Food Plot TLC

[Markus]

It's been 5 years since we put our food plot in. 2 seasons ago, my camp partner worked in a load of composted horse manure and even though it helped improve the organic matter in the soil, it was full of weed seed...so the timothy seed in it crowded out our clover and forced us to give the plot some much needed tlc this year.

We debated spraying, but decided to just turn the sod and reseed. We know this wont solve our problem, but it should produce a decent plot food selection for this year. We'll evaluate after germination and see what we have. If it looks good, we'll keep it...if it's poor, we'll turn it all back in again and reseed in a month.

My camp partner and i were lucky to have our buddy and his 3 boys join us for the mornings work. The plan...turn the soil 3 times with the tiller, fertilize 10-10-10, lime, rake out remaining sod clumps, and seed with a brassica/clover mix.











Soil temps were a bit below where we'd like for seeding, but this was the only weekend we had to get together, so we went for it. We will check it in 3 weeks or so and see how it's doing. Like I said...worse case, we till it all in and reseed again.

[Markus]

We also had time to set up one of our faithful mineral sites. This site is an old softwood dead fall that we soak Rack Stacker mineral powder into the rotting wood. Over the years, the dear have eaten about 15 feet of this tree.



It's freshened up with a good coating of "Glory" and it's getting a good rain to soak it in. We will check back in a few weeks to see if anything has been by.

[banjo]

Looks great.
Over the last 2 seasons I have been putting out a mix of deer cocaine and whatever other mineral brand is on sale. The 2 stumps I use are almost gone. Game camera shows deer there almost daily throughout the year. Until hunting season. Sat there a whole week and they only visited over night. Still nice knowing they are conditioned to the area. I gave up on a food plot in my area after checking it out mid summer and realizing there is too much tree cover for anything to grow. And I only visit the area a few times a year out of hunting season.
Got a buck picture last fall in a whole new area, so I plan on adding one more mineral site. Game cameras have made the 'off season' almost fun.

[Markus]

Mineral sites are great for scouting, but we never hunt over them. We may add an apple pile near by if we have a hit list buck on the mineral, but more times then not....the summer bucks move into the rut cycle and disappear from their summer haunts.

[TJO]

Looks good. Hope it brings them in for you.

[Out4trout]

Looking good Markus, the deer here are really pounding our mineral licks. Too wet for food plot planting here, except fertilizer has been applied. We hope to be planting by mid June.

[banjo]

How are things now?
I set up 4 mineral stumps this year. 2 maintained from last year and 2 new from August. Will be checking the cams after Thanksgiving. Anyone ever dust a stump with koolaid. Heard it works but seems funny.