I want to put in a bow hunting foodplot. I found a spot in the woods, gets plenty of sunlight 1/2 acre approx. the only thing I can get in to till it up with is a bow rake or other handheld. I was gonna spray it with roundup and then go to town with bow rake to till soil then lime fertilize. i live in western massachusettes. bow season oct-nov. what seeds do you think I should plant??? this is a pic of my spot
I'd probably go with a bag of some sort of throw and grow being you are limited to equipment. I like Imperial No-Plow (Whitetail Institute) seeds but there are ton of companies to choose from.
Spray it and lime it. You can plant brassicas like turnips radishes and rape or a mix of clovers and winter rye without ever actually tilling that plot. First year for a no fail plot I would put ladino clover a medium red clover daikon radish and winter rye. Add 2 bags of triple 19 fertilizer. If that combo fails I would be amazed. The rye will be awesome this yr, the radish will bust up your soil some and the clover will be ok this yr and come back twice as nice in spring. Do it in this order. Til the plot, spread the rye and oats then drag it lightly. Pack the plot if you have a cultipacker or drive over it with your 4 wheeler tires or a lawnroller. This is not 100 percent required but do it if you have the gear. Broadcast the clovers and Radish and pack the plot again. Pray for rain. 25 pounds of winter rye = $10 bucks (20 bucks for a 50 lb bag) 20 pounds of oats = $10 bucks (20 bucks for a 50 lb bag) 3 lbs of Ladino clover = $9 2 lb or medium Red Clover = $4/5 bucks 1 lb Daikon Radish - $2.50 50 lb bag of Triple 19 is right around 20 bucks. So your final damage will be under 60 bucks for this year. Next year the rye and ladino clover will green up when the snow melts to provided an early spring food soure. Around June you can cut the rye which should leave you a nice clover plot that you dont have to touch for 5 years besides occasional fertilizer or possibly frost seeding some extra seed around the end of March of April. The frost seeding is only needed if you see the plot lacking or you have some bear spots. You could also just top seed clover before a good rain in the summer and it will catch if you think you need to thicken it up. Examples of this mix planted around July 15th and this is roughly end of September
Have you done a soil sample test?? It's not always just lime and fertilize. You could end up wasting money. The soil test is cheap and can make or break a food plot. "Live Life at Full Draw"
Antler King has several different mixes. Which one are you talking about? Massman, where is the closest AG crops or food source around you? If there isn't any for a ways you could literally just spray that little field with round up and put a 50 lb bag of rye on it with no other cute stuff and have a nice draw. That mix I gave you and those steps is a no fail plot as long it rains.
Wow that sounds awesome. I know what I am going to be doing. For this upcoming season. I am pretty excited to do it. Thanks for that interesting and informative post!
I highly doubt you will be disappointed. That mix will have something tasty in from planting through the end of the season. I actually put in about 10 pounds of 4010 field peas as well but I was trying to simplify it for you. They just love the peas much like young soybeans but they will literally pick every pea out of the field and they will not handle browsing and will be gone. Good luck and keep us posted.
Truthfully if your soil is very good you wouldnt need the triple 19 to make that mix grow besides the radishes. They will use the nitrogen that is in the triple 19. Being that I dont know your soil and whats its lacking that fertilizer is just a really good general "make everything better" product. Get a soil sample and put a bunch of lime on it asap after most likely the soil sample tells you your PH is a little lower than acceptable. I grew that mix on good soil at 6.8 and awful soil at 4.9 ph and it grew well in both. Its tough especially the rye, oats and red clover. The ladino and radishes need a little better soil to strive.
Heres is that mix on a plot that 5 years ago started at 4.5 ph and with lime has gone up to 6.9 Its filtered light as there are some mature trees around. We have slowly been limbing them up to allow more light in and tipping a few over. Its a bit of a turkey roosting area so we were not sure if we wanted to tip them over right away or not. I think I might girdle a few this spring so stop them from stealing so much moisture but remain as structure in and around the plot. Let me remind you that it didnt rain in WI for most of the summer and the browse pressure preseason just in foot traffice alone was intense. First week in October I overseeding about 5 pounds of rye and 5 pounds of oats before a 1 inch soaker and every little gap in this field filled right in. Pictures are during planting, right before the bow opener and about October 15th. You can certainly see the difference between in the cage and outside of the exclusion cage.
That plot naturally sets up in a figure 8 shape with some downed trees on one side of skinny part between me and the pinch. The far side I had to create some garbage for a barrier, and we threw any tree top there when clearing the plot...and about 15 olds christmas trees. We want them to walk through the narrow section which is nicely 17 yards broadside from the stand. Heres a view from the stand. And also the tendancy of animals to walk through that skinny gap much like and open gate. Sometimes they dont make it through the gap unharmed.
