anyone here plant these for a food plot??. started dabbeling with them years ago and have now made them a yearly crop for deer. they have no spring/summer draw but come about mid October.......... Oh Boy do they shine this will be about the 5-6th year of planting them and can say for sure, they most certainly have there place on the food chain. have not found a pumpkin yet they don't like. but squash, the buttercup squash seems to be their favorite.. easy to plant,seeds are cheap and the deer LOVE them. they do require occasional watering which i do with a 5 gallon pail and river water. anyway, just food for though as i never see anyone mention doing so.
I grew up growing produce and we always grew several acres of pumpkins. I learned about deer using them for a food source years ago. They will eat some of the blooms during summer and fall but mostly they really smack the fruit after really cold winter hits and other sources peter out. Deer love soft pumpkins. I still grow a few acres but don't do many in food plots mostly due to bugs being a terrible problem here. I prefer to have plots that are fairly bug resistant. Squash bugs suck.
heck if i planted that i'll probably be in the plot with the deer eating the squash to lol Love me some yellow squash and deer together simmered down..yum
Yep....deer love pumpkins and squash. Been planting them for several years and every year the deer clean the vines and pumpkins up.
