NO SOIL TEST low pH low organic matter not enough sunlight planting the wrong species for your area planting at the wrong time So your having problems or a first time food plotter and you want success?
Plant a soil building mix year 1 in the spring. You will suppress weeds, fixate nitrogen, loosen the soil and it will grow. The deer will eat it and you will learn alot.
You will set yourself up for many options of things to plant the following year. The fertilizer costs vary depending on what your soil test says. So here is how i look at it Maybe even a 4 wheeler Also, so many people complain they don't see many deer Look at it as a challenge and part of the whole hunting experience. Soil building mix i push has oats, triticale, peas, buckwheat and annual clovers.
If you cant get that to grow Nutritionist, since this thread is ranging wide, what do you recommend for commie Cali, where we have a minimum 4-month little or no rain period that doesn't end until after hunting season? Kind of tough to match up food, deer, and hunting season if you don't irrigate, and out here water is scarce. It seems to be fall mast crops or nothing. Great information as always Nutritionist! You got me thinking on my brassicas! Food plots and habitat improvement projects and increasing wildlife populations are a tremendous source of gratification in the big picture!
Thanks John, Mark. Very droughty. For perennials i have a 4 legume mix i call dryland mix. It is year 2 in the testing and the deer love it in my test plots. For annuals, most of my annual mixes work good. Here is what helps though, no matter what you plant.
Increase your soil organic matter as high as possible to capture the moisture, increase nutrient uptakes etc etc. Not sure anyone else in the us does it but here is how my wacky brain thinks Healthy soil, healthy and vigorous roots, the right genetics and away we go Williamtell, fruit trees, like the pear , may be a good idea for you as well as peanuts, mustards , and collards, all drought tolerant.
Even alfalfa can take drought. I take soil samples and lime and fertilize to the recommendations in the soil report. This is the 3rd year planting No Plow and since I did not rotate crops, this last one came up nicely but faded to a pretty poor looking crop. It is again mostly ignored by my herd. I planted a winter pea mix next to it that had a lot of radishes that did much better growing thick and lush and FINALLY the deer have attacked it in mid January. Unfortunately only the does are left.
Great for herd health but no help for hunting bucks. The peas seemed insignificant in the tonnage available. Next year I am going back to clover and oats, the brassicas look good but my herd historically has little interest in them central Arkansas.
There is many different types of brassicas. They aren't created equal. Plus the mix you planted isn't a late fall and winter mix. The annual clovers die off when you get below 26 degrees. But big box store seed quality is the 1 reason i tell people to check the test date.
Yep,if you have your pH correct From my experience, most fertilize their brassicas incorrect. As i've stated, treat them using the new zealand model. I have posted numerous items on how to do it. When did you plant the mixes. How many deer per sq mile do you have? Have you ever planted swedes,rutabaga, turnips, or anything other than the cheapo genetics? There is big differences between genetics Are you looking for ground cover or nutrition? By: Drahthaar.
By: nutritionist. On too many client parcels to count in every Northern state however, the brassica forage date has been able to be drastically moved to a Fall date, by establishing early season patterns of use, creating food plot diversity continuity, getting rid of stand-alone brassica plantings and by using plot sweeteners.
Most often the forage date can be taken from rotting brassicas in the Spring, to actually before the first frost date has even taken place. Some other major considerations are the number of deer per square mile, the proximity to additional quality food offerings and the percentage of daytime holding cover within the neighborhood. To suggest that the first frost date is an indicator of when deer will actually begin to forage on brassica plantings, represents only a very tiny portion of the very large window of potential forage timing.
Deer don't always devour brassica plantings the first time that you plant them, but there are several extremely common reasons why. Stand-alone brassica plantings and low deer number ag regions are two of the largest culprits of low browsing rates for brassica plantings. However, there are 4 easy ways to make sure that you give a brassica combo the best opportunity to be attacked by the local deer herd.
If you haven't tried these 3 brassica strategies, you have no reason to complain:. Adjacent bedding areas, travel corridors and other whitetail habitat features such as mock scrapes or waterholes, should be in use before you expect whitetails to consume your brassica planting. Not only does a common diversity food plot planting insure that deer use your entire deer parcel for the entire season, but it makes sure that deer are able to enjoy brassicas, early season food plot varieties and high quality feeding opportunities, equaly across your land.
Deer need diversity and if you expect deer to establish their Fall pattern of daily bedding and feeding somewhere else, and then travel to a stand-alone brassica plot in the distance, you may find your brassica planting rotting in the Spring. The perfect time for deer to begin heavily feeding on your brassica crop is late October and early November.
Stand-alone plantings are one way to virtually guarantee a late brassica foraging date, however there are a few brassica timing strategies that you can use, to make sure that whitetails follow the script. If you have experienced rotting brassica plantings of various rape, turnip and radish varieties, you are not alone. However, rarely should you have to experience wasted brassica plantings every again.
By establishing easy patterns of food pot use, splitting your plots, adding sweeteners when needed and making sure that every one of your food plots is planted in the same blend of diversity, you are well on your way to making sure that deer will enjoy your plantings. I make sure that I practice each of the recommended brassica strategies and if you do the same, your plantings will rarely result in failure.
However, plot sweeteners can be the great tool to perfect the brassica forage rate on your lands. Or so I thought. When I returned during hunting season, the plot was mostly a failure and had struggled to provide any sort of crop that you would deem successful. After checking the trail camera in late October, deer had clearly been using the plot — and browsing the daylights out of it.
Deer had their heads down browsing in most photos. Deer love brassicas in my region. I should have known this plot was too small for a standalone plot of brassicas. The deer practically ate it to the dirt before they shed velvet. Depending on your food plot location, your plot might be used heavily during daylight hours and you should consider adding other forages into your mix.
There are some strategies I share with clients to reduce this from happening. This includes adding annual clovers and multi-graze brassicas into blends to help with plot re-growth. In the case of Winfred brassica, when deer eat or graze on it, the plant tends to throw more branches, at times leaving plants with 8—16 branches per plant. Food plotters typically place brassica in the nurse crop category, in order to help a fall planted clover, chicory or alfalfa plot establish.
That free nitrogen helps reduce fertilizer costs and also helps maintain soil pH.
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