Breaking ground

Broke my existing annual plots yesterady a little damp in a few places but over all I’d say it was perfect!Frost was out of the ground where I had the Honey Hole but under some taller swamp grass I tilled there was still a little frost. Now I can let them sit for a while and focus on the fishing, April is almost here On a side not any one ever plant spring and fall plot in the same plot? I mean till the spring plot late summer and seat a fall hunting blend? Its a little more work but is it worth it?

v Congrats! Sounds like you got a good start.

Yes, I have planted in the Spring and tilled it under in August to plant a Fall Plot. Is it a good idea? Yes as it give your whitetails better more palatable food during the summer and different palatable food in the Fall. Plant something like clovers, chicory, things high in protein in the Summer. Then in the Fall, disc under your summer plot and plant your Rape, Turnips & ,etc. these are some of the plants that deer crave more in the Fall. This gives the Deer better nutrition for a majority of the year. Is this approach easy? Nope twice the work, but sometimes you don’t have many options. Another benefit in doing this is it conditions the deer to come to this plot / area early in the Summer and it often establishes their travel route early in the Summer when they are less stressed and pressured. So when the Fall plot comes in they are accustomed to travel this route anyways. This is a huge benefit that is often overlooked IMO.

That is one of the reasons I like to plant Beans, Turnips and Rape together in a Hunting Plot. The deer will eat the beans starting in the Summer. Then in Early August I will just broadcast by hand Rape and Turnips in the beans before a Rainfall. The Rape & turnips benefit from the natural fertilizer (Nitrogen) that is released by the beans into the soil.

Man, I’m getting excited.

Only problem, it is way too soon!

Rob pretty much nailed it… We till up some of our spring plots to plant our turnips and oats every year, and the deer pound them. The only bad thing for us is that in our early years our plots were small and these second planting would get hammered as plants were just emerging. This would wipe out a bunch of our plot until we were able to get larger planting areas.

I have a plot in one place that is 3 acres. I break it up into 3 different “plots” of 1 acre. Last year I did one of corn, one of beans, and one was a mix of clover, alfalfa, carrots, turnips, and sugar beets.

I just don’t have the time to do much with it in the fall. For me the mixture of all of those things worked out great…..The deer had the Beans plus Clover and Alfalfa to munch on early and the turnips, beets, and carrots all did well through the summer….until it got cold, then they dug down and devoured them!!!!!

I can’t wait to break ground this weekend. The single divided plot seems like an awesome idea. It is about the same amount of money but half the work when compared to tilling up something that could still be edible.

It works for me, but I had the space to do it and still have decent size plots after they were divided up.

It may not be the best option, but it didn’t have the added cost of working it up and planting it twice..Plus, like I said my spare time in the late summer to fall is very limited and I would rather be fishing or hunting when that spare time is available!