Post by bsutravis on Jun 15, 2013 3:54:18 GMT -5
For a long time I've always wanted to put out a food plot to possibly attract deer in the fall. Without owning any of the property I hunt, it makes it tough to open up the woods and create a spot for a small size plot, but over the past 6 months I've managed to work a spot open that I think is big enough for a small, honey-hole type of plot.
My set-up is this, I've got a thin strip of woods situated East to West that is sandwiched between an ag-field to the South and a constant running stream to the North. The field edge side grows up thick with rose and honeysuckle that averages 8' high all along the field, which creates a VERY dense screen to keep anything inside the woodline hidden. At the end of last year's deer season I went in and opened up the Southern edge of the woods so that the rose and thick stuff remains, but yet the canopy was opened so that sunlight can reach the ground. My son and I went back about a month ago to look at the spot and I was amazed! The weeds had grown up to about ankle to knee height which made me happy to see that the sunlight was enough to obviously germinate the weeds. At that point I weed-wacked down to the ground all the weeds, and we've continued to open up the woodline so now we have a spot that's about 80 yards long by 12-15 yards wide. My guess is I'm looking at maybe just over 1/4 acre in size. We've been clearing all the brush, and cutting down all the saplings and any trees that are smaller than about 6" in diameter and we've got a fairly open area that we can now see from one end to the other, whereas before you couldn't see 20' through all the vegetation.
With all that said, I THINK I'm now ready to do some planting in the next few weeks. My biggest drawback is the fact that everything I do has to be done by hand as there's no practical way to even use an ATV to pull a small plow or use a tiller. So, that limits my soil prep to some degree. I know the soil pH is around 7, so I'm not going to fool with lime. Over the next few days I'm going to go in and hit it with Roundup and kill off the weeds that keep coming up... wait another 7-10 days and hit it with Roundup again to get anything I missed. After that I guess I'm ready to plant... if the time is right.
I've got a bag of the Evolved Harvest Throw & Grow that contains rye, clover, and rape brassica. The more I read about it though, the more concerned I am before putting the seed on the ground. I was drawn to the "Throw & Grow" since other than some raking of the soil to loosen it I can't do any other real soil prep. I'm worried though about the mixture of the bag, since most of the seed is rye, I suspect it will shoot up and I'll be "happy" to see growth, but will that help draw the deer in the fall and early winter?
So, a few pointed questions:
When should I plant this Throw and Grow?
Even with the small size of my plot, would you perhaps use the Throw and Grow on 1/2, and perhaps plant something else on the other half?
Should I work in some other seeds to my mix such as radishes or additional turnips?
I'm going to fertilize with 12-12-12, should I do that when I broadcast the seed, or wait a few weeks after I see some growth?
I'll take any other thoughts or ideas you guys have.... To be 100% honest, this plot prep has been just something for me and my son to do, and yes we dream of a velvet antlered bucks eating daily, but we know that this probably is as much a mental thing as it will truly be to help draw a shooter deer into range. Either way, it's been fun to clear the spot and if we can put something down that MIGHT help bring in some deer than that would be fine too.
My set-up is this, I've got a thin strip of woods situated East to West that is sandwiched between an ag-field to the South and a constant running stream to the North. The field edge side grows up thick with rose and honeysuckle that averages 8' high all along the field, which creates a VERY dense screen to keep anything inside the woodline hidden. At the end of last year's deer season I went in and opened up the Southern edge of the woods so that the rose and thick stuff remains, but yet the canopy was opened so that sunlight can reach the ground. My son and I went back about a month ago to look at the spot and I was amazed! The weeds had grown up to about ankle to knee height which made me happy to see that the sunlight was enough to obviously germinate the weeds. At that point I weed-wacked down to the ground all the weeds, and we've continued to open up the woodline so now we have a spot that's about 80 yards long by 12-15 yards wide. My guess is I'm looking at maybe just over 1/4 acre in size. We've been clearing all the brush, and cutting down all the saplings and any trees that are smaller than about 6" in diameter and we've got a fairly open area that we can now see from one end to the other, whereas before you couldn't see 20' through all the vegetation.
With all that said, I THINK I'm now ready to do some planting in the next few weeks. My biggest drawback is the fact that everything I do has to be done by hand as there's no practical way to even use an ATV to pull a small plow or use a tiller. So, that limits my soil prep to some degree. I know the soil pH is around 7, so I'm not going to fool with lime. Over the next few days I'm going to go in and hit it with Roundup and kill off the weeds that keep coming up... wait another 7-10 days and hit it with Roundup again to get anything I missed. After that I guess I'm ready to plant... if the time is right.
I've got a bag of the Evolved Harvest Throw & Grow that contains rye, clover, and rape brassica. The more I read about it though, the more concerned I am before putting the seed on the ground. I was drawn to the "Throw & Grow" since other than some raking of the soil to loosen it I can't do any other real soil prep. I'm worried though about the mixture of the bag, since most of the seed is rye, I suspect it will shoot up and I'll be "happy" to see growth, but will that help draw the deer in the fall and early winter?
So, a few pointed questions:
When should I plant this Throw and Grow?
Even with the small size of my plot, would you perhaps use the Throw and Grow on 1/2, and perhaps plant something else on the other half?
Should I work in some other seeds to my mix such as radishes or additional turnips?
I'm going to fertilize with 12-12-12, should I do that when I broadcast the seed, or wait a few weeks after I see some growth?
I'll take any other thoughts or ideas you guys have.... To be 100% honest, this plot prep has been just something for me and my son to do, and yes we dream of a velvet antlered bucks eating daily, but we know that this probably is as much a mental thing as it will truly be to help draw a shooter deer into range. Either way, it's been fun to clear the spot and if we can put something down that MIGHT help bring in some deer than that would be fine too.
