Food Plots Need A Good Soaking

A good food plot, with enough rain, can produce fine bucks.

I'm a bit too young to remember The Dust Bowl days of the early 1930s, but well remember talking to people who lived through that era when the ground was baked under a brutal sun, hardened, cracked and turned to chalk-like dust from an ongoing drought.

Crops were impossible to grow for a few years, and dust storms covered roads, seeped into houses, and some people with respiratory problems did not survive those years.

Things aren't that bad right now. It's not even close but people who have put in food plots or gardens or are trying to establish them are having a tough way to to go to make things sprout.

"Last year was a bad year for me with Purple-Top turnips," said a friend. "I planted after a nice rain, but then the rains ended and the turnips weren't any good. They came up small and rather woody looking on the inside. The deer didn't pay any attention to them."

I've had good and lousy food plots, and often the difference is the amount of rain.

Anyone who plants a food plot is subject to all of the very same problems as any farmer. Some years the weather turns against us. Many people are getting ready to put in their fall crops now, but the soil is hard, cracking, and lacks enough moisture although we did a light rain last night. A series of rains are still needed, and we usually get some rain in late August to jump-start our fall planting season."

One can only hope the weatherman cooperates. If not, some fields and crops will be useless.

Two fields of mine were ready to plant in early August, and we got a good rain right after planting. There was green growth within six days, and some good rain since. But this is what makes fall planting so tricky, and admittedly, this will be my fourth fall planting. Two produced a lush crop and one could barely grow weeds. Only time will tell how this year's fall planting will fare.

Many people like fall plantings or annual crops while others like some favorites when the soil conditions are conducive to growing a crop of brassica such as Dwarf Essex Rape and Purple-Top turnips. Poor soil conditions can be built into good organic soil by planting buckwheat, oats and rye, and discing it into the ground for two or three years in a row.

Good soil and rain are two key ingredients to a good food plot.

"This is called 'green manure,'" an elderly farmer told me. "Two or three seasons of a green manure crop will usually build enough organic residue into your soil to produce a good high-protein crop such as alfalfa, clover or rape.

He did caution me to keep records of what is being planted every year. Keeping records of planting dates, crops planted, and what kind of a yield it produces is very important. He says a lack of records means that sportsmen have no way of knowing what they did right or did wrong.

He said the ideal plan is to provide for a year 'round food source for animals and birds. Proper planning means soil tests before anything is planted. Some soil is so poor that nothing but weeds will grow until the soil mineral content is built up.

One should never consider a food plot as a replacement for baiting. One problem with food plots on large tracts of land is the land is heavily wooded in many cases, and it takes time to build a good soil content that is capable of growing high-protein crops. It just doesn't happen overnight.

Many food plots that are planted to legumes (beans and peas) are literally destroyed by deer eating the crop as it begins to grow. A small food plot will be quickly annihilated by hungry deer.

Try mixing crops that go together well. Talk with seed companies.

One suggestion for sportsman is to mix other things that will grow in the fall and come back early in the spring. A mix of winter wheat offers good green food and cover in the fall, and it comes back up as soon as the snow melts. Rape and Purple-Top turnips, with some alfalfa and clover in other nearby fields, will produce good fall and early spring food for hungry deer.

If you see a man with a white beard standing outside about this time of year, and gazing skyward, it probably means I'm either praying or scanning the skies for sign of rain clouds.

A bit of each may be needed late this summer and in the early fall. I know that my food plots are in better shape than most, but they can use a good drink, and the sooner the better.