September Food Plot Update

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Middle Clearing

As we revealed in the last Food Plot Journal the middle clearing won the replanting lottery.

We began disking and fertilized on August 21 and then disked and applied lime on September 3. To this point the plot was disking up real nice, but we did not get a chance to plant the seed on this weekend.

The following week saw hurricane Francis dump anywhere from 4 to 6 inches of rain here in our neck of the woods.

When I showed up on the evening of September 10th I would have liked to just take a couple of passes with the disks and get ready to plant. Instead, when I pulled the tractor into the plot to hook up the disks, the front tires sank into the mud several inches.

There were a few little shoots starting up since the prior weeks disking so I used the small set of disks and pulled them with an ATV. This cut the ground up a little more and put all of the seeds on equal footing.

We then dragged the plot with bedsprings to try to even out the seedbed.

I sowed the Extreme food plot seed a little heavier than the directions since this is a small plot and we dragged the bedsprings and ran another ATV over the plot again to try to get the seed in contact with the soil.

I had ordered some PlotSaver from Bass Pro Shop and then bought the poles and connectors from the local Co-op. We put the PlotSaver around one-half of the plot. It was very easy to use and it will be interesting to see how well it works. I'm hoping that by protecting the plants for the first 30 days, while they are putting down roots, that we can grow a hardier food plot. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Old House

The plot at the old house still looks real nice. The clover along with the grass and weeds that are there are getting about 10 inches tall, but I didn't mow it. The deer will probably mow it through the fall and winter for me. We caught a rabbit eating in it on Friday evening and it wasn’t in any hurry to leave. There is some grass and weeds but this is still a real nice plot of clover.

After I had finished planting the middle plot I put PlotSaver around an 18 square foot area here at the old house. The clover is established and I should be able to tell real easily if it keeps the deer out.

The garden plot has a lot of grass but the clover is still there. I mowed the plot on September 10th and am thinking about trying a herbicide to kill the grass in this plot next spring. I'm not real pleased with this plot.

Old Corn Patch The old corn patch plot is now mostly grass. We still saw two deer eating in it one evening the first weekend of September. On September 10th I mowed it and there is now very little clover.

Whippoorwill

The whippoorwill plot is also mostly grass. I mowed this plot on September 10th as well. It is getting difficult calling this plot and the old corn patch plot food plots.

I had enough Extreme seed left over from the middle plot that I can use it here in the spring. This plot is our best soil, the extreme should thrive in this dirt. Whippoorwill may also be a good test for the PlotSaver.

I have not wanted to get into using herbicides to control the grasses but it looks like the smaller plots just cannot survive without some assistance. It would be nice to be able to just put your money into the seed and have it grow for 5 years, but the deer will not leave them alone. If the PlotSaver helps get the plot established maybe we can use limited herbicides to control the grasses and have longer lasting plots. I didn't want to sink the money into these extras but considering the time it takes to replant I may be ahead in the long run using the PlotSaver and a herbicide. We will keep experimenting.

When I arrived on our property a buzzard that was sitting on one of the gateposts greeted me. After it flew away I quickly noticed several others circling overhead. After checking my pulse I figured out that there must be something dead in the field.

Locating the mass of hovering flies I found that there was a deer carcass. It had only been four days since I had last been to our place, so the deer had not died long ago. In what ever manner the deer died, the opportunistic wildlife had nearly consumed the entire doe. Predators are quite efficient.

We do not know how the doe died and it leads to some interesting speculation. The most dramatic is the possibility that coyotes may have killed her. We have a healthy coyote population and often hear them when we are out at night. There was not enough left of the carcass to gain any clues. Interestingly overnight the carcass was moved about 30 feet. You can let your imagination run wild with this one.

Bow season is getting even closer and we have already located a few trees where we would like to hang our stands. It’s time to get those bows out and knock off the rust.

We had two spike bucks in the yard on Friday evening. One had lost it's velvet while the other had not. The short spikes on these two fellows are short enough that it will be hard to determine that they are bucks. From a distance they could easily be mistaken for does. Maybe one of these will be the trophy buck that will be on my wall in another three or four years.

"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie