Food plots

Hey guys. I'll be planting for the first time in 2017 and I'm looking to gather as much knowledge in the following as possible. I hunt east Texas. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Sorry if this has you searching for the dead horse emoji! Search wasn't cooperating.

Pre-planting soil prep
Any specific greens you like
Best times to plant.
Size and shape of plot
Any other general advice.

Thanks!

Justin

I'm also looking to plant in the next month or so. I have 2 roughly 15 acre fields that I am considering planting but don't know much about the subject. I would like to plant a variety so that I have something coming up during most times of the year. Any help is appreciated.

First thing you need to have done is have a soil test done. If we are talking east Texas timber country then you can be sure the soil is acidic. At the very least you probably need to put out about 1500 lbs. of lime per acre as a start as soon as you can. It takes about six months to be incorporated into the soil so it may not help this spring but it will benefit the fall. Iron and clay cowpeas in the spring are easy to grow and tolerate acidic soil better than most things. If you can get the lime in now then around March, weather permitting, I would start discing and planting. Long and skinny are better than square- deer are edge creatures. The more edge you create the better. Unless it is small they won't venture much in the daylight into the middle of a big foodplot. A lot of folks will put in fertilizer just prior to planting- I like to wait and see it get up some before fertilizing. That's all I got for you now.

Perfect. Thanks Russ!

Soil test?
how do you collect the soil? and where do you take it? I'm new to this as well I just bought about 50 acres in Comstock. I have a few good looking acres in a low green area

Get a hold of "AdThomps" on here, he helped me out a bunch on food plots.

Most places that sell garden supplies, carry tools and test kits to test soil. The brand I purchased is "Soil Master." I may have got the items at Wal-Mart, not sure. I use these for my vegetable garden. I don't know much about food plots. There are many related videos on Youtube. I may plant a food plot at the deer lease this Spring. This will be a learning experience, and a work in progress.

Personally, I wouldn't spend a dime, or much effort until I got a proper soil sample, without question on ground you are unsure of. Easy to just throw out something and also easy to throw out what you don't need/wont utilize.
I also have little doubt you could plow and plant oats/wheat, throw 200# of triple 13 fertilizer per acre and get enough growth to feed deer, but know you can improve your dirt over time by planting certain plants and adding the amendments to the soil that it actually needs. It is also possible to improve the native vegetation to be more productive for wildlife as well, just depends on how "deep" of an approach you want to take with it.

A great, FREE resource is your local AG agent, they will come out and meet you, so have a list of questions written down, they know your county, up on best land practices and have leads on tons of information.

Easiest and quickest way to get a certified soil sample, I will link below, same info you will get from your county AG agent, but faster as you can read this, print of the form you need, follow the instructions for getting the sample and mailing it on the bottom of the form.

Main link: http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

Bottom of page, you want to click "Submittal forms", You probably want the 1st test (S17, test #6) This will tell you if and how much lime you may need. Scroll down to the bottom of the form and full instructions are on the bottom, you can take the sample and have it ready to mail in 30 minutes or less.
Here is the PDF for the sample.
http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/soilwebform.pdf