The ongoing food plot story

OK, hope to make this thread an ongoing experiment in the food plotting on my place. I am not experienced, have no history of doing this, and have only read on multiple sources of what other folks have done, so bear with me, feel free to ask questions or comment or give tips.

My first year food plotting: 2017 fall season

materials: rented zero turn mower, a rented tractor with rotary tiller, a 6x8 drag/spike/chain harrow, a pull behind 31 gal sprayer, and a seed spreader (capacity approx 25#).

area in plot: 1 acre with some small tree islands; 1/2 acre; 1/3 acre with adjacent 1/8 acre 'throw and go'; 1/4 acre 'throw and go'. total in plot approx 2.5 acres. Property is 400 acres so ultimately I would like to have between 25-40 acres in cultivation of some sort. It will take some time to get there. Baby steps. I will need some serious equipment to get to that level...baby steps.

Seed used: whitetail institute whitetail oats as nurse crop for all plots other than no till sections
1 acre plot got whitetail institute double cross
1/2 acre plot got whitetail institute edge
1/3 acre plot got whitetail institute extreme
no till plots got pennington rack master texas complete


Fertilizer used was 17-17-17 from local feed store (they provided a free ground driven buggy cart) for all plots except 1/2 acre and 1/4 acre no till plot. I ran the fertilizer heavy from the buggy so I ran out. Planned on 400#/acre but probably got closer to 600#/acre and then had to use my spreader for 150# 13-13-13 on the 1/3 acre plot and 50# on the 1/4 acre plot.



1 acre plot
This was after mowing down, then two weeks later spraying with glyphosphate. After waiting two weeks, I came in and used the tractor with rotary tiller to turn some dirt and get a soil bed. It was super dry so my effort wasn't great but it did create a soil bed.
I then spread fertilizer and then seeded the oats. I then ran my drag harrow over the ground to work the fertilizer and oats in the soil a bit. I then spread the double cross and hoped for rain.

the drag harrow did a good job of stirring up the dirt and burying the oats and fertilizer as shown from the top of the picture (dragged area) compared to the bottom of the picture (non-dragged area with all the oats and fertilizer still visible)

Repeat process for each of the other "till" plots.


I was asked by a member to try a no till 'throw ad go' plot for experimentation sake....why not. Aside, from the tiller I rented, I simply used equipment available to anyone with a truck or atv/utv, so I figured this would be a good trial as I have a few other spots that would be amenable to such a no tractor plot. I did one of these right next to the 1/3 acre plot to get an idea if it really does make a difference and is the ground prep worth it. (I would post pictures but they keep turning out upside down despite me editing them to be upright)
The other throw and go plot was in a very deer rich area, but would be tough to get a tractor back to with implements, so it is a perfect place for a throw and go plot. Sprayed both with gly, then ran the drag harrow through it several times to get the dirt worked and try to get some of the grass knocked down.

I know it is upside down, but wanted to show what spraying, then dragging a spike harrow through would do. The native grass in this area is 3-4 feet tall. The spray did a good job but dragging made a difference too. Spread the fertilizer and then spread seed. I seeded heavy for the size, and hope to get a good take. The bag of seed used (pennington rack master texas complete) was for a total of 1/2 acre, so it wasn't double the seed rate, but it was a little heavier than recommended.

Couple take aways so far from my experience:
1. a mower is a lousy way to mow native grass/pasture. A tractor would shred the area much quicker and more effortless.
2. a tractor with a cab would be a huge plus. I rented an open station tractor and aside from getting completely covered in dirt, I was blowing dirt out of my nose for two days after using the tiller. Sure, the dryness had a lot to do with it, but a tractor with cab would mitigate the issue altogether.
3. Seed rates are misleading and you almost need to double the actual seed amount to a given acreage. Maybe I am just an aggressive seeder and I am sure it had a lot to do with my inexperience using a seed spreader, but especially with mixes that had larger seed mixed with small seed, in order to get the seed to flow I had to open the seeder up and it allowed way too much seed to fall causing the seed to run out too quickly.
4. Rain. Rain. Rain. Now that the seed is out, I need rain. I initially planned on seeding this thursday, but with the changing weather patterns I saw rain coming before that so i jumped on the opportunity to get it done prior to my plans.


5. I don't know why pictures won't upload correctly. I can't even get them to upload from my phone anymore (iOS 11 glitch?). So once I figure out how to upload pictures, I can send more...

6. I will update as growth/use/kills take place with comparisons between all the plots given as well.

Nice looking forward to the pics to come

Just in case anyone wants to know whats I planted

Seed blends used (would post picture but they turn sideways and upside down...annoying)

WI Double cross: 30% alex berseem clover, 10% landino clover, 10% landino clover (different strain), 9% landino clover (yet another strain), remaining % made up of rape, kale, turnip.

WI Edge: 39% Sainfoin, 21.6% Persist burnet, 8.5% alfalfa, 6% alex berseem clover, 5% triticale, 1.3% chicory.

