Pumpkins in a food plot

[BuckSutherland]

Any of you ever try it?? Is it legal, and can the pumpkins actually make it to maturity before they are eaten by every critter in the woods??

[hockeybc69]

Done it several times. Legal? No different than planting corn, beans, or whatever else.

Only critters that bother them are deer in my experience. They will nibble on them early at times, but dont hit them hard until hunting season is in swing.

They take a lot of maintenance to keep the weeds in check. I have steered away from pumpkins for the simple fact that I like to use roundup ready corn and soybeans for ease of weed control mainly. Also, you get a lot more food in corn for the long haul.

[Bear55]

Every fall I throw some pumpkins behind my house with a cam over them for fun, deer don't seem to touch them until December. Might be a good late season plot but not sure about the rest of the year.

[vister]

Excellent food plot choice. Late season, or cold mornings!! 100% legal, as long as its attached to a vine, and that vine has roots in the ground. Get my drift

[BuckSutherland]

WEll I am gonna try some next year then. Trying to get different things growing from about June-Dec that they can try to chew on. Any specific brand of pumpkin or just whatever they have at fleet farm or runnings good enough?

[Col. Hoggiebun]

I was gona try squash this year but nevebgot to it. Gona next year. I think aquash an pumpkins are kinda like turnips I way that deer don't likebthem til after the first frost. Then the natural sugers get good answeet

[BLACKJACK]

Deer will eat pumpkins and squash. I grew pumpkins a few years ago, some were huge, I broke a few to get them started eating on them. Interesting, once they figured them out, they'd get thru the skin, eat all the seeds out first, then eat the outside. By spring they were all gone.

As hockey mentioned they do get weedy. Going to try something new next year. Got one of those big round bales of hay, next spring I'm going to unroll parts of it, put it down on my vine patch, scratch thru and plant the pumpkins and squash. Hopefully the hay will keep the weeds down and its close enough where I can water it.

[CANOPY SAM]

Buck, you can usually pick up a big bag of pumpkin seed at your local seed store or nursery. They typically have numerous bags of food plot seed. Look for a pint sized bag of seed (maybe 200-300 seeds?). They sell for something like $5-$7.00.

Keeping the weeds down really isn't too bad. The trick is to plant your seeds in rows, just like any other row crop. Three rows about 10-15 feet apart will end up covering about a 1/4 acre plot.

When the plants start vining pretty good go out there every few weeks and pick up the vines and carefully set them back INTO the rows, so you maintain large open spaces of black dirt between your rows. Then you can spray or till in the weeds until you finally let the plants go. Once the plants start to set softball sized fruit it's best to just let them go. They'll quickly fill in the empty space, and you'll end up with a lush patch full of 100's of pumpkins.

We grow a large pumpkin patch every year. We sell the majority of the pumpkins around Halloween, and the week before rifle season opens we always have someone that comes out and cleans out all the left-overs. What they do with them is their business, not mine.

[CodyDawg]

I have been throwing my halloween pumpkins out on my deer land just after the season ends (gun season, we dont bow hunt). Either I have dumb deer or they are not high on the priority list as they really dont get eaten. They sit without being touched until I lose interest in January. Rapeseed on the other hand.....wow.

[BuckSutherland]

What is rapeseed?? Any specific brand that you are buying?? We planted a bunch of trees this years and did an oats plot, but we planted it too early. tried some turnip and brassica but it never came up. Try again next year.

[Archerysniper]

The turkeys love them also,my last 4 bow killed turkeys have came out of the same pumpkin patch. In the spring their is nothing left but mush and seeds and the turkeys love scratching threw them.

[Gordie]

I also found out this year that the deer love Hostas, they have stayed out of the garden and have eaten all the tops off the wife's Hostas , they are the ones that are the plain green ones.

[CodyDawg]

rapeseed is a brassica.

[CANOPY SAM]

rapeseed is a brassica.

Well that clears it up! Ha ha ha... Just joshin' ya' Cody.

But seriously, what's a brassica?

I've always wondered the same thing. My brother-in-law used to plant a lot of rapeseed food plots in central Wisconsin, and he said the deer went crazy for the stuff, but I can't say I've ever seen it. Is it some sort of grass?

[duckster]

Rape has some root crops in it turnips I think. They eat the tops off them will dig out the roots also. The deer really hit on them especially after a frost.

[slimngrizzly]

Rapeseed is great for fall foodplots. Its very cheap and you can throw it almost anywhere, thin corn or beans for example. If it gets rained on and gets some light it will grow. I do a few rape/turnip/radish plots each year and some of the best ones I dont even till. Mow, spray, plant and drag and they grow phenomenal!

[Port.Winterhawk]

DuCKster.

[SandPoint]

Rapeseed is where we get canola oil from.

[walleye18]

pumpkins work....deer come up to our deck and eat them at halloween......kids get upset when their pumpkin gets destroyed after all the work they put into it, carving and all.

Have had 2/3 pumpkin patches in our food plots. The deer get in them and hog down.

Hastas next to the house get destroyed too.

3 labs bark at the deer and if the deer had a middle finger, they would use it. Kinda funny to watch.

The dogs bark a little bit and the deer just stand there with a look like - "you want a piece of this puppy dog". No dogs chasin the deer - ever! Kinda cool relationship the area/local deer have with my pooches.

[LindellProStaf]

I used to goose hunt on some property that had huge pumpkin patches. As I was walking through the pumpkin patches to get to the goose hunting areas I could see that the deer were devouring the pumpkins. They just took a bite or two out of a pumpkin to see if it was ripe. They ended up eating the top half out of the good ones and just left the bottom skins. It was like a field of oranges bowls as time went on. The deer loved them!!!