Ok, I put this plot out in early spring,(Clover&Chicory/Monster Magnet mix) it's doing fine and the deer are hitting it off and on...You can see behind it all the thicket and mess, which I will be bush hogging Monday....Question is.... Do I plow it all up back up and put a complete fall plot in around end of August......OR leave it.....and on the perimeter about 20 or 30 ft out all away around the plot, put in OATS/Dwarf Essex Rape, Turnips, and Tillage Radishes..... Just was wondering.....Which would be better to do?....or would it even matter? Thanks Creeks!
In my opinion I would leave it and plant the brassicas and oats around the perimeter. In my few years I have been food plotting, I have learned to give them a smorgasboard because they will eat different things at different times. Scoot
One more seed to consider is winter rye or cereal rye, the stuff grows easy and where I live the deer love it and gives them food through the winter.
Thanks for the reply, Question, I always see people on here talking about not using RYE in your plots....why is that, is RYE...RYE, or is there different types, some better than others.... CReeks!
Nothing wrong with winter cereal rye, the type of rye you've seen discussed is "rye grass" and they are two different plants.
OH..Ok...gotcha...If you had a choice which one.... Forage Oats, Cereal Rye, or Wheat.... or just mix some of all of it together to plant around my plot, with some brassica's thrown in....
Forage oats are more of a spring crop and can winter kill, at this point I'd probably cut out that option being July. Oats are great, just not a great option this late or for fall. Wheat or rye, just a judgment call, as far as I can tell they are about equal as far as deer are concerned. If wheat, I'd go for a beardless variety. Rye has more benefit for the soil and nutrient cycling than wheat but I sincerely love wheat and so do quail. I like that it stays a more manageable height if left to mature, rye can get to be quite a prolific mass if it's on fertile ground. Of course that's part of why it is actually better for soil building but if one doesn't worry about that, the nit can be a mess to deal with if one wants to work the soil and it has 6 tons of forage per acre standing on it that's 5' tall, lol. Of course it can just be sprayed out in spring before it goes crazy too. As far as mixes go, if I were going to mix some seed together, I'd probably use one or the other as a base and blend crimson clover and winter pea with the rye or wheat rather than mixing wheat and rye but that's just me. Mixing two grass type crops won't be as appealing to deer as a mix with a cereal and legumes in it.
Clover and chicory will come back next year, just frost seed it and spray it with herbicide if you have a weed problem and it will continue to come back for a few years before needing replanted. I wouldn't get rid of it, especially now. Are soy beans out of the question? It would be a perfect combination with clover and chicory since deer will hit it later in the season when it starts to cool and the beans start getting that sweeter flavor that deer love.
Are you asking me " IF " soybeans are out of the question.....No, I'm open to all options...LOL...this is really my first year into food plotting....Kinda, I put a really small patch of Turnips out last year at a different location and the deer tore it a new one.....LOL I just don't think deer hit clover that well...what you can't see is before I get to this plot I have 3 small plots of clover about 100 yds away or so.... This here like I was saying has CLover/Chicory in it, with Monster Mix thrown it....I ordered WI Oats, and then I have like I was saying other things....Brassica, Rape, Radishes, etc..to throw in the mix when I plant it....it will go around the perimeter of this plot....30ft or so out from this plot.... If soybeans would work, yeah, I could put some in...I think the WI oats has some Austrian Peas in it...... Creeks!
What are WI oats? Wisconsin or Whitetail Institute? Imperials Oats plus has a fall plant date and is supposed to be very cold tolerant. It has some wheat and triticale in it.
That's a grass of a different color then, there are cold tolerant varieties of oats but it's usually a crap shoot to get reliable data about how cold tolerant they are. Under the circumstances I might well opt for the oats with some legumes.
When people want to know what to plant, i ask if they want annual plots or perennial plots. I tend to recommend 1/3 perennials, 1/3 annuals and 1/3 being soil builders. If one invests in perennial clover/chicory blends and plants in the spring, those mixes are meant to last multiple years. If someone wants to spring and then fall plant, here is what i push... Plant things like crimson clover, berseem clover, spring triticale, oats or wheat and things like peas or buckwheat. You would be fixating nitrogen, and smothering weeds as well as building up organic matter. Then come fall, put in a cafeteria style mix. I tend to prefer fall seeding of perennials, as you have less weed pressure. One strategy would be to plant your perennial clover blend and include kale, winfred brassica, pasja forage turnips or any other cold tolerant genetics. I then tell people to frost seed or over seed that mix in late winter and fill in the area totally. You will see way less weed pressure. The perennial clovers are slower to establish and in essence the brassicas become a nurse crop. Another strategy is to use peas and oats, peas and triticale or peas and barley as a fall nurse crop to establish the perennials.
Leave the clover/chicory mix. Encircle it with brasicca, sugar beets and turnip all of which are bulb producing. Deer love the bulbs once it turns cold and keeps them coming.
