Well, after a huge disappointment in 2011 with my food plots. I pulled out the big guns and rented a pull behind mower this year. I hit woods early Friday morning and started mowing down my trails to the stands. Then I spent the next 7 hours cutting and picking up logs and trees. After that I mower again and called it a day. @7:00 am Saturday I met my hunting buddy for breakfast and went back down to the property. Spent the entire day clearing the ground of logs, branches and moving brush piles. About 3:30 pm we started broadcasting our Buckwheat in the newly cleared area. The middle of the property we cleared a 1/4 acre and a 30 x 30 area behind the stand. So now the stand is sitting between two plots of buckwheat. We moved brush and crap around to block some of the natural trails and full enclosed the two areas except for the trails we want them to use. Next, we headed to my 2 man stand that's located 100 yards behind a cove like area or a large corn field. We planted more buckwheat in the opening there. It a half moon shape around my stand. The we lower and cleared a path to the corn field. Also mad several large brush piles arould tall grasses for bedding. Now, since this is the first time corn has been planted in the bottums in like 3 + years we had to create a new entrance to the woods. Theproperty is shaped like an upper case T, with the bottom being the entrance. It was planted it trees over 15 years ago and you can't pass through it. we've been lucky the past few year with beans being planted cause we could rid along the edge of the field and/or property line, but with corn coming it we weren't sure how access would be once the corn nears maturity. So I just hoped on the 4 wheeler closed my eyes and gave it hepll until I reached the road. I turned around a made 4 passes through until we run the mower and walk through with a hatchet and chain saw. We stopped cut about 10 feet from the road, so that passer byers would feel the urge to try out a new ATV trail. By 7 pm we were cracking our 1st beers and by 8 pm i was home cracking open a few more all the while staring out over the pond eating grilled pork steaks with my boy and parents. It was a long weekend but I'm so glad I did it. Sorry there are no pictures of the progress. I'm upset with self for not taking before and after pictures, but when I get around to it I'll post the trailcam pics from this year and compare them to last years summer pics. Sorry for the long read, but I hope you all enjoy it.. by the way I went with buckwheat, because of its "will grow anywhere abilities" and my lack of green thumb skills.
Good Luck on your plots. i planted some clover and chicory this weekend ( better late than never ). hoping for some rain.
Sounds like a long process. My father and I bought a property last year that was a 10 acre field 30 years ago. Well it was now all overgrown in red whips and all brush and unwanted stuff. We decided we were going to get that to be a field again. We went out everyday from 4pm-til sundown. It took alot of work but it paid off. Just got our beans planted yesterday! I dont know exactly about what you planted but id suggest if you plant anything else put down some fertilizer and barn lime. It will help out!
Everyone, told me "do not lime prior to sowing Buckwheat" and fertilizer was fine, but the soil was almost black in color, and there were some many rotten logs falling a part that i decided not to mess with it. I'll head back down there near the middle of July to pull my SD cards and get some pics on here. The amount of deer tracks we saw from over night was amazing. I'm sure the dawns will be playing like crazy in my newly opened areas for some time to come. We got 2" of rain this morning, so my luck is looking pretty good now.
That dark soil is great! i wish some rain would come here, so dusty! keep us posted on what you get buddy!!
We got about 1 ¾ “ of rain two days (Monday) after broadcasting the seed (Saturday), then we go hit again with rain on Friday then we got hit with a strong storm Late Saturday night and again with a light rain Sunday. It’s going to be a hot one all week, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the chance of showers on Thursday. My buddy is considering running down there this weekend to check the cameras. I told him that I was thinking more of checking them every 3 weeks not every 2, but he’s eager to see if the deer are near his stand where we put most of the effort at. What do you think about leaving the cameras for 3 weeks over 2 weeks? Or should we move it up to 4 weeks?
