Google Paul Knox aka dbltree on some forums.
He was the guru of food plots.
God rest his soul.
He was the guru of food plots.
God rest his soul.
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Right on Tom. I certainly don't need booners. I'm just trying to see a few more deer throughout the season. My 15 acre property is in the middle of a 1.5 mile almost square patch of hardwoods. Early season is OK but once the acorns go...so do the deer. Late season is bare because there's just no food within a mile.Establish goals 1st and keep realistic expectations.
And don't expect to grow Booners all of a sudden.
Ive plotted for 15 years and I see no difference in the quality of the deer.
I have tried food plots in the past with different types of plants and absolutely no success a miserable failure no green thumb here turns out not enough sunshine in the areas I have tried
A horse that I've beaten to death on some habitat forums was the need for participants to POST THEIR LOCATION when asking questions or giving advice.
My experiences or advice here in 6B may be totally useless for someone plotting in Florida or Maine.
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Plots can be very rewarding or they can be a frustrating rabbit hole.
Habitat Talk and Deer hunter forums have a lot of great threads on plotting.
One particular technique is the Throw 'n Mow which has an enormous thread on the subject. A lot of plotters, including myself, have done fairly well with TnM. It probably won't produce the pristine, magazine cover looking plot for most people, but it did do an acceptable job for me.
#1 tip...LEARN WEED AND PLANT IDENTIFICATION before you start plotting. If you can't identify an unwanted invasive, you may be in for a miserable experience.
#2 tip...don't try to force a forage where it doesn't belong. Guys decide they want "X" growing, before they've got their ducks in a row.
Plotting can be easy and it can be miserable.
Establish goals 1st and keep realistic expectations.
And don't expect to grow Booners all of a sudden.
Ive plotted for 15 years and I see no difference in the quality of the deer.
Thanks. Can you point me to the throw and mow method? I am going to try the throw and roll method for my dove plots this year. I will plant brown top millet and sun flowers(different fields). Currently wheat is growing in the plots. I plan to broadcast seed and fertilizer, then roll the wheat down with a cultipacker then spray round up. Should work.
Yeah read the seed tag label and see what is in there. Lots of those cheap Walmart bags is mostly rye grass which is a complete waste. Go to the coop and buy cereal rye in the fall, much better crop, grows on anything (including back of tractors and truck tailgates) and is much prefered by deer and the soilSince we're here talking about food plots, any advice on a small throw and grow plot other than "just rake the leaves away and let 'er rip"?
Yeah read the seed tag label and see what is in there. Lots of those cheap Walmart bags is mostly rye grass which is a complete waste. Go to the coop and buy cereal rye in the fall, much better crop, grows on anything (including back of tractors and truck tailgates) and is much prefered by deer and the soil
I am doing my first personal food plots this year.
I helped my dad design his the last two years, but only sat his place once due to him WAY over hunting it.
I am doing 3 separate plots.
2 acre dove field.
This is a highly diverse mix I’m trying with about 60% bird food species, and about 40% of the plot for soil improvement.
2 acre deer plot.
Another diverse plot (not as diverse as the dove) with lots of legumes for food, and some plants for compaction breaking.
And a 0.5 acre patch of 50/50 Aeschynomene and Alyce Clover. This one will be an archery kill plot if I end up getting anything worth me shooting.
The deer numbers at this place are almost non existent. Less than 1 dpsm. So, my only real goal with it this year is to get my son a deer. That is what the 2 acre plot is for. It should make a good rifle plot to hunt.
The dove plot is because I want to get my wife and son into hunting something with me. My wife won’t hunt whitetail... doesn’t like the “sit still and hope” aspect of it. I figure dove hunting is social enough, done in fair weather, and mostly shorter mornings. That should make for a decent experience to hook her into it.
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Food plots can be a great tool. They can also be a money pit and a waste of time if you don’t do it right. The good thing about throw and grow is it’s cheap and somewhat effective. The downside is it’s not that attractive to wildlife. If you want to plant something that will really draw deer you’ll need soil test and follow that up with lime and fertilizer. Now is the time for liming for this falls plantings. Once you do that and finally plant your fall plots it won’t rain for a month and your seed will feed crows, turkeys and doves. Sorry but I have a love/hate relationship with food plots. Also check out Jeff Sturgis videos on YouTube. I agree with him on spring and summer plots being a waste on whitetail. Something like buckwheat is ok if your using it as a green manure to amend the soil but otherwise it’s a waste of money and time.
Sturgis’ idea that spring/summer plots are a waste is exclusively based on his Midwest location. Everything in habitat improvement is context. His area has very high deer numbers, so spring/summer nutrition causes social stress on bucks dealing with too many doe groups. His stressed period is definitely winter. Mild summers with ample rain make summers of green food everywhere. (Especially considering the high prevalence of row crops)
My area, you couldn’t attract enough deer to one spot to create a social problem in 10 years of spring/summer plots. With temps here going above 110°F every summer, our hardest stress period is ALWAYS summer. We get so dry some summers that a deer’s primary diet ends up being mistletoe, skunk weed, Lespedeza, and cedar elm. It isn’t uncommon to have fawn die offs on dry years. Summer nutrition is THE most important thing in my context.
Jeff has an amazing understanding of deer... in the areas he hunts, but he touts every method he uses as the end-all, be-all solution for everywhere. I also don’t like how he starts dang near every video talking about how he came up with everything 10 years ago before anyone else.
If your context is similar to his, follow his script to a “T”,because he has it pegged. But, don’t shoehorn yourself into methods developed for other regions/reasons than your reality.
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