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Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #6937075 10/28/17 08:56 PM
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Looking great! This is my first year for plots as well.

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7100383 03/04/18 04:27 AM
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Quick update, my place didn’t get much rain this late fall early winter, so I never dropped thensecond set of fertilizer. The plots did ok, best one was the extreme plot, but without exclusion cages it is hard to tell if the other plots didn’t do well, were too dry, or got over grazed (which is a definite possibility due to the deer pressure and tracks and sign throughout the plots).

We just got a bunch of rain, as did a lot of the viewing area, so I plan to prepare some new plots for whitetail power plant. This is a mixture of soybeans, sun henna and sunflowers (which are suppose to act as a scaffolding for the soybeans to grow onto). I plan to do 4 plots of this, each between an acre and 1.5 acres. All concentrated roughly in the same area to ease some of the pressure but also give the deer some good eats and fawning cover. I hope to get most of the ground work done over the next two weeks and be ready to plant toward the beginning of April if the temps increase.

I am also going to plant some more extreme to make the plot about an acre to 1.25 and another acre of chicory (whitetail chic magnet) so I hope to get those planted over the next two weeks as well.

Finally, planted 25 each sand and American plum seedlings to form thickets around the area the extreme plot will be extended to and one of the power plant plots. Also planted about 30 oak seedlings to create some borders and eventually some acorn production around one of my hunting sections. Will see how those turn out. Used tree tubes to help protect them and allow them to get started. Ground was decently moist so they have some good conditions to get started.

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7168742 05/13/18 10:34 PM
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Will update this with pictures in about a week, but plots are coming in well. Despite spraying all the plots with glyphosphate before planting, I have some heavy grasses coming in. So I will get out there and spray with some arrest max to try and keep the grass down.

Might have made a mistake doing 4 1 acre plots. Time will tell on that vs doing larger plots to allow plants a chance to grow. I will move some exclusion cages to the plots and see if they are getting grazed or just still growing. Time will tell.

Trees are coming in, somewhat. The plums did well and almost all have leafed out and are growing. The oaks didn’t fare so well. Only a couple have leafed out and the rest appear to have not made it. I also planted a couple chestnuts and some persimmons and I see no leaves on those either. So I fear they have been planted too late in the spring and didn’t make it. Good news is I can keep the tubes up and just replant some trees next winter and be better about watering them.

As mentioned, will update with pics in about a week or less, probably gonna get up there to mow the fishing spot and spray some grass.

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7174547 05/20/18 01:29 AM
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Got up to the place last night, with sore shoulders and back to show for it. Took up some clethodim and a four gallon backpack sprayer and sprayed four of my plots. They all needed the spray but some needed it more than others. Pics to follow. For the most part, the power plant has come up well, problem is the plots being about an acre each, the deer are just hammering the beans. There is plenty of moisture in the soil so they are continuing to send shoots, but they just aren’t making much progress at this point. Several of the plots have a good mix of greenbriar and the deer are hitting that and the beans about equally hard.

Grass in one of the plots. One benefit to the grass is the hidden beans and greenbriar inside the large clumps

Hopefully the clethodim will work and kill back some of that grass. It’s hard to tell by the pic but most of the y’all clumps are chest height.

My favorite plot at this point. Just a little grass and some serious food

Notice the plants are all essentially the same height...deer just not letting those plants get tall

Pic of another plot showing the deer eating right around the weeds and hitting the beans hard



After walking through four acres with a backpack sprayer, hauling water back and forth to the plots to mix the herbicide, can someone say I need a tractor sprayer? I have a pull behind sprayer for ATV use but last time I used it the pump malfunctioned so I am torn between a ATV/UTV sprayer or getting a tractor sprayer....dilemmas....I don’t even have a tractor yet, but can rent one....

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7174570 05/20/18 01:51 AM
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Not food plot related but still habitat related, my tree planting this year was not as successful as hoped, but I was late ordering and got some bottom of the barrel plants and planted them a little later than I should have.

150 scotch pine, around 2/3 still alive and growing. Will add more next year and will try to get small containerized/tubed seedlings with some roots already established.

Hoping this turns into a nice pine stand in a few years



Planted around 20-25 oaks, burr and shumgard. Tried to create a screen and a well established “hunting area” with defined “no-Go” areas for the non-hunters. Probably around 5-6 made it, although this was where the bottom of the barrel was really noticed. Some of the “trees” were sticks with barely any fuzz of root. The oaks that have taken are doing great and should be good trees in a few years.

