Food Plots Down South

[Kade.Poole]

Good Evening Everyone,
My name is Kade Poole. I’m new to the page and I’m really look forward to learning some information from some of you who have been successful or unsuccessful in the food plot world. I live is South Georgia, land of the pines. I’ve always been the guy who just pours our corn or deer attractant. However, I really want to learn about food plots and how to establish and keep them going.
My wife’s family has a few different properties we hunt. I’m mainly going to focus on one property that most of the family doesn’t hunt. She has a few cousins and uncle who lets say kill everything that walks. I’ve tried to get them to buy into the building a herd and trying to grow some decent bucks for our area with no luck.
The property I’d like to get some opinions/thoughts on is around a 415 acre property. Her family does hunt some of this property so there is around a 150 acres that none of them have any stands or anything one. It is mainly pine trees, Palmetto Bushes Thickets, it does have oaks scattered throughout the property. and open areas that flood occasionally. It is very sandy. There are some transition lines where older lines meet younger pines, 2 path roads, Etc.
I’m looking to plant a few of the roads, some of the more open pine rows that do get a little sunlight, and there are a few areas I’m going to cut down some trees to build some No till plots. All of these plots will be no till while using sprayers, broadcasters, rakes, and eventually a cultipacker.
I’d like any input on how to go about this process. What seeds? What fertilizer and/or Lime? Etc.
Thanks in Advance

 

[BenAllgood]

I'd get a soil test from each plot first. I'd also start with a simple mix like wheat and crimson clover. Maybe throw in some radish, but that should get you a good plot for fall through spring. Trees near the edges will suck up the light, water, and nutrients.

 

[Kade.Poole]

I'd get a soil test from each plot first. I'd also start with a simple mix like wheat and crimson clover. Maybe throw in some radish, but that should get you a good plot for fall through spring. Trees near the edges will suck up the light, water, and nutrients.

Thank you. I was maybe thinking trying a few brassicas around the 1st of September. Then going in about 3 to 4 weeks later and broadcasting Oats and winter Rye.

 

[yoderjac]

Good Evening Everyone,
My name is Kade Poole. I’m new to the page and I’m really look forward to learning some information from some of you who have been successful or unsuccessful in the food plot world. I live is South Georgia, land of the pines. I’ve always been the guy who just pours our corn or deer attractant. However, I really want to learn about food plots and how to establish and keep them going.
My wife’s family has a few different properties we hunt. I’m mainly going to focus on one property that most of the family doesn’t hunt. She has a few cousins and uncle who lets say kill everything that walks. I’ve tried to get them to buy into the building a herd and trying to grow some decent bucks for our area with no luck.
The property I’d like to get some opinions/thoughts on is around a 415 acre property. Her family does hunt some of this property so there is around a 150 acres that none of them have any stands or anything one. It is mainly pine trees, Palmetto Bushes Thickets, it does have oaks scattered throughout the property. and open areas that flood occasionally. It is very sandy. There are some transition lines where older lines meet younger pines, 2 path roads, Etc.
I’m looking to plant a few of the roads, some of the more open pine rows that do get a little sunlight, and there are a few areas I’m going to cut down some trees to build some No till plots. All of these plots will be no till while using sprayers, broadcasters, rakes, and eventually a cultipacker.
I’d like any input on how to go about this process. What seeds? What fertilizer and/or Lime? Etc.
Thanks in Advance

The first thing is to do no harm. Avoid tillage, especially with sandy soil. I'd start by googling "Ray the Soil Guy" and watch a few of his videos and learn about soils. A soil test is important to figure out if lime and how much is needed. I would completely ignore any fertilizer recommendations. They are aimed at farmers who harvest and are focused on yield. With food plots, we don't have to plant monocultures like farmers. We can choose crops that complement each other, don't require tillage, and benefit and attract deer. Choose a mix that includes small cereal grains and legumes. This mix of Carbon (from the grass component) and Nitrogen (fixed by the legumes), promotes the building of Organic Matter over time. This, in turn supports nutrient cycling.

You don't need big no-till drills to do no-till. With the right seed mix, you can simply spray to control existing weeds, broadcast, and cultipack. One more big picture thing when you are first starting out. Pretty magazine cover monocultures free of weeds look good to man, but don't have any more benefit to deer. Learn about weeds. Some are truly problematic and need to be dealt with, but most benefit deer. Deer managers are different than farmers. Anything a farmer did not plant is a weed to a farmer. It is distracting from his yield. For a deer manager, the same thing that is a weed to a farmer may be benefitting deer more than the crop he planted.

That is a good starting point. One more thing to consider is that "the south" is not the same. When it comes to specific crops and approaches, what works best in one place may not work in another.

Best of luck!

 

[Drycreek]

I think yoder has given good advice. I wish I would take more of it. I f I didn’t have a dearth of hogs, I would try the no-till method. I tried it once and the hogs ate all the seed, but honestly I don’t think I planted into the right crop or the right plot. It was creek bottom clay and the crop was beans. In retrospect, there wasn’t enough cover over the wheat I broadcast and the ground was too hard.


I no longer own that place and the soils I plant in now are more forgiving. I think if I planted the right seeds, I might could broadcast into it and crimp. I don’t have a crimper, but I do have a roller that could be turned into one with the addition of some angle iron or some strap. The seed blend I experimented with at home this spring looks ideal to me to try this crimping thing.


Welcome to the forum Kade, you can learn a lot from these guys, I know I have.

 

[MarkDarvin]

If it’s a tough soil to begin with, I’d make sure to mix in some tough soil varieties to help you get something growing and get your soil economy humming. If it may be dry sand, I’d be focused on creating anything that will tolerate dry and get biomass up quickly: flax, jap millet, rye, chicory, plantain, common ragweed, baldy safflower, a forage sorghum, a controllable clover, sunflower.

You don’t need all of those but the more you have, the better they will work together to get your soil covered and preserve your moisture. Once you have a working duff layer, the extremes won’t harm you as much, excess rain and no rain.


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[MarkDarvin]

And if you have north of 8 varieties out there, nobody will see the weeds either.


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