I’m not sure what it is about us hunters — or maybe just humans in general — that drives us to overcomplicate things. I see it in all aspects of life, whether it’s losing weight, saving money, or even just planting a food plot for deer. And I’m guilty of it myself.
While I’m not here to discuss weight loss or finances, what I can do is clear up some of the mystery surrounding planting food plots. In fact, it’s really a straightforward process when you break it down into these six steps.
Choose the Right Location
You might expect the first step to planting a new food plot to be a soil test, but it’s not. Soil tests are very important, and I’ll actually cover that in step two. Before you pull a soil test, though, you first need to find a suitable location for your plot.
Many first-time food plots are doomed from the start because they plant in an area that just isn’t conducive to growing one, whether due to lack of adequate sunlight, too little or too much moisture, or just the wrong soil type altogether.
When choosing a food plot location, you ideally want an area that gets plenty of sunlight and adequate moisture — but not TOO MUCH moisture. If the area stays wet, it’s going to be hard to get any type of commercial deer forage to grow there.
Of course, you may have limited food plot location options if your property is mostly wooded. You can certainly still plant, but be aware that limited sunlight is going to negatively impact your results. There are species you can plant that do better in shade than others, but the more sunlight you can get to the ground, the better off you’ll be.
More on food plot locations:
Take a Soil Test
“Take a soil test!” is by far the most common advice when it comes to planting food plots, yet so many food plotters still skip it. I’ve done it myself a time or two, but there’s really no excuse. It takes very little time to collect a soil sample, and it will likely cost you less than $20 to get the test done.
In return, you’ll know exactly what amendments you need to add to get the soil’s pH balanced and ready for maximum production. Without the test, any lime and/or fertilizer you put on it is simply guess work, and you may be wasting time and money unnecessarily.
Just taking a soil test won’t do you any good, however, if you don’t follow through on the recommendations provided in the results. Follow them as closely as possible, and don’t be the guy (or girl) who skips the lime so you can splurge on the fertilizer. Without the right soil pH, the fertilizer isn’t going to be able to do its job. You need to get both right!
Keep Your Seed Mix Simple
Aside from not taking and acting on a soil test, one of the biggest mistakes I see new food plotters make is overcomplicating their choice of seed mixes. Us hunters have a tendency to want to take the kitchen sink approach to food plots, choosing a mix with lots of different seed types. And while we do preach diversity when it comes to deer habitat, this is one area you’re better off to keep things simple.
Having a bunch of different food plot species mixed together creates a few issues. First, the various species can end up competing with one another, with one shading out or outcompeting the other. Two, when you plant multiple types of food plot species, like broadleafs with grasses, you limit the herbicides you can use to control weed issues.
For instance, if you are having problems with a grass weed in your plot (like perennial ryegrass), but your mix contains a grass species like wheat or oats, then you won’t be able to use a grass-specific herbicide like clethodim to control the perennial ryegrass without killing your wheat/oats.
That’s why it’s good to know what weed issues you may be up against for a specific planting location prior to planting, so you can tailor your food plot accordingly. If grass weeds are an issue, then plant a broadleaf like clover. If broadleaf weeds are the issue, then you may want to plant a cereal grain (grass).
Of course, if it’s your first time planting an area, you may not have that information available to you. Which is another reason why it makes sense to start simple until you have a better understanding of what weeds you’re up against.
One other factor to keep in mind when choosing your seed mix is the size of your plot.
Some food plot species, like cereal grains and clovers, handle browsing pressure better than others. If you plant something like soybeans, which doesn’t do well under heavy browsing pressure, in a small area with a high deer density, the deer are going to destroy the plot before it can ever get established.
Plant It Right
Once you’ve chosen a location, tested the soil, added the necessary amendments, and picked a seed mix, it’s time to prepare for planting. This is another area where food plots can seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.
There are three basic ways you can approach planting your first food plot. If you have access to a tractor and disk or a tiller, you can plant traditional till by breaking up the soil as much as possible and then scattering the seed on a prepared seedbed. This is labor intensive but ensures good seed-to-soil contact, which is critical for germination.
If you have access to a no-till drill, then you can skip breaking up the soil and simply spray the existing vegetation with a broad-spectrum herbicide like glyphosate, followed by drilling the seed directly into the soil with the no-till drill. This can be a great option, because you aren’t disturbing the ground as much as you do with traditional till. That disturbance has the potential to release a lot of weeds in the seedbank.
However, many first time food-plotters don’t have the luxury of having access to tractors and disks or no-till drills. That’s okay. There’s a simpler, less equipment-intensive way to plant a food plot. You can simply kill the existing vegetation with a broad-spectrum herbicide using a hand sprayer or backpack sprayer, and then broadcast your seed by hand or with a small hand spreader into the existing vegetation. If possible, seed right before a soaking rain, as the rain helps carry the seed from the vegetation to the soil.
This method works best with small-seed species like clovers and brassicas, although it can work with other food plot species as well. You will want to increase your seeding rate over the recommendations for traditional tillage to compensate for the seeds that won’t make it into the soil due to the existing vegetation.
Watch the Weeds
As a new food plotter, one thing I would like to instill in you early is that not all “weeds” are bad. Many of the plants that get labeled as weeds by food plotters are actually excellent deer forage. So don’t get too focused on your food plots looking like pristine agricultural fields. You’re simply providing food and attraction for deer, so having some “weeds” scattered around for forage diversity and cover is not a bad thing.
Weeds only become an issue when they are non-native and/or noxious, with the potential to take over a significant portion of your plot. In these cases, it’s definitely good to take action to get them under control. Many times that may just require spot spraying the weedy areas rather than having to spray the entire plot. You’ll have to make a judgement call based on the severity of the problem.
Diving into how to control all the different types of weeds is outside the scope of this article, but we have several articles on our website that can help you in that regard, as well as a recent podcast episode about herbicide use with Mark Turner of the University of Tennessee. For a more in-depth conversation on herbicide use, check those out.
Learn and Enjoy!
And the last, but certainly not least, important aspect of planting food plots is to enjoy the process and learn as you go. No amount of reading articles or watching YouTube videos will fully prepare you for the process. Just follow the steps above and give your first food plot a go! You’ll learn plenty from each attempt, and will likely see improvements in your results over time.
Keep in mind that no matter how well you do at these steps, if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, then the plot will sometimes fail. There’s not much you can do about that. But even a failed plot is a learning opportunity, and there will always be another chance to get it right.