Best food plot seed.

arrowdem · Feb 19, 2016

alright i need to take a pole to see what you guys think is the best decision for me...
i like to bow hunt the early season pretty hard (still trying to get that big velvet for the trophy room)
then i will hunt a bit here and there but start to hit it pretty hard again mid to late oct. planted a turnip mix last year that came up awesome but deer didnt hit it til snow hit the ground, well with this last fall we didnt have much of that snow stuff until late and even then they werent hitting it that hard, i have 2 different food plots both are about an acre so i will be needing lots of forage for them to eat on, i am working with a company right now that does food plot seed and will mix me pretty much anything that i would want as far as deer food plots go... so vote on the poll and give me some comments as to what to grow. what i am leaning toward now is a clover/beet or turnip mix.

Davey Crockett · Feb 19, 2016

What cash crops get planted in your area ? In my opinion small food plots should be thought of as the dessert after the main course .

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I'll vote for whatever you don't have an abundance of in your area.

svnmag · Feb 19, 2016

That's what I'd do. That's a fine idea.

Yoby · Feb 19, 2016

It does not indicate the season which a person is targeting. Different types of plots for different target seasons.

gr8outdoors · Feb 19, 2016

I would go with a pea and oats mixture, but plant is t a little later in the year so that it's green when season arrives. We did this combo last year and the deer hit it hard. Only problem was, that it was almost all eaten up by hunting season.

KDM · Feb 19, 2016

Standing soybeans are stupid attractive to deer after bean harvest. If you can get a standing bean food plot to last until late season, you have a better than average chance at whacking a real good buck. JMHO, but if I were to plant a food plot, that's what I would put in.

johnr · Feb 19, 2016

Whatever you do, safflower is not a plant that you can walk through.
Birds, and deer seem to like it, but it is not possible to enter, even the dogs veer from it.

we have luck with regular old corn, and sorgum, sunflowers work nice. These are food plot areas right around/in CRP ground.

NDwalleyes · Feb 19, 2016

I've been playing with this myself for 2 years now in the SW part of the State. In the area there is lots of corn, flowers and wheat around. Some edible beans and canola.

Thinking like you guys in what I call the "salad bar philosophy", I have planted brassica mixes of different sorts along with grain sorghum mixes. I had zero luck with the sorghum, they would bed down in in from time to time but it did not hold deer say like a corn field will.

I had high hopes for the brassica mix I planted in two separate plots this year. Both were roughly 3 acre plots, one surrounded by corn on 3 sides that was absolutely beautiful. The other was planted along some tree rows that always hold deer. During bow season I had pics of deer walking through the still green brassica but no stopping to eat. Brassica is supposed to be at it's best when the leaves turn brown and get sweet so I thought gun season would be just great. It was an absolute gong show! Never saw a deer eating it....even late at night.

So long of the short...I don't know what to think now. I don't know if they really go crazy over a specific food source when there is so much food around to begin with. My gut tells me that deer love corn and flowers because of the cover it provides them. So I'm going to look at making some open "pockets" inside my larger plots where a guy could sit and and catch one coming out into the open.

Good luck and report back.

KDM · Feb 19, 2016

The producer that rents my tillable land couldn't get in to plant anything this past year so he planted a cover crop of turnips, barley, and some kind of long radish that I forget the name for. Anyway, the deer have been tearing that place up all winter. He baled the barley and turnip tops, but left the rest and it's been a favored spot for deer. I don't know if they are after the turnips or what, but the activity has been very consistent. Don't know if I would plant any of these in a food plot, but it's tough to argue with watching 30+ deer visit the field every night.

camoman · Feb 19, 2016

KDM said:
The producer that rents my tillable land couldn't get in to plant anything this past year so he planted a cover crop of turnips, barley, and some kind of long radish that I forget the name for. Anyway, the deer have been tearing that place up all winter. He baled the barley and turnip tops, but left the rest and it's been a favored spot for deer. I don't know if they are after the turnips or what, but the activity has been very consistent. Don't know if I would plant any of these in a food plot, but it's tough to argue with watching 30+ deer visit the field every night.

Deer are definitely after the turnips. Turnips will provide as much energy to critters as corn will, that's ALOT of energy. I've seen deer digging through feet (plural) of snow to get to turnips they know are in the ground.

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Of the crops you have listed, clover and turnips, for a similar reason stated by Davey - sugar beets are going to be a dime a dozen out in your country, give them something different. Clover, is a leguminous crop just like soybeans, but is likely different enough to attract some attention. Keep in mind though, in the heat of the summer your clover is going to shut down as its more of a cool season plant, so it probably won't be attracting a ton of attention early season, until it cools off for a bit. Your clover AND turnips are going to be later season crops. Be careful with your clover though, I've heard some guys say if you don't replant some in the fall it won't come back real well.

I would recommend including a short grain in your mixture, something like oats. When the oats start popping in the summer the deer will be ALL over them and when they head out and dry up late summer they'll be back. Provide your critters some grub until the weather really cools and the turnips are ready. Keep in mind, the deer will eat the tops of your turnips while they are green. Another additional plus for turnips.

Davey Crockett · Feb 19, 2016

I planted Sunflowers in both of my plots last year and it was pretty much a disaster as far as a winter food source which is my main goal. The deer pretty much ate everything down to the bare dirt as it was coming out of the ground in one plot and the other plot came up nice due to less deer pressure but then the deer moved over to that plot and started eating the tops off those plants.

