor Pro. Can buy that for about $125. 5 gallons goes a long ways.

You can lime as soon as you get your results back. I used pulverized lime since it is easier (smaller) and will work with your soil faster. Proper lime allows your plants to adsorb nutrients.

All my stuff is planted mid May unless I plan on saving an area for a fall planting. Then I will plant oats or rye there just to keep the weed out. Come about Mid August, I work up that area plant my rape & turnips. About 2 weeks later I walk thru with my oats and rye and seed on top of my turnips. I want my oats no more than about 10"-12" high when they stop growing.

[Mike]

I'm definitely thinking about it. I am gonna plant 1 bag of eagle soybeans this year, and the rest will be cheap beans and corn from NWTF. The stuff we get from them has grown very well. Wish roundup ready sugar beets were available again, those grew great and the deer pounded them. I am gonna try some high sugar rye grass (sucraseed) and forage radish this year for new stuff.

In a week or so I'm frost seeding in a bunch of switchgrass, that should turn my land into a switchgrass maze, all the access roads and plots are bordered and broken up which helps bring the deer out earlier and makes it easier to get in and out undetected.

[ramblinman]

Mike I'm starting a food plot this spring. Going to plant some switchgrass. Does that work pretty well frost seeding?
Do you allready have some planted and do you have any pictures of it. Where did you buy it?

[Mike]

Sure do, here is a plant up close, frost seeding is the best way to do it unless you have a drill for it. The land has to have been prepped either by killing it with roundup or having roundup ready corn or beans in the spot where you want the grass. (rape works too if the deer ate it up)



This stuff was a first year planting, it got up to about 4 foot tall so I was very happy, it should get 5-6 feet this year or more.


Here you can see how I use it to break up my plots, this spot was awesome this year for deer movement. I had corn next to the switchgrass because the SG wouldn't be tall enough to screen, and I will run corn 1 more year until I know its tall enough. Basically, every deer that would come out would eventually come by my stand, they just kept moving around the field to check out the parts they couldn't see.


Also, down in the corner of the field in the second pic is this waterhole, so it was an extra draw.


Last year I got my seed from osenbaugh in iowa, this year from ernst seed in PA. Its half the price this year so I stocked up a bit.