This category is all about establishing food plots for deer and turkeys on your property. There are many articles and videos that explain everything from soil science, land clearing, soil amendments, what to plant and how to maintain food plots.
Establishing food plots for deer is a popular subject in hunting land management but there is a lot of misinformation and salesy content out there trying to sell you on the “magic beans” or on the latest fad in food plot planting.
In this blog, I will explain the science behind soil health. My blog articles and videos will educate you on how to get your soil in shape to plant and produce forage for game.
I explain the benefits of cover crop mixes when choosing seeds for your food plots. Cover crops are great for healthy soil building and maximizing the productivity of a particular site.
There are articles and videos on soil testing, pH correction, equipment and materials I use in building good food plots and what are the best plants to try in your area. My plots are all in the Northeast in mountain soils, so anything I suggest and more should work in all regions.
I will also go into food plots that benefit turkeys, although the two plantings are not mutually exclusive. Any good clover plot is good for turkeys and deer. Turkeys will benefit greatly from any forest opening with short forage growth where insects and forbs can exist for turkeys to eat.
Just as hard liquor is better when mixed, cover crop seed is better when combined into a diverse mixture of plants that benefit the soil and the wildlife and maximize the biomass being produced about ground as well as the biomass of bacteria and fungi below ground. Year round food plots require multiple crops and …
Soil Test Report: PH is the Most Important Characteristic to get Right I recently received a message from a client who, after sending in his food plot soil test and getting the result was asking me to get him a delivery of lime. He told me his test came back with a 6.2 pH, close …
Food Plot Soil Amendments – How to Interpret Soil Test Results Read More »
You want to have a food plot on your land but it doesn’t have any open ground or fields. Where do you start? First of all, your land is not farmland for a reason – nobody cleared it to farm because it wasn’t suitable for farming. The early settlers where adept at locating soil that …
Recently, I have had a couple of landowners ask me what to plant now that it is June and they haven’t planted their food plots yet. Now that summer is well underway and we can get some very hot, dry conditions, it is too late to plant tender perennials like Ladino Clover. Although the past …
Any time you push out a patch of woods and install a food plot, you will surely need lime and fertilizer to grow most food plot plants. The first tip I have is when you pick a place to put your plot, if you can, place it where you can get to it with …
The Effects of Too Much Fertilizer I was planning our food plot strategy with a client when he stated he was going to go ahead and put some triple 16 fertilizer on the plot prior to planting our soybeans. Yikes! I said whoa, hold on there a second! You spread a bunch of fertilizer last …
We were anxious to see how much use the new bedding and feeding areas would be this fall. Having just finished up the season in NY, I would have to say that the work we did was a success. During archery season, I shot a big buck chasing a doe around the thicket we created. …
