What Should I Plant in my Deer Food Plot?
I was perusing Facebook today and came across a group about food plotting. New members were asking repeatedly “what should I plant in my deer food plot” or what should I plant in my small plot or what is the best food plot seed to plant? There were lots replies with pictures of giant barkant turnips and shiny bag seed company products. So, I thought I would write another post about food plot seed and how to decide what to plant and when.
What should I plant in my deer food plot? Plant cereal grains and brassicas in the late summer for fall, plant winter peas with grain in fall/winter/spring then follow that with summer annuals then rotate back to fall annuals again. Always have some clover planted in dedicated clover plots. Plant clover and chicory together if weeds are controlled and plant a nurse crop of grain to keep the young clover plants shaded until they develop roots.
Now, all this depends on several factors:
- soil fertility, tilth and pH
- space
- equipment
- time and money
If you have great soil with a 6.5 pH, equal components of clay, silt and sand, formerly planted in pasture or crops, you have half the battle done. Just about anything you plant properly will grow.
The next factor to consider is space. Do you have enough room to plant enough forage to keep ahead of the browse pressure? Highly preferred forage such as soybeans and peas can be easily wiped out in small food plots as they try to grow. Planting less preferred species like those of the brassica family or grains may be able to withstand deer browse pressure where highly preferred plants or slow-growing plants will not.
What kind of equipment do you need to plant a food plot? Ideally, you have a full compliment of farm equipment for tillage, spraying and planting. But, most of us don’t have hundreds of thousands invested in farm machinery.
Most food plots can be planted by hand, using a backpack sprayer to kill existing undesirable vegetation and a hand spreader.
If you have only hand and backpack tools, then small seeds such as brassica, clover, alfalfa, chicory and maybe small grains if you can get seed to soil contact are all that you should consider.
How much money does it cost to plant a food plot? Do you have time to put in the work necessary to plant and maintain a plot?
The cost of a food plot depends entirely on how much site prep is needed and how much soil amendment is needed to create an environment where the plants will thrive. The cost of lime, fertilizer, tillage, herbicide applications all have to be considered before you even think about purchasing seeds. The seeds are probably the least expensive factor but can be significant.
What Should I Plant in my Spring Food Plot?
Starting out in the spring, if you haven’t planted winter hardy forage the previous fall, you may want to start out with oats as a nurse crop and plant a blend of clover and chicory. If you have a lot of broadleaf weeds, leave the chicory out until you get that under control. You can use selective herbicide to kill off grasses that seem to always thrive in clover.
If you have access to a seed drill, my favorites are field peas, sunflowers, hybrid brassicas (pasja or t-raptor) soybeans (if you have several acres) spring oats. This can all be mixed together and provide ample forage for deer through summer. This is more of a summer annual type plot. If you want very early spring forage, the plot should be planted in fall.
Clover should always be established in fall. If the plants come up in spring and hot weather hits, they will die. A nurse crop or dead material from the previous year can help with this but its best to plant in fall, establish the clover then let it come on strong in spring.
Winter wheat and rye is a great crop to plant in late summer/early fall so there will be very early greenup as soon as soil temps start to rise in spring.
What Should I Plant in my Fall Food Plot?
Fall food plots should be planted in late August/early September and should consist of brassicas, winter wheat, winter rye, winter peas or a mixture of these. Brassicas will fizzle out when the cold weather hits but wheat, rye and peas can survive very cold temps. In this video I talk about the pros and cons of turnips: turnip pros and cons
In another video I talk about radishes I planted on August 1. You can see these did not provide much winter forage: radish demonstration
