Have you ever wondered why everyone speaks about cool season and warm season annuals and then further complicates it with north and south, biennials and perennials?
There is no easy separation between these plants in all areas. In other words, you have annuals that can act like perennials in the right areas and can be encouraged to reseed, but in other deer food plot regions reseeding is not viable. For example subterranean clover and crimson clover are technically considered annuals, but if done right (in the right location) these clovers can reseed for many years and therefore act like perennial deer plot plants. The reverse is true as well, you can take perennial plants as use them as annuals and in some locations it makes sense to do this.
Seeding times may vary and are not as easy as most would have you believe. We plant in the north on such and such a week and in the south they do something different. Then there is the deep- south, mid south, southeast, southwest, the plains…..yikes. It is no wonder that things are a little confusing.
Mostly all coverage of the plants for food plots are covered in plant profiles which give the technical classification. Occasionally you are lucky enough to have someone say north versus south. But that still leaves out east versus west. Then you have acid versus basic soils, loamy versus sandy.
So you go online to find a seed mixture and notice that even though everyone is talking annual, perennial, and biennial all of these are in a mix together: now what is going on?
See more on this subject at www.diydeerfoodplots.com in the resources section. The article is called:
Having Trouble with Food Plot Plant Selection?
Facebook
Twitter
I also Add multiyear goals to the mix.
For example: The last pot I did 4 acres or so in the center of the property was a mix of Barley, Rye, switch grass, white clover, forage sorghum and sunflowers.
Since I had bare dirt I normally put in sunflowers or peas of some sort, first year good winter food for the birds.
I did the rye and barley, half the plot one and half the other, for several reasons:
Cover crop for the small clover and small switch grass.
Green grazing, for deer when 3 to 6 inches tall, and then 2 different timing grain crops in the fall.
Clover is a multiyear crop for a deer food plot until the switch grass is tall 3 to 5 years.
Switch grass for cover, fawn rearing, and bedding was the primary goal of the planting.
The first year for my area northern Michigan the switch grass only get 3-5 inches tall.
I have found that a nurse crop of thinly planted grain or forage sorghum works good.
Also a current patch of switch grass has volunteer Trefoil growing in it, the deer will graze in the cover of the grass all day and some do not even leave for better grazing on the hayfields.
As well when it gets cold and freezes the hayfields down to brown and lifeless the 4-6 inches near the ground in the switch is still green.
So we have annuals the first year with sunflowers and sorghum seed for winter grouse and partiges food.
Clover for the next 2 or so years petering out to a switch grass cover area for bedding and fawn rearing.
Also year 5,8,11 one can burn the grass field, drag with a spike drag, and add any or all of the annuals back for a 1 year change.
Peas or climbing soybeans, or whitetail wintergreens, or a brasica also make good options after burning and exposing the soil.
Keith,
Thanks so much for your input, and thoughtful comments. This does give everyone great ideas. Northern Plot Growers are always looking for tried and prooven methods that work in the colder regions of the United States for their deer food plots. So we really appreciate the time it takes to let us in on a few of your secrets to successful plots!
I need help!! What is best seed mixture for a 1/2 acre plot which is very wet. I used Roundup six weeks ago, tilled it last week and limed it. It is wet because there are underground springs in and around it. Can anyone give me some advice?
John Kameen
You are kind of limited in wet soil. For annual clovers berseem
tolerates moisture the best. For perennials alsike-white-ladino
are all good for moist areas and for grains oats is the best.
You can create your own mix or look for a deer mix with these
components in it. These are all cool season annuals planted april
through october. The berseem is not great in the North so if you
do use it in the north, then use it as a cover crop during the
summer months to keep the weeds donw and then till and replant
oats in the fall. Nothing like green oats in late fall for draw.
Brassicas are also good draw and planted in the later summer or
early fall but if the area is still wet, they are not
particularily fond of moisture. Hope this helps.
Thank you. Best advice I have gotten yet. Books and other literature DO NOT address wet areas.
John,
You are welcome. That is my hope for this blog. That if I or others can be useful that is a good thing. Good luck in your plotting efforts.
If you want to see our new 30 acre feeding perennial plot on (twitter: diydeerfoodplots). We have just seeded this past weekend.