I have a question for JC

[Deleted]

I know you have a food plot with brassica in it. I have about a 30 by 40 ft food plot and was wondering how you plant brassica. Do you fertilize and lime the ground? do you sprinkle the seed and cover it or do you just sprinkle and leave it? And how do you cover if you do cover it. I have a tiller for my tractor but I am afraid I will till it to deep with my tiller. Its a 4 ft tiller. thanks,

Mark

[Admin]

I haven't maintained a foodplot in a few years now. Keeping a good plot can get expensive and I just quit doing it. Lime and fertilizer really depends on the condition of your soil. You need a ph of around 7 for best results. When I made my plot, I tilled the ground with my tractor mounted tiller, seeded it, and since I didn't have a roller I just drove over it with my atv to push the seeds into the soft soil. Using a roller is the best method.

Spreading the seed just before a thunderstorm is best. The soil becomes very fluffy after tilling and sometimes dragging it or driving over it will push the seeds too deep. A roller works best because of the wide surface area. If you seed just before a thunderstorm, the rain can do the work for you and drive the seeds into the fluffy soil just nicely.

The Heartland seed co has a mix called (High Pro). This is a clover brassica mix that requires very little ground prep. I had excellent results with this product.

You can spend a fortune on preparing a plot. If your ph is way off it can take a lot of lime to nuetralize the soil. A thousand pounds per acre is sometime required. Some seed products are less finicky than others. This HIGH PRO stuff is pretty user friendly.

[Deleted]

Thanks JC

[killemall]

JC, My wife and I moved back to west virginia from Milwaukee(hated Milwaukee). My question is: Did you notice a difference in the deer herd when you had a food plot? We have about 106 acres that are mostly mixed with white and red oak with a lot of hickory and Beech. We also have a pond and some thickets. There seems to be a lot of deer,turkey,squirrel,rabbits and even have bear wandering thru.
Would the food plot bring in more or will it help the ones already there?

[Admin]

Jul 18, 2010 11:28:28 GMT -5 killemall said:

JC, My wife and I moved back to west virginia from Milwaukee(hated Milwaukee). My question is: Did you notice a difference in the deer herd when you had a food plot?
Would the food plot bring in more or will it help the ones already there?

Well my food plot was pretty small, about 2 acres. Although the deer hammered it pretty good, I saw just as many deer in my normal hayfield. This was one of the reasons why I stopped tending a plot and just maintained a hayfield. Mowing a hayfield was a lot cheaper. My neighbor however put lots of money into his plots and has several dollars wrapped up in alfalfa and other stuff. He has tons of deer in his plots but since the same heard filters back and forth between us I just take advantage of this and save my money. Because of the high protein forage they get at his place, the deer grow fast and there's LOTS of them. So the answer to the question would be a yes. A good plot with quality forage will attract and hold a lot more deer than acreage without one. No question about it.