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What to plant?
#6217951
03/10/16 08:04 PM
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 412
Fishuhalik
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Bird Dog
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OP
Bird Dog
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Hey guys, new to this part of the forum! Got a question for y'all. Buddy of mine just got some property over by Garwood and it's got a lot of potential for deer and dove. I'm a midwestern native and to be honest, I've never hunted over a feeder and don't really want to. First off, I wanna say that I don't think hunting over a feeder is wrong or unethical by any means. I don't care what you do as long as it's within the law, it just ain't for me. My question is, what can a guy plant in an area with pretty crappy soil that would attract dove and deer? It's pretty sandy. I'm used to planting in pretty good soil that just needs to be turned and seeded every year, and we'd usually do a mix of rape and clover. Any tips? I think the biggest focus will be on dove with some deer hunting (mainly meat hunting) thrown in. We aren't gonna be going crazy enough to worry about antler growth or anything like that. There's also a small pond on the property
Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly harmless til you put it in your mouth & light it on fire
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218110
03/10/16 09:59 PM
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Joined: May 2014
Posts: 374
StretchR
Bird Dog
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Bird Dog
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 374 |
Someone with more knowledge than me will likely answer, but the doves around here REALLY seem to like fields of wild sunflower. I've seen them growing in pretty poor soil, to that might be an option for you. Don't think it would do anything for deer, though.
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218167
03/10/16 10:30 PM
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,856
30378
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Veteran Tracker
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NRA Benefactor Life Member - Free men should not be subjected to permits, paperwork and taxation in order to carry a firearm.
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218207
03/10/16 10:47 PM
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 11,530
rickym
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Sunflowers are a good choice.
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218300
03/10/16 11:58 PM
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 412
Fishuhalik
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Thanks for the replies guys. How much care is required for sunflowers? It's about an hour away so we aren't gonna be able to water really frequently
Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly harmless til you put it in your mouth & light it on fire
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218303
03/10/16 11:58 PM
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 412
Fishuhalik
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Bird Dog
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And how big of a plot do you think a guy would have to plant to get good numbers of dove coming in?
Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly harmless til you put it in your mouth & light it on fire
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218346
03/11/16 12:29 AM
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 60,296
stxranchman
Obie Juan Kenobi
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Obie Juan Kenobi
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How many acres can you plant and how many deer will use it? A good plot can support 3-7 deer per acre. Will there be livestock? If so you will need a fence. Sunflowers(not native) will be consumed by deer before you will ever see a flower IME if that is all you have. Browntop Millet, Sorghum Alum, Millets, Red Top Cane are all good for doves if planted at the right time and not planted to thick. Will draw a few deer. One thing about feeders. You may not want to use one but your neighbors will, they will draw deer off of your land no matter how many acres you have or what you plant for the deer. Just the nature of Texas deer. If it were me I would put up corn feeder(s) in locations that I did not hunt and hunt the trails away from them. Feeders act like planted crop fields in areas where you can not grow crops. Many areas of Texas don't have the soil or get the rainfall to grow crops and when they do the deer and hogs wipe them out ASAP(if you do not plant enough acres).
Are idiots multiplying faster than normal people?
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218569
03/11/16 01:59 AM
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 412
Fishuhalik
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Well, I can plant up to about 15, but Wanna keep it to 4-6 acres. There won't be any livestock
Good heads up about the neighbors stealing the deer. Never thought of that. I guess I might have to try your plan of setting feeders and hunting them away from it. As you can tell, I'm completely new to this kind of hunting. I have a lot to learn
Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly harmless til you put it in your mouth & light it on fire
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218709
03/11/16 03:13 AM
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 60,296
stxranchman
Obie Juan Kenobi
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Obie Juan Kenobi
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 60,296 |
You can bait with a corn/protein feeder or bait with a planted food source. Both are baiting just viewed differently by different regions. Midwest farmers plant corn and hunters hunt over that before/after it is harvested, after they harvest they send it down to Texas for hunters to bait here with out of feeders here. Same corn just viewed differently. 4-6 acres will support around 18-30 deer depending on what/how much you plant. Cowpeas or Soybeans will work well for deer in spring/summer. I would look at some sort of millet or grazer in a separate plot of a few acres for doves only. Need to ask you local GW what you can do to the crop to make it more attractive to birds after it matures to hunt it legally. I would also make a separate plot of a few acres for deer only in the spring then planting it again in the fall for hunting. I would look at oats or wheat or combo of small grains with maybe a clover in the fall. We do not get cold enough to freeze brassica plants to get them palatable in time to hunt. Your rut is going to be very early (and more in archery season) for a Texas rut also. So you need to think along those lines of a hunting plot planting time frame.
Are idiots multiplying faster than normal people?
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6218835
03/11/16 04:50 AM
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Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 412
Fishuhalik
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Bird Dog
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Posts: 412 |
it isn't so much getting deer into the area that bothers me about baiting. That's mainly what food plots are for IMHO, at least in areas that don't allow baiting. For one, ever since I was old enough to walk around the woods with dad, baiting was a taboo. It's hard to get past that mindset!! And I don't really hunt food plots unless I'm meat hunting, which is pretty much all I'll be doing in Texas. When I chase horns up Nort', it's all about figuring out travel patterns, scrape lines, etc etc. Again, I'm not here to judge anyone or say that one thing is better than another. Long as you love it and do it within the law, kill em however you like!
As far as food plots during archery, I've never really hunted em during the early season. In my experience, there's so much green in the woods, the deer don't really need to venture into an open plot to graze. They wouldn't really start hitting the food plots (during the day) until late Oct/early Nov. Nice bucks usually didn't pay attention to them until mid-late Nov, when rifle season and the rut were over. Is it different down here?
Cigarettes are like hamsters. Perfectly harmless til you put it in your mouth & light it on fire
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6256692
04/12/16 03:22 PM
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 687
AdThomps
Tracker
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Tracker
Joined: Nov 2011
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If your still looking for some info and ideas shoot me an email and I'll be glad to help you out. I'm the independent territory rep for Texas for Tecomate and we have lots of options to get you where you want to be.
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6256940
04/12/16 06:45 PM
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 11,530
rickym
THF Celebrity
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THF Celebrity
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Plant clover and rye in the fall around the edges of your plot
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6256943
04/12/16 06:49 PM
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032
Navasot
Hollywood
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Hollywood
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032 |
Plant oats... do a soil test and fertilize... or may even need to lime... oats love growing in sand and unless its packed down cracked sand ground usually sand plots are minimal effort... but if the ground is as your saying the soil sample and choosing the right steps to make the ground usable is a must
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Re: What to plant?
[Re: Fishuhalik]
#6256947
04/12/16 06:52 PM
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032
Navasot
Hollywood
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Hollywood
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 28,032 |
oh your planting for dove too... id just do mainly a deer plot and then put strips of millet or sunflower in it... but usually if you have a lot of deer they will destroy the flowered plants first... imo doing the deer plot will be more beneficial.. there are other ways to find good dove hunting.... if you got a good pond with a few brush trees around it doing something as simple as cleaning the banks back about 10-15yrds can produce good dove hunting
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