Food plots for this year.

I was wondering what a good food plot seed it, but that is also affordable. Last year I bought a mixture blend that was about $40, which only covered maybe 3/4 of an acre. This year I wanted to plant maybe 5 small food plots, non of which would be over an acre. But i don't want to pay about $200 dollars for just a few small plots. And a question to yall down here in the south, I live in north carolina and I wanted to know about a time when I should plant. Because I planted last year about August, and hardly any of it came up for the deer and turkeys. So it was a waste of $40.
But any advice and help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Go to a farm and garden store and buy a forage seed that they recommend for your area.

Do NOT buy a seed package with a deer on the bag. You will pay a lot for that picture!

 

Elk is right. Those pictures are very expensive.
First thing is you may want to check your pH. That is the most important step.

 

Go to your local feed and seed store and you can make your own seed mix. My favorite blend includes peas, clover, radishes, and oats or winter wheat. I like to have my seed bed ready to go by late August and I normally plant sometime in early to mid September right before a good rain if possible. Also I would suggest spending a little of your money on fertilizer. It's better to plant 2 food plots that produce well then 5 plots that don't come up.

 

Get a soil test done if you want to have better than a 50-50 shot of it being worth the time you invest.

 

Back up and do your research. The first thing you need to do is soil samples. If you don't you will waste more money on seed.

 

$200 budget for 5 acres +/- is a pretty tight budget. Winter wheat, rye or oats will keep you under that if you skimp on fertilizer and lime. You could do a strip in each plot in white clover for reliability and then the rest of the plots in the above mentioned for that kind of money.

 

I like to plant my food plots in mid June.

Once they get established, usually in late August, I will bush hog them and then begin hunting over them in October.

 

Sota! Glad to see you didn't get your undies in a bunch for this topic not being in the correct forum.