Food Plots - Here and There

[chucker34]

I wanted to get some thoughts on no-till, low maintenance mini-foodplots I could try to get going in my neck of the woods. Our property that I bowhunt - about 10 acres - is heavily wooded. Deer travel through right now on a pretty regular basis and I have out minerals out for them. But there are several small openings, often not more than 25 by 25 feet, where sun comes in for a good part of the day. I thought it might be worth it to try and rake in some seed in those openings and see if I can get something to come up. Maybe something that can be grazed down and will regrow fairly quickly again. Any thoughts for this situation? Would clover be a good thing to try? I realize this won't be a huge addition to the deer's habitat but maybe it will get them to hang around the woods a little longer each day.

[Woodsy]

I too have been thinking about trying some no till seed in my area. I have tried planting some chicory last year in areas such as you described. One area is doing ok the other had not shown any results since I last checked a month ago. One thing that worked well however is to spray the area with round up first, then remove all dead grasses and till the area as best you can, then you may want to reapply round up and let it work for a few weeks before planting.

I have been wanting to try Imperial's Whitetail Clover. Has anyone else tried this, how does it work?

[PerchJerker]

Imperial Whitetail Clover is my favorite, but that's for plots I till with an atv. One thing to realize is that perennials like clover are typically slower growing and harder to get established than annuals, plus ladino/white clovers like Imperial are going to do much better if you lime and fertilize the soil properly. Not the best no-till planting you can find.

You need to make sure your seed gets in good contact with the soil -- dead or growing vegetation, a layer of leaves or sticks, etc. -- will kill any chances you have at having seed germinate. Your best bet would be to spray with a small sprayer if there's vegetation, and do some raking with a dirt rake to scratch up the surface and expose the dirt.

I haven't used annual clovers or annual grasses but they might be good options for you. But I think the best would be cereal grains, oats, wheat and rye. Plant them in the 1st half of September, they germinate quickly, withstand heavy browsing (very important with the small areas you're talking about), and are very attractive to deer. They will last until you get a hard freeze or two, at my place in northern MN they are pretty much done by the gun opener but are awesome for bow season. Oats are the most preferred but are the first to freeze out, I would mix oats and rye together if I were you. One nice aspect of planting in the fall is you won't have to deal with weeds.

When you broadcast the seed, broadcast some starter fertilizer like triple 10 with it. Broadcast the cereal grains at a heavy rate, they are not going to grow to maturity anyway and you want as many of them as possible.

Whitetail Institute sells something called No Plow and another company I buy seed from sells something called Throw & Grow. I am not very familiar with them but they are seed blends that grow with little soil preparation and might be worth looking into.

Years ago I planted No Plow in a plot that I tilled. The deer liked it a lot and I had a young buck that frequently bedded in the No Plow, we saw him numerous times in late summer and bow season. I kept hoping he'd still be bedding there when he got to be 2.5 or 3.5 years old but no such luck (but I haven't planted No Plow since then so maybe he got mad and went somewhere else)

[Woodsy]

Perchjerker have you ever tried planting any Chickory and if so how has it held up and do the deer in northern minnesota like it?

[PerchJerker]

I do plant chicory. This first year I planted it I tried a small patch by itself, but mostly I combine it with clover in some of my plots. It provides diversity to the plot in case the clover fails (chicory is said to do better in dry conditions than clover) but that hasn't been an issue for me, I have excellent conditions for growing clover and have never had it even look stressed. Chicory is a good companion crop for clover because it uses the nitrogen the clover fixes in the soil, and both clover and chicory should be mowed during the summer.

I have some chicory that is going into its 3rd or 4th year this year without being replanted, so it holds up well.

Chicory is OK but hasn't been great for me. The deer eat it but mostly in the fall -- during spring and summer they seem to pretty much leave the chicory alone and eat the clover. I still have some chicory seed to plant but probably won't buy any more, partly because the deer don't seem to prefer it, and partly because the broadleaf herbicide I spray on my clover takes out the chicory.

[Mark Christianson]

Clover gets hit real hard from spring through late summer at our place.