Surprisingly most of the plants still flowered and the deer left them alone for a while but then moved back in again and started eating the heads as they matured, It was nothing more than sticks with no heads by late fall. Had some dumb luck when the shelled out small grains from the year before that came up without competition so there was a stand of barley/oats mix for late fall but it was a thin stand. I rotate both the plot location and the crop because I want to try avoid disease otherwise I would plant barley/oats and other small grains every year, The deer are less attracted to it during the growing season and it is a good winter/early spring source if I swath it and leave the windrows.

I am surrounded with heavy timber and the plots are in the middle of a couple hundred acres of native grass CRP with a blend of other plants that deer like to browse, Besides the two plots there is 20 acres of alfalfa so it's not like the deer are hungry, They just like change and they will travel for miles to get it, There is not a one size fits all magic plant.

Plots are a fun hobby, I have been doing two 3 acre plots every year for 29 years and I still have more questions than answers. A couple years ago I planted two bags of that "Special blend" with picture of a huge buck on the package that is really suppose to attract the deer, They didn't even touch it. Like wags mentioned about clover , It's a cool weather crop and grows wild up here , I'm guessing that's the reason the special blend isn't special to the deer around here but it might be awesome other places.

If you have the time, plant a nice big garden with raspberries and everything you can think of that you like to eat, Let the deer eat most of it and you harvest what you can eat , That has never failed us up here, Pumpkins and all once they acquired a taste for them.
In my honest opinion, A water source and Setting out salt and mineral blocks are just as important as what to plant in your food plot unless your soil is already high in minerals.

USMCDI · Feb 19, 2016

Screw food plots up here, that might work in Georgia but when there's thousands of acres or row crops you need something to draw them out, I planted 40 apple trees (way too many) but holy shit what a massacre if I wanted to. It was a PITA for the first few years watering them with a water truck but now that they're producing (wrap the trees with a trunk wrap) those things never have an apple on the ground. The key is planting them away from any roads and never tell anyone where they are or that you planted them, it's full refatrd come October.

gr8outdoors · Feb 19, 2016

When we did the peas and oats mix, there was 130 acres of corn right across the fence from it. The deer would not go into the corn till after dark. Just sayin.

Kentucky Windage · Feb 19, 2016

Deer are natural browsers. IMO, wether you plant something unique to your area or the exact same thing the neighbor has planted across the road, what ever is left standing is going to work. I have had 6 different crops for the deer to grub on and I sti see them milling around eating random things outside the plot. A good early summer mix, early fall greens and late season anything will keep them around. RR crops makes weed control easier.

ShootnBlanks · Feb 19, 2016

USMCDI said:
Screw food plots up here, that might work in Georgia but when there's thousands of acres or row
crops you need something to draw them out, I planted 40 apple trees (way too many) but holy shit what a massacre if I wanted
to. It was a PITA for the first few years watering them with a
water truck but now that they're producing (wrap the trees with a
trunk wrap) those things never have an apple on the ground. The key is planting them away from any roads and never tell anyone where they are or that you planted them, it's full refatrd come October.

I agree with apple trees. Even with row crops around me and corn plots of my own, them deer love to come and get them apples

Vollmer · Feb 21, 2016

The reason I would put turnips in with it, is that they naturally put nitrogen back in the ground. This will keep your soil in good standing year after year without adding chemicals.

Davey Crockett · Feb 22, 2016

Good points and advice on the turnips , I have never been around them but there isn't a turnip in miles from me , I think I will try them this year and see what they do , Plant small grains with them ?

camoman · Feb 22, 2016

Vollmer said:
The reason I would put turnips in with it, is that they naturally put nitrogen back in the ground. This will keep your soil in good standing year after year without adding chemicals.

This is a great point. Turnips and clover are both nitrogen fixing plants.

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Davey Crockett said:
Good points and advice on the turnips , I have never been around them but there isn't a turnip in miles from me , I think I will try them this year and see what they do , Plant small grains with them ?

You can plant a number of things with them. My uncle plants what he refers to as a cocktail. It's essentially a cover crop, but it's a wildlife haven. I believe it has turnips, radishes, a lentil (not exactly sure of the species), sorghum, and rape. If I had the acreage to do anything, that's what I would plant.

arrowdem · Feb 22, 2016

Thank you guys for all of your input! very awesome thread and great info in here! i did plant 3 apple trees last year but the deer broke through my fence and messed them up.. there was a little hope for them to come back this spring but i had to pull them anyway because we ended up moving our big deer shack up on the hill from this plot and once the trees got big it would screw up my shooting lane, so i will relocated them and plant more with a much better fence ( dont buy the fence from TSC that is like netting that is said to keep deer out... it doesnt! after all of this convo i think that i am going to try a clover turnip or beet and oats where our property is we are probably abouty 10 miles just out of sugar beet ground, what is your guys opinion between sugar beets and turnips? the turnips i grew last year came in awesome, super green tops big turnips in the ground and the deer didnt hardly touch ever the greens on top until late late season when it got cold, so that makes me a bit weary, thanks again for all of your info!

KDM · Feb 22, 2016

Turnips as they are a nitrogen fixer and you can eat a few in stews if you like. Also, when you plant fruit trees, put a circle around them made of Hog Fence. It'll stand up to deer all year round with two t posts to hold up to the snow. You might also what to put some drain tile around the bases to keep the DAMN MICE from girdling them under the snow. Keep about 3 to 4 feet of distance between the fence and the tree and them goofy deer have LOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG necks and can push the fence in a little or reach over the top. If you want, I can take a pic of what we have in our yard and we have 50+ deer coming in our yard each night and the fencing has kept our trees deer damage free.

Best food plot seed.

What's the best to plant?

Just Clover

Clover/Beet

Clover/Turnip

Just Beets

Cover everything with Alfalfa

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