What / When / Why – Food plot options.

One thing that confuses me about the various food plot options is trying to figure out the combination of what you should plant, when you should plant it, and why you should plan that crop at that time.

For example, I hear people taking about planting turnips. When would I do this, and why???

Same thing with forage oats. When is it best to plant these and why is that the case?

I get that some of these are easy. Clover plots are obviously a full year attractor and need to be planted early because they take a long time to establish.

But for other crops or mixes, it’s not at all clear to me the timing of planting and why that timing is significant.

Is anyone aware of a chart or resource that show this?

Grouse

I am not aware of a chart, but I plant turnips/brassica around the middle of July. The reason for this is then the plant will be green and palatable during the hunting season. When brassica gets overmature or “bolts” it is no longer a food source for deer until the frost sends the sugar to the bulbs. I have never planted oats but the principal is the same. You want the crop to be the most lush but not over mature right during the hunting season. Winter rye is planted last week in August to get nice green shoot going by hunting time. Think of it like sweet corn for people, picking and eating too early and the taste is ok, but not great, too late and it’s tough.Hope that helps

I don’t have a lot of info for you, but I remember reading a post by Randy a while back that indicated that he had a field of late oats that the deer were just pounding during gun season.

Brassicas are best planted in the last 2 weeks of July. if planted earlier they can mature and begin to harden off no longer providing supple fresh groth on the tops

Oats unless you buy the winter variety or Buck forage oats. Should be planted basicly no earlier than 45 days before the first frost. after 45 days they become less palateable for the deer.

As far as clover I my best plots have been seeded in the fall, seems to be way less noctious weed compotition

As for other crops as far as food plots there arnt any besides corn and beans IMO
Brassicas,grains,clovers, and row cropsand you cover the whole spectrum

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I don’t have a lot of info for you, but I remember reading a post by Randy a while back that indicated that he had a field of late oats that the deer were just pounding during gun season.

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In hind-sight, I think this needs to be clarified a bit. True, I had a field with oats last year that was just pounded to nothing by the deer. But there was a couple other factors that significantly affected this.
1. This field was early (crop) planted with oats. Because of the devastating drought we had, they didn’t germinate and grow like the manual calls for. The guy that I lease this 15 acres to poisoned off the weeds in late summer and planted alfalfa in hopes of having something established in there for this years’ first crop. Ironically, with all the late summer rain, the oats germinated and grew sporadically across the 15 acres.
2. Other limited food sources. My food plots last year were a disaster because of the drought. Very few acorns, corn content was for crap, and that list goes on and on.

Additionally for the original question of “when?” Keep in mind growing season and rainfall potential. Just like this year, I have 3 acres of Barassascas that I wish I had planted 3 weeks earlier. I planted that plot in mid-July. It got one good rainfall two days later, then nothing until a couple days ago. Its shot. What had germinated – DIED. Anything else will not grow enough in the next couple weeks. I would much rather have over mature Barrassascas than none at all.

I found roughly what I was looking for on the Whitail Institutute’s website. They have a planting selector where they group their seeds by spring planting or fall planting.

Then from there, the individual seed mixes have detailed instructions that give the “why” I was looking for in terms of what you are shooting for in terms of maturity to maximize deer appeal. Lots of other great info as far as ground prep and seeding methods, which of course you can apply to any seed of a similar type.

Of course, now my #1 problem has nothing to do with seed. It’s clearing enough ground to have a food plot in the first place.

Grouse