I went down Friday and checked on the plot to see whether or not anything started peaking it's head out. I have some vegitation starting up, but I'm not sure whether or not is the Buckwheat yet. I checked the trail camera's while I was down theere and discovered my first visitor. . This is infront of my center stand. That yote would have been 15 yards out broadside. HEHEHE. I set up two cameras at this set up. I have two plots this large 1/4 acer in front of my stand and another 30 x 30 area 15 yards to the back of the stand. sorry for the bad pic, but I didn't get any photos from this camera other than me checking it. I think the censor is way off and the delay as well. My 2 man stand plot is seeing a lot more activity. In addition, to the camera checks I sprayed some Immitation Vanilla extract on the plants infront of the cameras. This way I can get some longer poses in order to get a full inventory of the 2012 herd. I'll probably return this week to put up my last camera I meant to do that while I was down there but I was short 2 D cell batteries. Stupid! I'm going to place this one in the know buck area. so that I can get a good look at my targets for the upcoming season.
Well today I'm working in Carbondale this is true Southern IL. I've decided that today I'll stop in to pay a little visit to my buckwheat to check on the progress. it's suppose to be 101 today, so I'm glad I mowed and can just wear shorts into the timber. I have a 5th trail camera that I would like to place up on the hill of the property to if I can start getting an inventory of the bucks. They tend to spend most of their time on or around this particular part of the ground. With the Corn only being knee high in the bottoms i fear it won't produce much if any corn for the deer. I'm very glad I had decided to just plant the buckwheat. This drought stricken summer is not so kind on the Corn and beans. I fear that the buckwheat could be the only food source down there and that's not good because I only have 1/2 or so planted. Well I'll post fresh pic tonight or tomorrow if I get the chance. I’m also considering planting another open area along the entrance and corn field that’s just grass. This would be an easy mow and plant but not unless we get some rain first. This could be an early fall project if I choose to do so.
Well I made it down to the property Tuesday (4ht of July Eve). Lol! I set up my 5th camera in the newest path; hopefully I can get some picks of the beast making the large tracks. I made to the 1st plot (¼ acre) it’s starting to green up. The only issue I have at this point is whether or not the buckwheat is what’s growing. Here is a picture of what the majority of the green is. Unfortunately, I had no pictures on the majority of my trail cameras. Still no Bucks, but it's just dry down there and no water close by. I think the deer are mostly hanging up in the NE corner near the farm pond on the neighboring property. They could also be staying near the Shoal creek located west of the property near my entrance. At this point I'm looking to return down there next weekend and move camera's around. At this point, I'm more interested in getting an inventory of the deer rather than seeing them in my plots. I'll focus my scouting around this dreadful drought and aim the camera's towards the water sources. Here are some pics comparing the plot between July 3rd and June 22nd.
Alright, it's been about 20 days since I last visited the plots on my ground. I have to work tonight and will have tomorrow day off, so I'm going to plan a long and hot day trip to check on my plots and pull the SD cards from my cameras. Last week I purchased a new camera and will focus my scouting on other areas of the woods. I have two known bedding areas that I'd like to monitor. I'm confident that my target buck is bedding in one of the two areas I'm referring too. I never seem to get any pictures of him and that's why we named him "Ghost". He's an old deer and I’m going to take him down this year or die trying. He doesn't come to the areas where we have our plots or at least he never has showed up on cameras there. We've spotted him from the far corners of our property where we barley visit. I'll update tomorrow with some pictures of the plots and trail cameras.
well I ran down the property on Saturday, but my phone battery died. I did find a few buckwheat growing in the plots, but nothing like I'de expected. some of it was eaten all most to the ground. the deer and turkey eating it as my pictures showed. In addition to checking my current cameras I was fortunate to have the time to hang my new camera up in the buck bedding area. I'll return to the ground August 18th to move some stands around and hang two new stands up.
so im curious, is this your first time using buck wheat? also i live in ky and wondering if it would be to late to put this out. i put out soy beans and well heavy grazing. so im looking to put out a second fall crop. im thinking clovers and some rape/ winter pea mix maybe