I put all my cameras on clover plots up until late summer and get lots of great pics of fawns with Mom, and the ever elusive bucks in all stages of antler development.

In fact, I have trail pics of deer coming into clover before May. Its absolutely the ONLY thing in the woods thats green, and they hit it hard. Good to have something for them to browse on after winter IMO. I am sure they would be just fine with natural browse in most cases, but they sure love the clover.

[Woodsy]

That is why I planted the Chickory, to draw the deer into the area around rifle season so I am glad you mention they come to it in the fall. I hope mine comes up fine, I planted it late summer last year.

[north red river]

Has anyone ever used the liquid mineral lick called Buck Jam? If so how did you use it?

[PerchJerker]

Woodsy, I hope chicory works better for you but at my place in northern MN my chicory is long gone by the time rifle season rolls around. I started planting chicory because it is supposed to withstand browsing and mowing (ie. summer food source) but my deer don't seem to use it in the summer and by fall when things stop growing the chicory is eaten before rifle season.

[Woodsy]

north red river I have used Buck Jam. I just poured it over a log. I personally didn't think it worked very well. I have had very good success with a regular salt block and also Deer Cain. Deer Cain I pick out a natural low spot that will collect some water when it rains and let it go to work. The deer love it and can really tear up the ground to get it.

PerchJerker that is a concern of mine as well, will it still draw them in at rifle season. I'll let you know after this firearms season.

[Gissert]

I have not used Buck Jam, but I have use the Block Topper product on mineral blocks before. The deer seemed to really like it.

I had better luck once I buried the block half way in the ground, and then smashed it up with a sledge.

This year, I did the mineral mix recipie that BLB outlined in another thread. THe deer are pounding that hard.

[north red river]

Are the salt blocks that you use regular ol ones you get at the hardware store or wherever. Maybe I'll pour the buck jam over the salt block??

[Mark Christianson]

If you choose to use a salt block get a trace mineral block.

Do as Gissert suggested and smash it up a bit so the minerals dilute into the soil quicker.

But if you are serious, use the recipe I posted a couple threads back. For a bit over 20 bucks, you can make 200 lbs of mineral yourself.

And its working better than ANYTHING I have ever tried.

[PerchJerker]

Granular is far better than a block, whether you are talking about minerals or salt. Easier for the deer to take up so they use it more.

Salt is an attractant and deer pound it like crazy. Minerals are not an attractant, deer will only eat minerals if they are not getting them through natural sources -- or if there is a bunch of salt added to the minerals.

Too many guys freak out when their deer minerals aren't showing much use, when really that is an indication that the deer are getting adequate minerals from their habitat.

Think of deer minerals like vitamins. Taking one vitamin a day could make you healthier and give you something that you're missing through your diet. But taking more than one vitamin a day isn't going to make you any healthier because of the "extra" vitamins - your body only uses what it needs. Same thing goes for deer and deer minerals - extra minerals, ie. more than they need, is not doing anything "extra" for them.

If you want to put out salt, a better option than a salt block is a bag of softener salt, either pellets or crystals.

[ddp]

Hey BigLake,

I couldn't locate that recipe posting for minerals? I don't need a laboratory, test tubes and bunson burners, do I?? If you could, can you repost?

Thanks!

Dustin

[ddp]

never mind biglake...

I found it..

thanks!

[Woodsy]

north red yes I just use a standard salt block, I generally don't break mine up like others might do, maybe in half but thats it.

I also buy some Deer Cain and mix that up and put that in a low spot in the same general area as the salt block. Deer Cain is a powder you mix with water and pour on the ground and the deer work up the area eating it. My deer have a choice then.

[north red river]

[image]http://www.angelfire.com/planet/bighunter/baiting/index.album?i=2[/image]

[Sutty]

How late in the year will they still come hit the salt/mineral areas? I know the dnr lets you use them during hunting season which means they aren't apt to be an effective hunting tool??? right? I remember reading somewhere they want alot of that while they are forming there antlers.

[Gissert]

I have a trail camera over my mineral lick on a clover food plot. They really tapered off using it once the velvet came off, both bucks and does. By mid to late September, they hardly touched it at all.