Fellas,

Any of y'all have good luck with food plots in really sandy soil? If so, what seed are you using?

Spring or Fall?

will try spring….if i can't get anything going soon, i'll just start working on getting the soil ph right for fall planting

Some of our plots are deep "play sand" type fields. As far as spring crops go, all the peas we have planted have worked great. The only thing we haven't had luck with Spring or Fall, are clovers and chickory.

Pretty sandy



Fall plot


Spring crops

Like Tye posted any of the pea or bean legumes will work. Lab Lab does excellent in sandy soils.

I planted 40% cowpeas, 40% lab lab and 20% buckwheat this year

what do y'all think is the optimum ph level for growing? mid 6's?

would recommend putting down a pre-emergent, if using peas as most sandy soils in our part of texas are loaded with grass burrs, really cuts down on the competition if rainfall isn't perfect, the yellow pre-emergent is fairly cheap and comes in liquid or a granular form that is easily put in the soil

The beans and peas will grow in ranges from 5.5 to 7.5 from what I have heard. If you have a weed problem you can go with Roundup Ready Soybeans also. It will take care of a lot of late emerging weeds in your area. Croton, Senna Bean, Sand Burrs and Sicklepod all do not usually start to grow in your area till about now till mid May. Pre-emergents do not work at all on them IME. Timing along with rain is everything with pre-emergents. One of your biggest problem weeds can be Nutgrass also.

Alfalfa will also do really well in sandy soils. There are lots of varieties out there, so do your homework if you go this route. Do it right the first time, and you can get many years out of a good stand of alfalfa.

Had good luck with Madrid Clover in Llano county sand years back. Check with the biologist in your hunting area, he/she might have a good word on something.

cow peas in spring and oats/vetch in the fall... race horse oats love the sand

water is more a problem than soil. our soil too is very sandy. oats do fine in the fall as do turnips. in the spring clay peas do well...that's all I've ever planted. I planted some milo this year...it hasn't gotten much rain though so its pretty tough to tell.

those pea plots pictured above look incredible.