I planted my first food plots two years ago. After listening to the expert advice I got from some of you people here, I first got a soil test done. My soil is real sandy with a lot of oak and pine trees around. As expected, my soil was very acidic. I have 5 plots and the ph ranged from 4.5 to 5.6. I added the recommended dosage of lime and fertilizer. The lime was put down at 12 tons/acre. The co-op told me to wait for two years to let the lime mix with the soil before getting another soil test. I picked up the results last Friday. I was very surprised to find out that I didn't need to add anymore lime at this time. The ph now ranges from 6.7 to 7.2. I was very happy about that. My soil was low in potassium (K) so I spread some 0-0-60 fertilizer then planted Buck Forage oats. I have good luck with them. I plan on tilling and replanting in late August. Tilled Planted No cultipacker so I drove them in with the tractor. Hope it works. I've posted pics of my clover plot on here recently but here is how it's looking now. My brother and I are going to be hinge cutting around this plot this weekend.
That clover will love the sun the hinging will bring and the deer will love it as well for security purposes!
Looks good! Keep us updated with the hinge cutting. I also heard of guys mixing annual clovers in with their oats. I dont own a cultipacker either so my atv tires work good on my super small plots. Other idea is I see you have a tiller, just turn the tiller "off" and drop it down and go. The tines "walk" and push the seed down and the back door drags/covers the seeds sorta. Works for me. Cultipacker would be ideal, but hey, got to work with what you got!
I read this post and it made me nervous. This is my second year doing plots and last year I just winged it by just throwing down the seeds without disking etc.. throw and grow stuff grew good but only got to be 6 inches tall at best. The deer demolished it pretty fast. This year time has changed and i have learned a little bit. Did my soil test praying i wouldnt need tons and tons of lime and fertilizer. Come to find out i am at a solid 6.1 on soil that hasnt had anything planted in it for at least 23 years. So a couple bags of lime and 200 pounds of fertilizer to spread. Got a four wheeler disker and 5 plots to do. The frigid forage big and beasty should perform beyond expectations. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Looks great. I packed my first plot with my tractor tires. I've also used a 5 section of ladder stand with a chain wrapped around it and a log strapped to it. Pulled behind the tractor, it worked just fine too.