WI Extreme: 64% persist burnet, 9% alex berseem clover, 5.25% chicory, 3% wheat

WI oats: 89% oats, 9% triticale

Pennington Texas Complete: 39% wheat, 25% oats, 15% austrian winter peas, 4% crimson clover, 4% turnip, 4% rape

Where abouts is this located?

Straight north on 35 up just a smidge past Ardmore Oklahoma.

Love this thread already. Please keep us posted on how everything turns out. If you don't mind me asking. How much did all the rented materials cost?

definitely curious to see this progress. thanks for letting us in on this.

The mower was a diesel kubota 60 inch zero turn and ran around 175 plus the trailer rental was 210.

The tractor was a kubota 3560 with a 50 inch rotary tiller and combined were 209 with trailer.

I rent them for a weekend which includes 8 hours of use. This allows me to take them up, get some work done and then return them Monday am early.

All were rented from zimmerer kubota Fort Worth.

I don’t have a place to keep any equipment so that’s why I am renting right now, hope to have that remedied by spring, but hurricane Harvey may steal all my workers and supplies

It has been a while and I meant to use the Imperial White products this year, just did not get off my butt and order it, please let us know how they produce. Fields look good so far

When you get a pic that flips, it is because it is too vertically tall, keep cropping down.

Following with interest to learn - I have never planted a plot and am very interested to see how things work out for you.

I am worried my seed may have been floated off. Had some solid rain Monday after planting, Tuesday some
Mild rain, Wednesday some rain, and today a deluge....I hope the seed got down in the dirt after the couple of decent light rains the previous days. Time will tell.

Well the good news is it appears the ground absorbs water at my place. Standing water is almost all gone just a few hours after rain stopped, just hope the seed is still there.

Will post pics to see how everything grows up. Should know by early next week.

I wish it would rain on our place........I'm in Live Oak county in Three Rivers...........I've planted a few times and never got rain until late November........waste of money for me..........good to see someone is getting some rain.

Well it appears all isn’t lost yet...I got a pic last night that showed plenty of green coming up at the plot above that was flooded pretty good on Thursday. Don’t know what is coming up just yet, plan to update with pics and progress reports this next weekend when I get up there, but for now, fingers crossed.

I hope it isn’t all wheat coming up and the other seed got good germination too.

It is amazing to me the difference lighting makes in the visibility of sprouts on camera.

Heck yeah! Looking good.

Them deer are saying 'Hurry up and GROW!' - heh heh heh

OK quick update about the plots. They all came up, the biggest one (double cross plot) has some sign of pooling of seed from heavy rain, but the other two didn’t have as much and seem pretty uniform. Need some rain on them but overall they are working and deer are using them. Sat at the double cross plot last night and had several doe come in and eat for over 30 minutes. Been getting good pics of deer at the smallest plot (extreme) and it is the best growth so far. The middle-sized plot (edge) has lots of tracks through it and cut leaves so I know it is getting hit just don’t know how much or when as no one has sat there yet.

The no till plots are doing surprisingly well. Both plots have visible growth through the stubbly uncut native grass. The plot next to ya extreme plot is growing well. The other plot of on it’s own isn’t quite as robust but it is showing good signs of use and growth. Overall I would say the only thing I could have done different is mowed the native grass rather than just spraying and using the drag to flatten the grass.

Double cross plot, the areas of bare ground where the seed got pooled and floated a bit. This is more obvious in other areas, but this part was where the deer ate from when I hunted last night as it is the best growth in the plot.


Extreme plot, pretty even growth across the plot. See the pics a couple posts ago to see what the water looked like with the heavy rains we got. I think the level ground here prevented a lot of pooling of seed.


Edge plot. Not terrible pooling and pretty good growth. I am anxious to see this one as it grows.

No till plots:
First two pics are from same plot, just different views. Can see some good growth and some clumped growth, but it is green and growing. So that's good.



Stand alone plot. A little less vigorous growth but still some good greenery poking through.



All seed were planted sept 25, rain followed within a day or less. So this is Essentially two weeks growth.

And as I am writing this:



That's the camera overlooking the extreme plot.

I did not put in exclusion cages. If I think about it I may do that in the near future. Would answer the question of how much are the plots getting grazed, but didn't do it, yet.

One other thing I may do that Whitetail Institute recommends is putting on about 100#/acre of 34-0-0 fertilizer after about 3045 days. If we get some decent rain between now and then I may go ahead and do something similar.

I also may get some clover seed mix and spread a little in the double cross plot just to thicken it up in the pooled areas. Try to get maximal greenery.

Nice frost this am. Got the deer out and moving. Of course I wasn’t there. Food plot is looking good. The freeze might kill off some of the native forbs and make the plots even more attractive.

Next time I am out I will snap some pics of the throw and go plots. They were looking good and if somemof the native green dies back they will really stand out.

Looking great! This is my first year for plots as well.

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.

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.

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....

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.

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

Tell me about these 'tree tubes'. I've never seen anything like this before. Purpose? Features and benefits?

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.

Thanks for the info. I'll check those out.

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.

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.