Lets talk spring food plots (again)

Honestly...the more i think about it, i might just plant fruit trees or establish bedding in the 2 smaller plots. Alot of work for little to no hunting opportunities.

 

Fruit trees take a lot of work to get them producing and being healthy...but worth it!

 

Buy a jug of cheap 41% gly and use a backpack sprayer to spray the new plots this spring and summer multiple times killing all weeds that try to grow until you are ready to plant. Buy some cheap forage oats and winter rye. Seed the plots around Labor Day, that is when I plant my rye/oat plots with great results. If you want, add in a few lbs of white clover. The clover is planted more for the following spring with the fall planting giving them time to get their roots established helping them out grow weeds in the spring.

Winter rye and oats are not hard to grow and are cheap. Lime and fertilizer helps, but I've planted without on short notice and the plots did really well.

Winter Rye - 40-50lbs per acre
Oats- 50-80lbs per acre
Clover- 10lbs per acre

 

I had a similar set up.

What I did is I hinge cut to get more sunlight around the plot. Not only did it increase sunglight, but it gave deer cover and extra forage. If you do not want to get your soil tested, I would suggest going to a local hardware/gardening store and buy some generic lime and fertilizer. Anything will help. As far as what to plot, I would go Buckwheat in the Spring, Clover and Brassica in the fall. If you want forage into the winter, I would plant in some Turnips and or Sugar beats.

 

This is a good idea, but it will take years for them to produce fruit and years after that to produce enough food to stay productive into the season.

If you do indeed plant a fruit tree or trees, do your research. Plant trees and will produce fruit at different times durring the fall. For me, I have some apple trees and start dropping apples late Aug to early september... others start dropping late sept to early oct. This way they will be dropping fruit when the season is open.

I would still plant food plots now, but I would for sure look into planting fruit trees. Long term pay off will be huge!

 

My options are all still open.

The 2 aforementioned plots that are in the woods aren't very big, and there are alot of MATURE trees around them that block indirect sunlight. Ill have to find something to plant there but i dont think a green bed of plants will work very well.

I have the big sunlight filled plot as my main project still.

Also, depending where the farmer plants corn this year, i may have a few field corners that are free space to do some planting. And im working on the neighbor letting me plant one of his openings along my property line that gets ALOT of sunlight.

 

Being a conservationist, I'm never about chopping down mature tree's.. but if you truely want a healthy plot maybe consider knocking one or two down. Sunlight is KEY in small plots!

 

I had similar situation with a small plot I've been doing the last couple of years. The plot is roughly 35 yards long by 15 yards wide and gets about the same amount of sunlight as the ones you mentioned. I have had some pretty good success in the last couple of years with throw and grow blends and last year I put it in Antler King Mini Max. I will fill it in this spring with more clover.

Here is a picture of the result of the mini max plot. You can see the trees on the end. The trees on the south side of the plot are actually bigger and more mature than the side showing in the picture. It does not get very much sunlight.


I hate to even put this one on here because I cant remember which throw and grow this was but here it goes anyways:


Here is a picture of the most sunlight it gets at a time which isn't very much. This was before spot spraying and planting anything.


Basically what I am trying to get at, is you can definitely make small plots work out quite well actually if you take the time to do them right. This was all done without any equipment besides my hands and hand tools. I would definitely try to do something like this with one of your small areas.

 

Very interesting. The trees surrounding my plot are alot taller then those though.

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Venture to say these are 30'.

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Yea, mine are mature hickorys. Easily 60-70 feet

 

Yeah not even close to that size. Well anyways, you get an idea of what I had to work with and what I managed to get out of it. If I were you, I would try something for a year. You're only out a year if nothing grows well in my opinion. Unless you don't need/want smaller kill plot.

 

Maybe talk to a local forester. They will be the most knowledgable, and they might even PAY YOU to come harvest a hand full of mature hickorys.

 

I tried it last year with super bad results.

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Also an option. The hickory trees sure are good for squirrel hunting.

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I planted a mix of clover and chicory in our 3 acre plot which the deer are in year round. The plot pictured is my 2 acre plot which is brassica. This year I am considering planting soybeans in it then turn it around late July in time to plant again.