food plots

[DeanoZ]

ORIGINAL: SHKYBoonie

ghosthunter, I use to plant alot back when I was young and I too had no access to any farm equipment. This worked for me on several occasions and it is very simple. The deer will use it as well as any small plot I have put out.

Find an area that you want to put your plot that has grasses in it now. Buy you a bag of regular old seed wheat (also works well with rye and oats) from the farmers supply. A 50 lbs. bag of wheat seed is pretty cheap and I usually seed at about 85 lbs. per acre, so 50 lbs. will do quite a bit. Get about 100 lbs. of 15-15-15 fertilizer and a weed eater. Take a hand spreader and broadcast your seed right over the top of the grasses, then broadcast your fertilizer over that same area. Then take the weed eater and cut the grass down as low as you can over the top of the seed/fertilizer. Do this in about late August or early September and you will have a nice stand of young wheat to hunt over in just a few weeks. The grass you cut down over the seed will help hold moisture and heat which will make the seeds germinate as well as if they were in the ground. It also helps protect the seeds from birds. The wheat will normally out grow the grass and the grass usually goes dormant when the weather turns cooler. It's not as good as breaking ground, getting soil test and all the other things that make a great food plot, but it will attract deer at the right time for hunting. This is a great plot for the young hunters that don't have the $$$ or the equipment. Hope this helps!

Great idea boonie..I mean it makes sense at least...just curious how low you cut the grass down to, and what size are th eplots you normally do in this manner?  Will this work in the Northeast?

[SHKYBoonie]

DeanoZ, I usually cut the grass down as low as I can. I have used weed eaters, push mowers and on occasions riding mowers. I usually set the mowers as low as I can as long as they don't hit dirt. If you have already spread your seed and hit dirt, then it will throw all the seed out of that spot as well. I haven't done this in years because I have the equipment to get it in the ground now, plus I do much bigger plots now. It did work for me very well. I could create some hidden plots back in areas that no one knew about. I really never made any plots like this that were too big in size. Some of the bigger plots were more like 50 yards long and maybe 30 yards wide. If the turkeys find it within the first couple of days, they can put a hurting on it. If you use a higher seed rate, chances are you will still get a good stand even if they do find it. It's the "safety in numbers" sort of thing. Good thing is, it usually doesn't take but a couple of days for the seed to germinate. When that happens, the turkeys will not hurt it as much. Plus, when you mow over the grass, it pushes the seeds down under the grass, so it's harder for the turkeys to get opposed to bare dirt.
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work in the NE. Your timing on planting might be a little different than mine, but they use Winter grains in food plots up there all the time. It's really no different except you are using the cut grasses to cover the seeds instead of dirt. Then banking on the cool temps to make the grass go dormant to give the grains time to out grow it. Not only that, but cutting the native grasses promotes new young growth in them as well. The deer will take full advantage of the young spouts of this also.

[ghosthunter31193]

thanks for the help shkyboonie. but i got one more question what is the 15-15-15 fertilizer? or well i gues what should i look for to find this.

[SHKYBoonie]

ORIGINAL: ghosthunter31193

thanks for the help shkyboonie. but i got one more question what is the 15-15-15 fertilizer? or well i gues what should i look for to find this.

 
15-15-15 is the fertilizer mixture. These numbers represent the the percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P) and potash (K) in the fertilizer. Wherever you buy your seed, just tell them you want _ number of bags of triple 15 fertilizer. They usually come 50 lbs. to a bag, so if you need 100 lbs., you ask for 2 bags. They will know exactly what you are talking about and now you do to. If I don't know the exact amount of fertilizer to use (because I didn't do soil test), I usually go by the rule, for every pound of seed use 2 pounds of fertilizer. Because I don't know the exact percentages of N, P, and K (because I didn't do a soil test), 15-15-15 is an even mixture of all three and not too high, but not too low.

[ranwin33]

You might also look for triple 13 or triple 10 if triple 15 isn't available.  Any of those are a good general purpose fertilizer and most likley one of the three will be carried by your local feed/seed store.
 
If you're planting clover though, look for something with a low first number (Nitrogen), the clover doesn't need it and not having it will help keep grass and weeds down a bit.

[kribbz]

not sure about the hill side plot but on the 37 acre plot, do you have a way to drill in the bean and corn mixture?  I don't know how effective that mix would be broadcast spread.   might help to know what kind of equipment you have to work the plots first. 

[easports]

kribbz
 
In response to the drill....no I don't have one.  Heard of the tool and can check around regarding rentals.  If I can't find one, there is the old fashion way, by hand.

[dkdesign]

EA- I'll have to agree with kribbz on this one - corn and beans are a great food plot, no arguement there, however neither of these crops do well with out planting at proper seed depth in a well prepared seed bed.  there are several alternatives to use if you are going to broadcast spread.  There are many threads discussing these thorought this site.  Don't hesitate to ask any further questions - there are many members that would be happy to help! 

[msbadger]

I broad cast all my seed and only once did I have a problem...peas....went back a few days later and ALL the seed was on top of the ground in little piles!...not sure what did that but I found it not humorous....

I broad cast corn last year and even though it was raided by crow squirrel and more than likely raccoon and mice it still came up and grew very nice...july planting of feed corn and I still got some ears..

Now I have to brag!! just got back from TC Farms  ...picking up my weekly lime stock pile and dog food...Checked on drop spreader and york rake prices...they couldn't  find drop spreaders but sold them last year...girl went looking and found...ONE...49.99 marked 29.99...OK I'll take it...75# walk behind ...got to register and it rang up as...2.99...that's right.. brand new Percision spreader for ...2.99...[:D] yee haa...I went to my seed guy and ordered my soybeans...which I kinda consider free this year...at least thats what I'm telling Mr. B.[;)]

[msbadger]

P.S.....I have to say I actually ? this and in front of anther "seasoned" cashier....because it was listed as such in the computer they wouldn't ? the chance SOMEONE...dropped a 9 when entering info....Oh well[:)]