Our family headed up to the cabin and I checked on the food plots tonight. I have not seem them for three weeks when I fertilized. It's coming up good on spots and not so good in others. The deer are really not feeding on it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It looks good for a spring planted plot I think. How you know the deer are not in it? No tracks? You run a trail camera over it.? Seculsion cage? To me them bare spots looks like they are the low spots in the plot that held water.? What kind of fertilizer did you spread? I notice with my clover plot that is next to 12 acres of beans and 25 acres of alfalfa/clover mix hay fields is it gets hit in spurts. So much new stuff greening up. Clover really takes off on the second year. Are you planning on mowing this plot this year?
I don't have a plan yet. Still mulling it over. Yes based on camera. Yes I'm sure those bare spots are from water with the clay since nothing is growing there. 10-10-10 was the fert Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
thanks for the reply. 10-10-10 is better then nothing. Keep a eye out though if you can get some 0-0-60 as clover doesnt need the nitrogen/produces it's own. Looks like you planted it thick and it came up great to me. Me personally, I prefer end of summer planted clover with a cover crop like rye, little bit of brassicas. Spring planted clover is normally a battle with weeds, BUT going a little heavy on the clover could be a good thing to out compete the weeds like you did(I have a habit of going heavy on my clover plots.) Couple options= Rake up them spots that didnt germinate and put some more clover seed down, maybe mix in some brassicas. Or leave them spots alone and see what happens, Mow the plot two times this summer to knock back the weeds, throw down some 0-0-60 come August before a rain(hopefully). Then next March, frost seed a little more clover where the bare spots are. I use my zero turn mower with the deck all the way up (~6 inches) when I mow and I mow in strips so there is always different growth stages of clover in the plot for maximum attractiveness. Is that a buck on bag mix of clovers or feed mill?
Brad, Jake is right, I used some 0-0-60 and all of my food plots popped. My soil was low on potassium and the 0-0-60 really helped. I would frost seed the thin spots this coming spring also. Soon you will have one heck of a clover plot.
Plot looks great to me. One thing to keep in mind is this time of year food is everywhere for them. Do you have agricultural fields around that they may be flocking to? The less pressure means that field will be better established too which is even better come early fall.
Jake & Greg good to know about the 0-0-60, i too was going to plant a clover plot and was leaning towards triple 10 or triple 13. was looking into the whitetail institute seed. They recommend and soil test and say its the only way to go about things the right way...true? Did you do a soil test on your plot here? Looks pretty good to me!
Brad another thing to think about doing if you're getting up to the property within a couple weeks is to still get hyrbid sorghum or even Egyptian Wheat in the ground around your blind in the photos. We just put in a blind platform set about 15 yards off our food plot edge and plan on putting sorghum/EW in front to hide it some...not too mention a couple fake christmas trees being set beside it as well :D
