If I am establishing a new spot I usually wait until Sept to plant my clover plots. When I said wait until July or August I meant for the other crops you traditionally see for fall and winter like brassicas, forage oats, winter peas etc...
Pics below, and quite a bit of the attached video was filmed on my "backyard plot" which is all chicory. When we first bought the house last spring, we would see deer maybe once every week or two. Once I put this plot in, it became the center of all doe activity for a solid 40 or so acre block of timber my house butts up to. We never got buck pics until the rut, but I was literally getting anywhere from 800-1200 pics a week of does and fawns on this little 1/4 acre plot, you would see them literally show up every 2 hours or so to eat. The chicory did a great job of supporting the browse pressure as well. I had to mow 2x through course of the summer, I found once it got nearly knee high they would stop eating. After a good mowing with my lawn mower on the highest setting, they were back on it in a day or two. Once mid October came around, all the bucks from surrounding areas started trolling through because of the high concentration of does. I literally never had a picture of a buck until around 10/12, and once I got the first pic I was getting pics every night. Once 10/30 hit, I started getting daylight pics of bucks almost daily, and the place turned into a madhouse for the next two weeks or so. Long story, but I did end up sticking an arrow in a nice buck back there as well, but there wasn't a good ending to the story unfortunately......... Matt's 2016 Early Season Doe - YouTube
It's all about variety and what's in your area. We have one bean field in a 5 mile radius from us and that is harvested every fall. My plan is to have a large planting of standing beans for late season attraction. I know they will hammer them.
Frost seed your current brassica plots now in clover/chicory. I frosted a couple plots last late winter/early spring and and clover/chicory came up great!
Some questions for you, Frost seed...basically just throw out seed? Also...you wouldnt advise tilling it up first? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Your brassica plots shaded out most undergrowth this past fall with their growth and come the though will be more dirt/mud/rotting bulbs than weed growth or interferance for the clover/chicory to germinate. I agree 100% with Buckeye and frost seeding now will most likely yield great germination and results come spring green up.
Well I'm starting to learn a little more about food plotting, this is my 4th year doing it, and what I have found is that the Turnips, Radishes, Rape, Brassicas, that I plant in August...that the deer don't really utilize it much until Mid to late December and January into February.... Now this is great for the Deer, but as a hunter I would rather have them in the plots in October and November.... SOOOOOOO, my question is....if I would plant something Like Clover, Chicory, Alfalfa, winter Rye, during the first of August, would it be established at all by October good enough for the deer to browse and eat.... Thanks for your help...... Creeks
