2012 Food Plot

[sam03]

I started prepping one of my food plots. This is my first year doing them so I have lots to learn. The area i'm putting this plot is a dried up pond. Its been dry for 2 yrs. I started by cleaning up the dead grass and once i get a larger enough area cleaned up i will till it up. What do you guys use to till up your plots? I have a small walk behind Craftsman tiller...its going to take some serious time to till it all up. I have a riding mower and have been looking for used attachments that might help tilling and cleaning up areas for the plots but haven't found more around me. I have an unlimited supply of horse manure and tons that has been sitting for years so its ready to improve the dirt in case its not up to par!

Does any one know where i can get a soil test done around Gainesville FL?
When do you guys start planting?

[davedirt]

Give you an A for effort but that mite be kinda small, do you know any one with a tractor to disk that whole are from trees to trees.

[Triple Creek Reaper]

Looks like a great spot and a much larger area seems to make sense, I have never put in a food plot myself but a dried up lake is sure to hold some standing water should we get a truly "wet" season this year. Maybe some people on here can give you some good ideas on planting something that might be able to survive standing water for an extended period. Good luck.

[Iluv2hunt]

If we get some storms this summer(which I feel confident we will) your efforts will be wasted. You are going to need an ATV disc at a minimum, or a tractor to cut that grass in and get it turned over. Mowing it regularly and a little fertilizer will be a good attractant as anything else. Just think of all the deer you see on side of the roads

[sam03]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm working on cleaning up a larger area it just takes some time with a hand rake.... Once I have a large enough area cleared I will till it up with a small walk behind tiller. I would love to disc/plow up the whole thing but I don't know anyone with a tractor.

[davedirt]

I don't know were your property is but my four wheeler and disk are in Madison Co. at the moment. We have a couple guys in the club that will hook you up for 50-100 bucks. They bush hog and disck the big stuff for me. Like allen said that drie pond is great as long as it stays dry.

[sam03]

The land is in micanopy. I worked on clearing it more tonight. Might be interest in some arc disc help depending on the price.

Anyone planting right now? If so what?

[treefarmer]

Planted my small "L" shaped summer food plot today. It is less than 1/2 acre, each leg is about 200' x 70'. I disked it last week and then finished it up with an off-set harrow Monday morning. Monday afternoon I put out 200# of 10-10-10 and had a little rain on it Tuesday. This morning I put out 50# of Iron&Clay Peas with an old antique iron wheeled grain drill. It's supposed to rain here in the panhandle tomorrow. These peas usually keep the deer intrested or at least they know where they are when there are even when so many other crops available, peanuts, soybeans,etc...during the summer. My intent for the fall and winter food plot is a 2 acre corn patch that will be left standing. We rented a small field to a farmer last year and he planted corn and was not able to harvest it as soon as he would have liked. The deer stayed in that patch all fall and winter, even after they picked it and disked it under they kept finding corn to eat. They almost totally ignored a corn feeder that was on the edge of an oat patch. Treefarmer

[treefarmer]

Here are some pictures of the summer plot's progress. Again, these are Iron and Clay peas planted with an old grain drill. They were planted on 4/4/12, had 3/10" of rain and the deer are already messing with them. Pictures show the damage, the evidence and the east leg of the plot. Need to move a camera to this site and see what they do. Treefarmer

[bodysnatcher]

Looking good.

[Iluv2hunt]

Looks like the deer didn't wait and are nipping the cotyledon's off. Hit it with some milorganite to keep them away

[treefarmer]

Iluv2hunt, Had to look up milorganite to see what it is. Interesting "stuff". Since this is a summer food plot in competition with several hundred acres of peanuts, I'm not too concerned about them totally wiping out the small plot. Our experience has been that deer will eat on the iron and clays, especially the dicotyledon stage, then they seem to leave them alone till the vines are well established and then work on them as the peas are maturing. The big issue is the pea patch at the house. The deer don't hardly mess with those peas until the night before you plan to pick! We found a recipe for a repellant that actually works. It's a concoction of water, milk, eggs, dish washing soap, and cooking oil. Mix the ingredients with a blender and then pour it into a small pump-up sprayer and coat the vegetables or even flowers you don't want Bambi to enjoy. We saved a patch of cushaw punkin's using this mess a couple years ago. It's non-toxic and fairly cheap to produce and seems only to put a bad taste in the deers mouth or an odor they can't stand? Missed putting it out by one night last year, and the deer ate about 25% of a patch of Zipper Creams. Momma was upset to say the least!! A few years back, a neighbor had 7 acres of several varieties of peas ready for market and he was wiped out in 2 or 3 nights. They walked up and down the rows and left about a 1" stub of every pea they could find. An amazing sight, hard to believe had I not seen it. Treefarmer

[sam03]

Walked out last night to clean some more for my food plot and found something interesting. There are large selection that looks like it caught on fire but only the green grass was effected or maybe like someone sprayed pesticides or something. I'm not really worried abt the grass browning out but i would like to know why. I dont want it to effect the stuff i plant. Any ideas?

Nice green area


Browned out areas

[deutze]

dept of agg would test soil free in N.Y., try calling youre local office & they will tell you how to collect samples. can't imagine why anyone would go to the trouble of spraying PART of your garden with killer. is it possible you over fertalized that part and burned it? if all that comes up youre gonna be able to feed an army, good luck.

[deutze]

my bush beans are app 5-6" long. when do you guys pick them?