Food Plot question

[Islandlaker]

Hey everyone I have this little 30 feet by 30 feet spot that I would like to plant some sort of small food plot to help attract deer during bow and rifle season. The problem is I can't plant tell the first week of aug. I will not have a tractor, just a rake and small tiller. Is there anything I can plant there that is worth the effort? Thanks!

[NWBuck]

Brassicas, which is a combination of turnips and rape. Use some oats as a cover crop, and rake it in lightly. Then just spread your brassicas seed on top without covering, and hope for a rain. The deer will pile in to this plot after the first frost or two, although with the size you're talking about, they could clean it out relatively quickly. Good luck.

[Jameson]

With a small plot like that you best plant something that can withstand the grazing. August first planting of Clover would be great, or you could wait till closer to September 1st and plant wheat or rye.

Good luck!

[vister]

i recommend turnips and rape for all plots. however, the size of yours is kinda small, and brassicas typically don't rebound from grazing. so they would probably get cleaned out in a week or two once the deer found them.

i would blend clover and chicory, as chicory has a fantastic regrowth rate. if you were planting an acre of chicory, keep in mind an acre is 48yds X 100 yards, the size of a football field more or less, the regrowth rate is 50-75 pounds of foliage per acre per day. thats alot of food for deer! its also a perennial, so you can see it for 3-5 years, and its extremely drought resistent. however, it needs 4 hours or more of direct sunlight a day to grow well. hope this helps!

[buckhunter21]

Unless you have very few deer on your property a brassica plot that small would more than likely be wiped out in a matter of days. You could go with a clover/chickory mix and add some oats for a cover crop but dont expect alot of growth from the clover or chickory until next year. That way like vister said you will have a plot there for at least a couple of years. You could also go with rye grain in late August and then seed you clover next spring if you wanted to go that way. Let us know how it turns out!

[Islandlaker]

I think I am going to go with the chicory and clover idea. Do a use a 50 50 mix? Is something like imperial clover worth it, or can I just buy seed at a local store where they have it in bins?

Also I don't think I mentioned where I will be doing the planting it will be about 20 miles north of duluth. The day that I have off along with some buddys to help will be Aug. 3 I will keep you guys updated, and thanks for all of the help!

[mrklean]

we are gonna plant our plots end of august, early september, is that to late to toss turnips in?

[buckhunter21]

we are gonna plant our plots end of august, early september, is that to late to toss turnips in?

Its not too late but if you want to get the most out of them the time to plant is right about now. Most turnips take 90 days to mature, some are 60 days, but if you want to get the most food for your deer its better to plant mid july to early august here in MN. If you plant end of august you will probably only get about 3 weeks of growth before a good frost and thats if you get rain as soon as you plant. If your just looking for something green to use for early bow hunting that will be fine but if you want to get actual turnips to give your deer some food later in the year I would try to get them in earlier. Are you going to try just straight turnips? or a mix? I have always wondered if that would work better than a mix but have never tried it.

[DoubleLunger]

One big-ss pile of corn.

[mrklean]

we have some different clover mixes were gonna put in, but i wanted to try turnips, just a busy summer

[Jameson]

...Is something like imperial clover worth it, or can I just buy seed at a local store where they have it in bins?...

If you have a seed store locally that sells what you are looking for buy the pound, than yes buy there. Do you really think they got chicory by the pound? But if you are in a pinch, with such a small plot, it is one of the times when buying a premix with a buck on the bag wouldn't be so bad.

[NWBuck]

If you're thinking a legume of some sort, I'd think about alfalfa rather than clover. Reason being, you can get a round-up ready alflafa, but none in the chicory/clover family that I'm aware of. Maybe you've got an area that has little to no historical weed pressure, but if not, the ability to spray round up and control weeds is a big deal. Good luck.

[klecker]

alfalfa and clover are they not both legumes?

Chad

[Islandlaker]

Well I took a trip up to the cabin and the food plot spot isn't going as good as I had hoped. I sprayed round up about a week ago and it looks like it needs a lot more! I am intriged by this round up ready alfalfa. Does anyone have more info on it? Like was is the latest I can plant? Is it fairly pricey? Hard to grow?

[NWBuck]

Clover and alfalfa are both legumes, and if weed control were not a huge issue, I'd go with clover, only because deer seem to prefer it. The reason you might look into alfalfa over clover is because, at least at one time, I know it was available in a RR variety.

There may be some availability issues with RR alfalfa, at one point it was tied up in a lawsuit trying to prevent its' release. I know it was available for a time, because a farmer friend of mine has a large field of it near our foodplots, and it's beautiful. I believe it is available again now, but finding it in small quantities that you need may be the issue. If you're doing a fall seeding, you'd want to have it in about 6 weeks prior to your first normal frost, which for us means around mid August. For a fall seeding I'd also seed an annual cover crop, such as oats. Good luck

[vister]

i wouldn't necessarily plant a roundup ready crop of any kind for a food plot. unless you plan leaving it alfalfa a very long time. go with a 50/50 blend of clover and chicory. coops that sell plot seed by the pound do sell chicory by the pound as well. everyone i have been to sells chicory by the pound. for a 30ft X 30 ft plot, a pound of clover and a pound of chicory would be overseeding. but, overseeding it also controls weeds.

[Jameson]

Might as well forget about the RR alfalfa for now. No longer available and questionable if it will return to market.

Some folks have experimented and discovered that a light spraying of gly (round-up) will not kill an established clover plot, but will kill most weeds. I have not been brave enough to try this personally.

[jltimm]

Ploast is the chemical used to spray clover.

[Code-Man]

Lets get some things straight on this topic. RR Alfalfa will be brought back to the market but Monsanto is still trying to finish up the appeal process and it don't look like it will be done for this fall but is being planned on being completed for spring 2010 planting. Then hopefully 2011 being widespread release.

[vister]

the sound of having RR alfalfa isn't exactly a pleasant one. in a few years they will have to come up with a new solution, as the weeds start to become tolerable of glyphosphate. yes, my dad does plant RR soybeans, but that doesn't mean that they get sprayed with it. typically, he does need to spray the head rows, but thats is. its more or less trying to control the aphids, not weeds.

[NWBuck]

Roundup ready seed is not new technology...just relatively new to alfalfa. This technology has kept rowcrop fields in our area squeaky clean for many years, and the roundup is still killing the same weeds in beans and corn that is has for the past 15+ years. I'll sneak down one of these nights and take a picture of a roundup ready alfalfa field a buddy of mine has, and it will be full of deer browsing the most beautiful alfalfa stand you'd ever care to see.

I am interested in this idea of spraying a light mixture of roundup on clover. We have a clover plot that currently receives very heavy weed pressure, and this may be the solution we've been looking for. I'm at the point where I'm willing to risk killing the entire plot if this really has a chance to work.

[mrklean]

I tought that kinda already happened with some weeds becoming tolorant to roundup? Because everything is roundup ready now. Just think of the bank account that guy has, whoever invented it.

[Code-Man]

Some weeds are building a tolerance but it usually happens when people start doing reduced rates on weeds or spray it past label recomendations. There are also other chemicals we are looking at that will replace the RR ones on the market. Only problem is it's hard to find a relatively cheap chemical to spray to replace Round UP.

[Jameson]

Thanks for setting things straight Code-Man. I know you probably know way more about it than most anyone.

[Code-Man]

If you are having problems controling bigger weeds add in some liquid AMS it will heat up the receipe and will do a better job at controling your weeds.