Today, I went out and hung my first five cameras of 2011: three over pre-existing mineral sites, and two new sites that I just started last month. Even the sites that have only been activated for one month were absolutely trashed! The deer are really sucking up the minerals, so if you're waiting to get 'em out there, get off your tush and make it happen! Don't wait until September. Now is the time. Pictured below are two mineral sites that are one month old. They already look like barnyards after only one mineral application, which tells me three things: 1.) There's a solid deer population in the surrounding bedding areas. 2.) They're probably not getting any minerals anywhere else nearby, or else they wouldn't be crushing these sites this hard. 3.) The size of the tracks in the mud indicates that there's at least one shooter buck already hitting each site. One month ago, both of these sites were 6-12" tall rotten stumps that the deer have already demolished. I refreshed them both with another batch of the King's special sauce, and put some trailcams back out for another year of service. I didn't take any pics of my already-established mineral sites, because I was sweating like a pig, and the bugs were swarming, but the deer have been REALLY active, and have been for some time, as expected. I can't wait for my first card pull. Also, this season, we're losing our foodplot virginity. We got the equipment really late, and were held up by weekend after weekend of constant rain, so everything went in really late. May 21, to be exact. We went with a basic Imperial Clover / Chicory mix, and after 12 days in the ground it looks like our seeds are beginning to sprout. Now, we just need some rain to get the seedlings started. Do any of you experienced foodplotters have any input/feedback on this plot? Did we seed the area heavy enough? Is this the level of growth that I should expect after 12 days? We will be spraying down the weeds once the chicory/clover gets established, and if the deer will leave it alone, we might get one cut in before deer season. We got to the party late, but at least we got it in. Fingers crossed. There's a little bit of grass & milkweed in there, but we turned the soil 2x before planting, and it looks like we did a pretty good job of killing off most of the native vegetation. The adjoining open spaces have 3' of standing weeds. UPDATE from this weekend. Here it is after the first cut.
Looking good QS Thanks for taking all the pics ! I would say you did just fine with your seeding as far as planted late I don't plant much before July 15
Quik, can't say as I've planted much clover, but your later planting will be decided by the weather. If it turns bust, you can always plant some oats in mid Aug, I've had killer success with that.
Ben - that's kinda what we were thinking. We had an opening to get the clover in, so we went for broke. If we strike out on the clover, we can always do a late-summer annual. We have to take all the gear back out there again anyway, because there are a couple other natural openings that would take minimal work to transform into workable foodplots, and we wanted to tinker with some turnips/brassica. Thanks for the feedback, fellas.
It depends on where you plant Shaded areas I plant early or frost seed before the canopy fills in. Open areas I plant my "kill" plots about July 15 Brassicas and such. The gamble is rain I am pretty spoiled as we have a water wagon set up to water ours plots if needed. Welocme to the food plot world ! You just added a couple more months to "hunting"season
Late summer/early fall plantings of clover tend to do better simply due to the lack of weed competition, but if you get sufficient rainfall (as we have had here in the northeast this year), you should be fine. You may battle the weeds a little, but you should be fine. Worst case scenario, you till it under this late summer and replant clover and a grain cover (Oats like Ben mentioned or Rye/Wheat). Thanks for the post...it reminds me I need to get on fixing my homebrew and get it out on some mineral sites.
The turnips could be another option for later planting too. Check the local farm supply stores for Urea. I found one that lets me get the bulk rate by bringing my own containers in. (cheap garbage cans) Plant em first two weeks of Aug and then top dress em before rain in mid Sept. I just haven't had much action on the turnips until VERY late season. I still plant some, but I see miles of better results with oats planted mid to late Aug for all season activity, and they grow about anywhere and require less.
you might have trouble killing the weeds and not killing the chicory,planting in fall helps with these weeds.We plant fall plots in july-august after spraying and hoping clover gets up enough to shade out.
