food plot ideas

I know this is a fishing site–but with hunting coming up and all–wondering if any good ideas for a deer food plot for northern Wi area–just a 30′ x 80′ area looking to seed in spring–thanks–can pm also

You should check out idohunting.com.

IDO Hunting – Food Plots & Habitat Link

thats what I was thinking too—I cant remember my id or password though! lol–plus no way to contact site to ask other than forgot password–but I dont recall Id for site at all–so now what?? help

The biggest thing is that you can’t just throw seed on the ground and expect it to grow. With food plots, what I’ve observed is that it’s either go all the way or don’t go at all.

It’s awesome when it works out and it can be especially fruitful in an area with limited high-quality food available.

But it’s not as easy as I think most people believe. Basically, it’s small-scale farming.

1. Get a soil test done to figure out the comp and chemistry of the soil. This has a major impact on what will grow and also on what, exactly, you’ll need to do to make it grow better.

No one can say “grow this” or “grow that” because what you can/should grow is all tied back to your specific soil chem and what you can (and are willing to) do to modify it. Other factors are how much sunlight does the plot get, is it on a slope, etc, etc.

2. How much money are you willing to spend? The big mistake I hear about with guys who try to get started with food plots and fail is that they only looked at the cost of the seed. The seed is chump change!

It’s the chemicals, soil prep, fertilizer, soil corrections, fuel, and equipment that make up the real cost. Even for a small plot like you’re talking about, if your soil is poor, you could need $200, $300, or more worth of fertilizer and soil correction additives like lime to get anything besides weeds to grow.

Bottom line is add up the cost after you get your soil test so you know what you’ll be able to grow and make sure you’re willing to go the distance as far as the total cost.

3. In the spring, you must, must, must achieve a total kill with Roundup or other Glyphosate product before planting. Depending on the situation, this can take 2 or 3 or even 4 applications over a period of weeks to achieve.

But again, if you don’t do your prep, it’ll show with poor results. If you don’t kill off all the weeds and brush, they will quickly re-establish themselves and gobble up your fertilizer and crowd out your game crops.

4. Can you spend enough time working on your plot? How much time depends on what you’re growing, but at a minimum it’s going to take numerous days of work over 4-6 weeks to remove overgrowth, spray, till, spray again, seed, fertilize, etc. And that just gets your crop in the ground.

I’m not trying to be a downer, in fact it’s the other way around. I hate seeing people throw good money away because they didn’t have the whole picture going in. You might be better off establishing good mineral stations (obviously, within the bounds of the game laws) or good resting/hiding cover on your property rather than going the food plot route.

Grouse

Yep–kinda knew this before hand–I plan on tilling it after I get round uped and all weeds n growth killed and fert. and might even lime it some this fall–I heard takes few months for lime to work into soil anyways?? being only 30′ by 80′ not all that big –wondering what type of seed or plants to try mostly–thanks

For a small area such as this it won’t cost much to accomplish what you’re after. You can put down a general fertilizer (eg 12-12-12) and be fine. Way too much thought and effort can go into food plots…its not rocket science, you’re just trying to get some basic plants to grow. That being said…if your ground is total garbage(sand, clay), then it may need more.

A good blend of Brassicas from any well known company will germinate just fine. If you don’t want to replant every year, then a white durrano clover may be what you’re after since it’s perennial. A little prep and a little maintenance is all that is needed for a size plot such as yours. Personally, I’ve had good success with Biologic and Whitetail Institute seed.

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Yep–kinda knew this before hand–I plan on tilling it after I get round uped and all weeds n growth killed and fert. and might even lime it some this fall–I heard takes few months for lime to work into soil anyways?? being only 30′ by 80′ not all that big –wondering what type of seed or plants to try mostly–thanks

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It’d would be great if you could kill it off and till it this fall, but you may not want to do all that messing around in an area if you’re trying to hunt it. If you do, you’ll want to apply Roundup again in the spring before you plant so that you kill off whatever came back.

Adding lime, fertilizer, etc, it all depends on your soil. I would really advise a soil test even for a plot that small. Tests are easy and cheap and you can even do them by mail. The thing is that they will really help focus your options once you know your soil type. That way you’re spending money to grow what grows best with the soil you have rather then spending lots of money trying to change the soil.

If you focus on the long term, this plot will be a real asset that will pay off long into the future if you start off right.

Grouse

For an area this small I would plant Roundup ready soybeans. 1 bag would easily plant that size area and you can spread the seed by hand. After the beans are up good spray Roundup again and the weeds will die and the canopy will keep more from growing. Buy your beans yourself. My friend got a bag of beans from Pheasants Forever, they were not Roundup ready and he killed them all when he sprayed. Deer love growing green soybean plants and will readily eat them. Then in the fall/winter they have the dry beans which are high in fat the keep them going. Pretty easy to do. Then the next season go with a white clover and till up another area if you have one and start over with beans again.

I have a food plot that isn’t much bigger than what you are talking about. This one is about 30 yards by 15 yards and is planted with Frigid Forage big and beasty Brasiccas (sp?). The deer have eaten half the plot down to the dirt. This was planted in late July. They love that stuff even more after it freezes and the beets and turnips get sweet.

Check out Antler King’s Mini Max seed. It’s a great blend and goes in with minimal tilling or work. The deer at our small plots seem to love it.

It’s also from Black River Falls, so I think they’re a little more in touch with growing things in the north compared to the big companies.

Superior, I emailed your login info for the hunting side. Let me know if you don’t get it.

As for this plot. I think it will be a bit challenging to get it going if you have a lot of deer around and this food source doesn’t have any competition with other agriculture etc… A few head of deer will mow a plot like this down so fast. I’m sure some of the other more knowledgeable guys will have suggestions on how to protect this plot while it establishes itself.