Food Plot Basics

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_CY_

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thanks for the help... and I need all the help I can get!!!

land is located in Pawhuska and has never been touched. 100 acres heavily wooded, surrounded by thousands acres, heavy forest.

food everywhere due to all the Oak trees dropping acorns.
that's why I've never considered a food plot until recently.
 

Deer Slayer

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Cy- Your place will do well with a food plot. Acorns run out and then what? Your stuck. Do the suggested homework on this thread and recontact me. I will have an example of your situation soon. It takes me a while to formulate my thoughts on each of these posts. 30 days from now your learning curve will have steepened when it comes to what you need to do. Pick a plot or two with cover in mind and pull your soil samples. Remember 15 samples minimum to make 1 composite sample for analysis.There is plenty of time to get a plot in this Fall.
 

Deer Slayer

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Good Lord it was hot this weekend. We had 103 degs. and even with a wet towel around my neck I got too hot and had to come in. We had deer watching us work with a chainsaw running. They were out about 25 - 40 yards depending on which group came thru. I had one watching me on the tractor at 25 yards in the heavy cover. This was during the heat of the day.

My 1 acre clover plot was some what dormant because of the excessive heat and extended drought. The plot just needs to be sprayed with VOLUNTEER which is a selective herbicide that just kills grass and nothing else. This will knock out some crabgrass. I will then spray some BUTERAC which is a 2-4-D derivitive that is safe to spray on clover and alfalfa to kill the broadleafs. I will throw some fertilizer to it and then wait for rain. These 2 treatments are cheaper and less time consuming than completely redoing the plot and replanting.

The two large 2 acre and 3 acre feeding plots will be sprayed with VOLUNTEER to kill the grass and wait for fall rains to see what comes out of dormancy. I may have to redo a couple of small spots within but it beats having to completely redo the plots.

The last hunting plot will be planted in my Fall experimental seed mix.
 

_CY_

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how's about a few pic's of what a food plot should look like?

have not had a chance to drive to Pawhuska for soil samples yet.
it's a good 1 1/2 hour away... no good way to Pawhuska from Tulsa.
 

Deer Slayer

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Site Preparation is next on our list.

We need to remove as much vegetation as we can before we start to till the soil. I recommend spraying with GLYPHOSATE a.k.a. ROUNDUP the plot to kill as much growth as possible. I would wait 2 weeks to allow the herbicide to totally kill everything and break down.

Next I would use any of the three following pieces of equipment that you may have available: 1) rototiller for small plots 2) tractor and disc or 3) tractor and rototiller. I find that the best seedbed is made with a tractor and rototiller. It fluffs the seedbed up nicely. Use what you have at your disposal and can afford.

If you are planting small seed varieties such as clover, alfalfa, brassicas etc then you need to make, borrow or rent a cultipacker which is similar to a roller. Some of the rental companies rent rollers for a nominal daily rate. Now roll the seed bed after applying your fertilizer. Next broadcast your seed with a pull behind spreader behind your 4 wheeler or lawn tractor or hand crank spreader.

The final step for your small seed varieties is to roll/cultipack the seed to give good soil/seed contact. To make it clear, I am advising to roll the plot twice.

If we are planting large seed varieties such as wheat,rye,oats, sunflower, austrian winter peas etc. then we should disc/till the soil and when that is done there is no need to firm or smooth the soil before seeding. I would suggest use a drag or light harrow so that the seed is no deeper than 1/2" to 1" down in loose soil.
 

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The final step is to follow the instructions on your bag of seed blends. If you blend your own then review the previous post regarding large seed or small seed variety planting.
 

Huckelberry75

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OK gents, here is the M&M jar for the contest. The only hint/help that you get, is that the glass jar is 30" tall.

Other than that, post your guesses in a PM, so that everything will be on the up&up.

Contest will run through Labor Day at 5pm. Anything after that, will be tossed.

Deer Slayer is a little technologically........uhm, challenged, :homer::homer::blush: so I am posting the pic for him.

Remember, only the top 5 closest guesses will recieve the sample pack (good for 1/5 of an acre) of the seed, a Whitetail Institute DVD and copy of their magazine.

Good Luck!!!!:thumbup3:

[Broken External Image]
 

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