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Post by henson59 on Jul 29, 2013 16:59:28 GMT -5
I was just curious to see how many of you actually run a soil test before you plant a food plot. Also If you do Soil test do you do every single plot or just the larger ones?
On my home property in Central IL we have great soil and I have had good success growing everything without a soil test. But on our property in Ohio county the soil has alot more clay. I am getting ready to plant a few small fall plots (1/4 acre) in the next couple weeks and I was going to skip the soil test. Mistake for my location?
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Post by goosepondmonster on Jul 29, 2013 17:29:07 GMT -5
Many say it is the most important step for a food plot's success.
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Post by boonechaser on Jul 30, 2013 12:59:45 GMT -5
On my small hunting/kill plot's I rarely soil test. Mainly because it can be time consuming and by putting on 100 lbs triple 15 fertilizer on 1/4 acre thing's will generally come up without much problem. On my larger plot's, acre or more I test every other year. Currently i'm doing approx. 12 acres of plot's on our 150 acre's. The largest is a 5 acre alfalfa field. It serve's 2 purpose's. 1- the deer use it year round and 2- I bale the hay (3 cutting's this year), so I recope some of my cost back. (I lime and fertilize it spring and fall) Having been doing the food plot thing going on 10 year's the alfalfa probably benefit's the deer on our farm the most and get's the most use. Any given evening during the summer I can view 15 to 30 deer in the field and the majority being buck's. We also do a couple acre's corn and the rest in imperial whitetail clover,turnip's/rape/forage oat's. I think site selection is probably as important as the soil test. if you pick terrible ground you are gonna spend alot of money on getting ph and fert. level's up. Good luck
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