Peeking inside the tube


Also planted some plum along some edges to create some spring flowers and some fruit for deer and people (if the deer don’t get them first). Again, saw some good plant stock and some sorry plant stock. Not surprisingly the good plants have done great, and the bad ones have shown just a few surviving plants.



I also planted a couple chestnut and some persimmon. Unfortunately none of these made it, but they were so cheap
I simply wasted a year of growth and not a lot money. Will get some more next year and plant earlier to allow better chance for survival.

Last edited by Texas buckeye; 05/20/18 01:52 AM.
Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7174593 05/20/18 02:25 AM
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Originally Posted By: Texas buckeye
..... I have a pull behind sprayer for ATV use but last time I used it the pump malfunctioned so I am torn between a ATV/UTV sprayer or getting a tractor sprayer.......


Why not get a new pump for you ATV sprayer?

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_sprayers+northstar+sprayer-pumps?seeAll=1


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Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: BayouGuy] #7174608 05/20/18 02:47 AM
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Originally Posted By: BayouGuy
Originally Posted By: Texas buckeye
..... I have a pull behind sprayer for ATV use but last time I used it the pump malfunctioned so I am torn between a ATV/UTV sprayer or getting a tractor sprayer.......


Why not get a new pump for you ATV sprayer?

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_sprayers+northstar+sprayer-pumps?seeAll=1


I am not sure the problem with it and it is two hours away, so at some point when i have a place built up there (soon, it is actually soon) then I can take a look at it and see whats the issue up

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7182147 05/29/18 12:10 AM
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Tell me about these 'tree tubes'. I've never seen anything like this before. Purpose? Features and benefits?

Last edited by Erathkid; 05/29/18 12:10 AM.

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Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7182336 05/29/18 03:07 AM
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Tree tubes are plastic “mini-greenhouses” for trees that allow them to grow unmolested by deer browsing or deer rubbing or rabbit chewing.

They are susceptible to voles and mice chewing as they can get under the tubes, but the big animals that can hurt a tree will be cut to a minimum by the tube. Something like a cow isn’t going to be deterred, so places with cattle need to place a protective fence around trees, and many people will just do that instead of tubes. But even without the physical protection of rubbing and browsing, a tree tube has some free house benefits to trees that a protective fence doesn’t provide.

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7183282 05/30/18 02:45 AM
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Thanks for the info. I'll check those out.


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Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7331974 10/30/18 05:53 PM
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Quick update, had planned to rent a tractor for the last several weekends to till up the plots and get some seed down, but weather prevented that...as we all have experienced.

So went out this weekend and used the drag harrow where I could, stirred the ground a bit and broadcast the seed for three of the plots. Put down Whitetail institutes Pure Attraction, mostly oats but also some peas and other greens. Seeded heavy, around 100# for 3/4 acre on one and close to 100# per half on the other two. Dirt was still damp enough a tractor would have been tough in two of the plots, the third was more dry.

Went out yesterday and finished the other two plots. Put down Pure attraction in one about a half acre, and used a new product from Whitetail institute called vision for another. Vision is a blend of clovers, kale, and some other minor greens. I put this is a wet plot I call the swamp, as it was literally underwater just a couple weeks ago (when my lake was up about 10 feet). This dirt was still slippery wet just walking it, no way to get a vehicle back to it. But the high water essentially killed off all the vegetation so I had some good dirt to work with.

Rain forecast for tomorrow and not a lot of it, half inch or less, should allow things to germinate and get a start. The subsoil is very moist all around so once it gets going, it should be fine.

Will add some pics next time I am out.

Re: The ongoing food plot story [Re: Texas buckeye] #7363135 11/30/18 06:42 PM
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So I need some rain. I got several plots done with a poor technique as best I could, and got a small amount of rain to allow germination but that’s all I have gotten since spreading seed. I have a decent crop but it needs water. Hopefully that comes tonight. I see lots of short oats that just want to grow, and I feel a decent rain may be the difference between a decent stand and a good stand, but when is that never the case?

Anyway, here’s some pics. First plot does have some grasses that make it appear greener than it is but the oats and mixture (pure attraction from whitetail institute) have come up and are abundant, if just a little short.

The other plot has the same mix, kept it simple this year, and has really no grass or other weeds to green things up. The small Amount of green seen in the pic is the pure attraction.

For anyone looking for a frost resistant oat, whitetail institutes oats have stood up perfectly so far to multiple good heavy frosts and sienna temps at night down into the low 20’s. My property is in southern Oklahoma so it may not get that cold for most of the readers, but NTX and the panhandle will see temps like this and these oats have held up well so far.

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