Trying a mix by Whitetail institute called Power Plant I planted during spring break in Medina, we havent had a ton of rain down their but I can see on my cellular camera its come up some and the deer are all over it more than the protein and corn. It's a mix of cow peas, sunflowers and so other kind of beans their supposed to vine up the sunflowers and can handle heat but I'm thinking in Texas its more of a spring food plot.

It is a late spring into early summer planting only and a frost/freeze will kill it all. It does best when soil temps get into the mid 60's and night temps stay in the 60's or higher. You planted a bit early for that area, we had a frost down south of San Antonio in the last 2 weeks. Those legumes in the mix will come up but not grow very well when soil and night temps are that cool or cold. When I have planted to early the deer have wiped out the young plants quickly as those plants struggle to grow in the cool temps. That mix also has Sunn Hemp in it which can grow rapidly and is a bit more drought tolerant than the other seeds in the mix. From what I have read on it, some have had deer it the first year some and others did not get any utilization of it till they planted it the second year. The Sunn Hemp can get very tall 6'-10' tall and has a very fibrous and thick stalk....so dealing with all that crop debris in the fall can be an issue if you are going to plant small grains then.

Thanks for the response, I knew it was probably 5 soil degrees colder than ideal when I planted it but I knew it was that week or maybe plant too late and miss the spring rains, I can see it's coming up on the game cam and deer all in it but dont know what's growing in it, I mixed Lab Lab in that plot to and they got more rain this week so I guess I'll see when I go down their this weekend. Will it come up with just a little rain establish and make it through the Texas summer?

How is your deer density and what is the plot size? I planted several 1 acre plots in that last year holding to spread the wealth a little. It never got tall as the deer wiped the plots clean as soon as they sprouted. This year I plan to do a 4.5-5.5 acre plot and hope they can’t keep it all mowed down. I have prettt high deer density but also lots of forbs and browse (part of the reason my density is pretty high). So ymmv

I am in southern OK and am waiting until later April to early May to plant.

IME in the Hill Country area just east of where you planted...I waited till late April to plant every year due to nighttime and soil temps. Our best rainfall month was May and then Sept was second best. June was also very good for rainfall but July and August were expected to be dry and hot....maybe early July rains and then an early cool front in late Aug might be the exception. If it is a smaller plot(like posted above) with a lot of animals hitting it they will probably wipe it out before it gets a chance. Legumes come out of the ground then spend 10-14 days putting down roots into a bit deeper soil. That is when they are vulnerable to grazing pressure. I had that experience at first in that area then I learned how to use electric fencing to keep the deer off the plots for a month or two. Deer will eat Lab Lab first over Iron and Clay cowpeas. When I planted separate plots of Sunflowers they did well till they got about 20"-24" tall in late June, then the deer wiped them out. Deer in the Hill Country don't take as long as deer in South Texas to figure out what a food plot is. Down here you can get lucky the first year then after that they will wipe out smaller plots quickly. I now plant 11 acres down here and the first year it lasted into July. Now it won't make much past first week of June with that acreage. To many deer on to small amount of acreage of food plots. I am probably going to have to take the two 3 acre plots and expand them then start putting up temporary electric fencing to let them establish better. I just planted my plots last week on Friday due to good chance of rain for Sat and Sun. I was down to low 30's just 7-8 days ago at night for two nights though. Not sure how they are going to do.

We have 50 acres and I see 7 or 8 deer at a time sometme and last year we had 4 or 5 different mature bucks coming through, so its pretty.populated, I just planted an acre to see how it would do.

I was just sitting on the with my reading the Whitetail Institute's article on that. Seems like it would be a good product for providing some cover and drawing deer and probably dove with the sunflower in it.
As Ranchman mentioned, would not work for me since I only plant one 2.5 acre plot and would not want to deal with the hemp and sunflower plants when I am ready to plant my fall crop.


Does the Whitetail Institute provider a better quality of seed in its products or is it pretty much just marketing?

I am in southern OK too. Planting soybeans second week in May for areas that don't have wheat. The areas that have wheat/oats I will plant first week of june after I mow, spray and till them (we hunt turkeys on the wheat fields). If I planted corn, i would do it next week. Beans need warmer temps to come up.

My alfalfa plots are looking awesome. I am spraying them with grass and broadleaf killer mixed with fertilizer April 23rd (weather permitting). I top dressed them in late January (along with my wheat/oat plots).

So less than ideal due to weather and travel, but I spread my power plant over my native grass and oats and then used a drag harrow to knock down the grass and get the seed onto the ground. On one of the fields I needed to Mow after throwing seed due to more woody plant in the field. Got about 3/4 to an inch of rain that night, so hopefully it got off to a good start. Will see how it goes. I dealt would
Have wanted to spray, prepare soil, seed, drag over, and get rain. Didn’t happen this year.

Will update with pics as it comes up