need some help

[Big Dave]

Welcome Rookie! This is an awesome web site. I've been on it for a few years now and the guys in this forum are real diehards. You will learn a lot!

I'd say you have a nice property, but it will be tough to get a plot established if there isn't one already there. Don't worry about the creek. Deer will cross that no problem whatsoever. The problem you will have is that even a food plot of a few acres will get absolutely pounded down by deer if you have that much land around you. Not a bad thing but you will probably be feeding every deer in the area because I am just assuming there isn't much natural food on that public land. If you do plant something go with something green. Corn would be a huge waste of time...it takes too much out of the soil and will be eaten up quickly if you have a lot of deer in the area.

Big Dave

[dtrain56]

I have been planting food plots for about seven years now and am at the point that i am thinking of starting it as a profession and from how it sounds from your description, Clover is you best bet, it produces tonage and you need it- it is very hardy also
 
are there farms around you , do you live close by, what kind of equipment do you have or have access to , how much time and money do you have???? these questions need to be answerwd first,
 
food plots are hard to start if the land has never been plowed before.
 
best bet is to think of next year, plow field through out the summer, get a field soil test to figure out ph, very important if you don't want to do that about 1,000 lbs of fertilizer per acre will start you in the right direction, maybe 2,000 lbs if area has lots of pines means soil is acidic, BUY IN BULK NOT BAGS,
 
the bedding area across the creek sounds great, how are you going to make it thick, is it heavily forested, can you drop trees, or plant junipers,
 
 
how much land does your neighbor have- are you able to use it, plant it- go in together to make a larger property????
 
 
 
 

[The Rookie]

Thank you for the fast feed back guys.. To answer some of your questions. I don't have much equipment just an ATV, I have some money but it all depends on how much the wife will let me spend, cant live with them cant live with out them. Hahaha! I would say a few grand. There's not many farms around this area I am in the foothills of the Adirondack mountains just inside the park. For the bedding area I was thinking about knocking down some trees for heavy brush cover and putting a switch grass plot in the middle about an acre, I was told they like to bed in the high grass. Here is a picture of the creek, let me know if you think it is too deep for them to cross or if they would avoid crossing it, I would hate to set up the bedding area and they don't cross the creek. Thanks again for your help it seems like a great forum.[/align] [/align]picture was too big to upload.[/align] [/align]The Rookie[/align]

[GTOHunter]

Clover,braccicas,wheat and turnips are good and easy crops to plant and the deer love them all.You could buy or rent a small ATV disc if you wanted to break up the soil to help in planting anything.Turnips like low lying area's and do the best in late fallIf your that far out out in the woods your food plots will see a lot of action so be sure to plant something that will grow back if eaten down,soybeans aren't a good choice if you don't have a lot of ground to plant a big field because it can be eaten down in a short time and usually won't grow back very well at all.I would put out a mineral lick if your state allows you to do so,the Bucks will use it a lot this time of the year and will continue to use it for many years if refreshed every so often.

[dtrain56]

a few grand will get you started in the right direction, if you knock down the trees the under growth will grow, don't need to plant anything unless there is nothing there, if the creek is less then waist deep the deer will use it, i've seen deer cross deeper fast moving water
get a three point hitch for you atv or rent a tracktor, plow or use a cultivator ( dirtworks makes stuff for you atv) lime, you might want to kill everything will round up first it will make it easier to plow also don't plant for a couple of weeks after using round up it sticks a round for a week or two.

[The Rookie]

Most of the time the creek is about 2 feet deep so I think I will be ok. How large should I make the plot? I was thinking about two acres. Cant wait to get it started 

[hard county]

I like a one acre plot size, I have some larger ( up to 3 acres) and some smaller (down to 1/4 acre) but this seems to be the size the deer most prefer. Now, if you are planting an annual, I would go larger (espescially if its a legume) if its a perrenial, and your wanting a secure feeling plot in a high pressured area, smaller is OK too. If there is one piece of advice I can give you, buy the book Quality Food Plots, it is in my opinion the most comprehensive book on plots written and details many species of plants to be planted.

[The Rookie]

[font=arial]Thanks for the info country, any idea where I could buy the book?[/font]  

[hard county]

The book is put out by QDMA and is available at many locations by order or direct purchase, try their website.

[SyracuseBowhunter]

Sorry for getting to your question so late, but I just joined the forum today.  I'm a rookie to this website, but not to doing food plots.
 
If you haven't done anything with it yet, you may want to split it into 2 1-acre food plots toward the middle of your property to keep the feeding deer away from hunters on state land around the perimeter of your land.  Check to see which way the predominant wind direction is, and then create the food plots about 150 yards from each other so that you can sneak into a stand between the 2 plots and go undetected by the deer that use them.  That way, you can create more variety for the deer and have different crops in each food plot.  Bucks will move from plot to plot checking for feeding does during the rut.  You can make mock scrapes along a trail you create for the deer to use moving between the 2 plots.
 
Also, you may want to check into RPM Ecosystems in Dryden, NY.  They produce bur oak from seedlings that have HUGE rootmass and are 4-6 feet tall 18 months after germination.  I planted some on my property in Chenango County last fall and had 100% survival rate and that is zone 4.  They are good to zone 3 which would be at the edge of the Adirondacks like you mentioned.  That would create a lot of diversity in food sources to pull deer in from a long way away.  RPM Ecosystems has a web site that is very good.  You should check it out.  Good luck.