Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
This is your thought for the day: In some places, what you kill is more important than what you plant.

Ya gonna have to ‘laborate a little for us uneducated heathens......
And how can you not love something with a name like Queen Ann’s Lace?? I’m managing more fields in fallow mode than my planted plots. Ragweed chicory dandelions pigweed pokeweed beggars lice blackberry greenbrier just to name a few deer love to munch on. Not counting an influx of native grasses. And I dont do much but mow every few years. God Bless America.
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What we are talking about here is setting back ecological succession in an area that has at least some (and maybe a lot) of very desirable pioneering plant species that deer have a preference for. In other words, killing the undesirable climaxing species by mechanical means and/or spraying - and doing things to promote the plants you want to grow that are present in the seedbank, but being held back by other plants.
In some places, this doesn't work very well. Plants you want to thrive don't exist in the seedbank and/or undesirable, aggressive, early successional plants (like dogfennel, horseweed, etc.) are about all that you will get. However, the place you see in the picture above is not a place like that, but one that works very well for my "ditch farming" technique. I will have a few undesirables to come up, but I can do drive by spraying and give the good plants the advantage they need to take over.
What you see above is jewel weed, honeysuckle, tick trefoil, goldenrod, blackberry and several other desirable plants. These were not planted. They existed in the seedbank, and all I did was get rid of everything else that was holding them back. Once the initial work is done, I do a "drive by spot spraying" once a year to keep things going. By timing the maintenance based on germination times and other ecological factors, I can even control the mix of the desirable species while setting back the undesirable ones.
Most of what you see is rough ground that I can't even drive a tractor over. I do the maintenance from the edges from a pickup truck and pole saw. Worthless ground becomes a deer feeding mecca with only a small amount of effort.
Even though there is a huge corn field only 200 yards away from this, it is being eaten hard right now - especially the jewel weed. Other plants like goldenrod will be eaten later in the year. Their basal leaves are very desirable in the winter.
Whatcha think now about hillbilly ditch farming????
Jewelweed is a rule breaker where I've seen big stands of it. Deer don't browse it, they all out graze on it.This is your thought for the day: In some places, what you kill is more important than what you plant.
Jewelweed is a rule breaker where I've seen big stands of it. Deer don't browse it, they all out graze on it.
I don't like queen annes lace. Invasive like wild parsnip. I've never seen deer eat goldenrod. I have 10 acres almost overrun with the stuff. Don't have a way to mow it so I pulled a drag over it to try to knock it back a little.
I remember a picture some time back with a view of many colors of flowers blooming. I think the shed above was in it to. Thanks for helping narrow the search! It was a planted field so it must have been a different view. Or I misremember what I saw.
The pictures above are beautiful.
One of my best bow spots ever was a stand of Jewel Weed growing naturally in fairly open timber in a wet spot about 100 yards from a forty acre alfalfa field. The deer would show up about 3 pm and after feeding on the Jewel Weed would simply bed down right in front of me until dark before moving on into the alfalfa. It was a great pre-rut stand that provided a huge amount of action over the years and was as good or better than any planted food plot early in the season.
I don't like queen annes lace. Invasive like wild parsnip. I've never seen deer eat goldenrod. I have 10 acres almost overrun with the stuff. Don't have a way to mow it so I pulled a drag over it to try to knock it back a little.
I remember a picture some time back with a view of many colors of flowers blooming. I think the shed above was in it to. Thanks for helping narrow the search! It was a planted field so it must have been a different view. Or I misremember what I saw.
The pictures above are beautiful.
Goldenrod fields are a great place to find does bedded during the intense part of the chase phase of the rut.You have a good memory. Yes, i remember that picture. It was a view of the shed from a different angle. It had some planted species mixed in with some native species and was very colorful. Along with some of the species seen above there was some red clover, chicory, partridge pea and maybe some tickseed sunflower.
PS: The basal leaves of goldenrod will be eaten late in the year by deer and rabbits, but it isn’t a highly valuable food species. I like it in NWSG fields because it makes good cover and the bees use it. In the ditch farming I like a little for the diversity but will knock it back some if it gets too strong. When I do knock it back, the jewelweed is usually what replaces it.
And it has standing power. When the other grasses start going down around me, golden rod stands for a while longer.Goldenrod fields are a great place to find does bedded during the intense part of the chase phase of the rut.
Does lay in it and hold tight like rabbits. They won't get up unless a buck almost steps on them.
Bucks run does to the point that the does are completely exhausted. Bucks can smell that does are in goldenrod but the important part is that they can't SEE them. Bucks need to work the field like a pheasant dog which gives the does some precious time to rest.
Lots of guys think they need to hunt the woods, but overgrown fields get a ton of deer activity during the chase phase.
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Goldenrod fields are a great place to find does bedded during the intense part of the chase phase of the rut.
Does lay in it and hold tight like rabbits. They won't get up unless a buck almost steps on them.
Bucks run does to the point that the does are completely exhausted. Bucks can smell that does are in goldenrod but the important part is that they can't SEE them. Bucks need to work the field like a pheasant dog which gives the does some precious time to rest.
Lots of guys think they need to hunt the woods, but overgrown fields get a ton of deer activity during the chase phase.
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And it has standing power. When the other grasses start going down around me, golden rod stands for a while longer.