My first food plot (Soybeans)

This year I finally got around to planting my first food plot(s). Two weeks prior to planting, I went in and sprayed both plots, then my neighbor and I tilled up everything and got a fluffy seedbed, and broadcasted the beans, finally we dragged a harrow over it all and now we just gotta wait! I decided to put in real world soybeans on May 19th BTW. I will try to keep this thread updated, I cant wait to watch it grow, Im pumped to say the least, hopefully the work and $ we put in will pay off! Sorry, some pics are blurry.

The larger of the two plots, in the bottom of a valley.


Some seeds are comin up after a week!


The other plot.

 

your going to want to somehow block the deer from getting to the beans until they get some good growth on them and can handle the pressure better.

 

Looks good. Keep us updated.

 

Before I invest in some sort of plot protector, I will see how hard they actually hit it. I dont have a large resident deer herd, but if i do have to put up something, im looking to put up a plot protector tape. I dont have the money to put in for an E-fence.

 

I planted my real world beans the same day down in schuyler county.We haven't had s@#$ for rain since.We planted an acre with e-fence ,without the fence the plot will be goooone ..

 

Let me know how they come up. I would like to get myself an electric fence but Im gonna try other methods of keeping the deer out, hopefully it works.

 

make yourself a little seculsion cage out of chicken wire fence or something small to see how a few plants grow if deer dont eat them.

 

Looks good, hope it turns out well for you!

 

Beat ya to it sir

 

Awesome! one thing I have done this year to help protect my beans is spray hot suace on them with my round up. Got the idea one day as i was thinking about how to protect my soybeans. Planted round up readdy beans, so when I spreyed my round up on them I poured a bottle of franks red hot suace right into the sprayer. I took the screens out of the sprayer nossles so the pepper residue in the suace wouldn't clog them. So far it is working. the deer walk all the way around the plot to go to the ag fields! Put my second application on last tuesday, it works really well for a few weeks. then re-apply it. I am sure you could do it with a hand sprayer on a small plot and use a dish soap to ger it to stick in stead of round up! good luck! Looks great!

 

Well yesterday I was able to get back out and look over the plots. As you can see there was quite a bit of broadleaf and grass weeds comin' up so I busted out the sprayer and was able to only spray one of the two plots. This was June 10th, so this is 22 days after planting.



Good growth



Something is taking advantage of the new growth


My spraying rig


Young apple trees around the plot are looking good


Im pretty pumped for fall. In the next week im going to try and put up some sort of barrier as well as put up a camera.

 

Looking good.

 

Looks great man. Now that you have some good growth the beans will take the browsing pressure better.

 

Looks great! Will the beans still be green for IL opener?

 

They should be! They are labeled as forage soybeans which do stay green for quiet some time.

 

looks good.

thanks for sharing the pictures.

 

Def looking good! We finally got some rain in OH so im hoping my plots blow up!

 

This weekend I was finally able to get out to the farm. Like most of the Midwest, it's been drier than hell & things are looking really rough. When I took these photos it was 102 degrees. Thankfully, the next couple of days were supposed to get some rain and cool down a bit. I think the beans will fill out the next few weeks. You can tell how dry it's been, I hit the plot with Round up a few weeks prior & there are no weeds. . The beans have decent height on them. Even the apple trees look sore.

 

Does it look like they are getting a lot of browsing?

 

Not much as of now. I looked around and couldnt find many that were eaten down. I have an exclusion cage in there, no difference in height.