What do you do for perennial food plots? Im looking for the ability to have food plots without buying new seed every year. Have you found certain crops to be better than others?
My recommendations depend on a number of factors such as location, soil type, soil pH, is there shade, the deer density, is the soil wet at times, and things of that nature. That being said for the dryland guys i recommend a mix that contains sainfoin, trefoil, chicory and a unique alfalfa. For the guys with wet or shade, a perennial mix that has alsike clover, ladino clover, medium red clover, chicory and new zealand clover and high sugar perennial ryegrass. For normal conditions, i go with the above mix but minus the high sugar perennial ryegrass and i drop the percentage of alsike and bump up the percentage of ladino clover. For the southern guys i deal with, the dryland mix is what i am getting more guys down there to try for me but i might swap in a more southern variety of alfalfa.
As already mentioned. Your specific soil makeup and your goals should dictate what you plant. You want something that will grow well in the soil you have. Also keep in mind what time of year are you wanting to hunt the plot, or are you just wanting to provide added nutrition? There are lots of options
I like a good white ladino clover blend in soils that will sustain it. In lesser or sandier type soils we use medium red clover with great results.
I guess I neglected to mention in my first post, Im in South Carolina and the land gets plenty of water and shade or sun available. There is plenty of agriculture in the area and I hunt mostly around the edges of those fields. Im looking for ways to provide added nutrition away from the agriculture fields that I wont be hunting. I am looking for a way to plant a plot that I can tend but wont need to buy new seed for every year, or how you keep enough of a crop safe from the deer to replant the seed remaining next year.
What part of SC? I manage a farm near Clemson university. Is your soil red clay? What type of crops are grown in the area?
Im around Marion, in the Latta area. Its not clay, and just about everything grows around here. Corn, cotton, tobacco, beans, and rye are the major agricultural crops.
the farther south you go you want to look more at the annuals....people might want to look a tad bit at sainfoin. I have a lot of clients all over the us putting it in a bit more and i'll share pictures as we go on this. Mine's up and growing, all be it slow since the heats not coming yet. Sainfoin is drought tolerant and will give us potentially more years on a stand than many legumes. I have mixes chicory, trefoil and a branch root alfalfa with it. Another consideration would be kura clover. But it's next to impossible to get seed this year until new crop. I have clients with it in their pastures for going on 24 years now...yes, not 5 , not 7 but 24 years. It looks just like medium red clover but with a better nutrition package. There is a downside to it....one needs a lot of patience and management. It doesn't compete great and you need to work the ground up decent. I'd make sure your pH is right and the organic matter decent. That being said, my mix of kura clover and chicory was the first food plot i planted 24 years ago and was the start of what we have today on our quality deer management land.
