Food Plot Question

Gonna break my personal rule about nonrifle hunting and do some xbow hunting in GA this fall.

Figuring to get the 4 wheeler running again and setting stands and anting some small food plots the end of August.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what to plant? Cheap is good as these will be archery size plots on dirt roads at known crossings.

Good chance lease guy will plow em under late in Sept when he does the whole place (every road gets plowed and planted).

 

Was told not to plant, typically too dry or the deer eat it up too quickly.

Gonna have to do the other kind of food plot...

 

Thanks, Sam.

Is Tony running hemp again?

Anything I plant will get mowed under the end of Sept/beginning of Oct when the lease holder plants the lease.

There are a couple low lying areas where I need to drag my stands in by 4 wheeler anyway... have a groundhog max and it works pretty well for small plots.

Might just be damp enough at those spots to plant and expect germination. Season starts Sept 12... May be able to plant some clay peas and rye or wheat Labor day weekend and hunt it the following weekend - once those peas germinate, won't be much to keep the deer from trimming the sprouts off. If they germinate, could be perfect timing. Figure they will germinate in 4 or 5 days and then gets eaten to the ground in say 3 days which would bring the deer by for opening weekend. Or at least have em looking down for the yellow gold.

If I was gonna plant some kind of grass - what would work best? Any ideas?

Seems like a summer mix would work...

 

https://hancockseed.com/collections...cocks-ultimate-deer-food-plot-seed-mix-spring

I ordered the spring mix w Lab-lab, clay peas, soy beans. sorghum, & hemp. Walked away at $50/shipped. Been a while since bought seeds - seems pricey - but it was 1/2 of the 50# of clay peas I saw, shipping pushed it from $30 to $50.

Now, gotta get 4 wheeler functional (needs a gas tank cleaning & new carb cause it's been about 2 or 3 years since last use and that's what was needed last time.)

Then trying to get my wife to agree to go up and help. She truly enjoys riding that thing and using the groundhog max to tear up the ground. She says it is instant gratification seeing the dirt exposed and flying all over the place. Use a Scotty's Whiz battery powered seed spreader a bit and then buzz the GHMax around some more, follow it up with riding back and forth to pack the soil. She loves it - kills me to ride like that (buzzing around in circles isn't my idea of fun).

May actually water the plots if can get water - there is a possible source, just need to figure how to lug enough water and spread it (garbage cans in back of truck would work great - use generator & sump pump to fill GCs if we have or can create a surficial water source). Would have no problem spending a couple hours watering a handful of 100 ft x 10 ft "plots" (roads) - maybe do it late in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday so water can soak in overnight. Then just hope for a little rain during the week but with only about 7 days til hunting, all we need is the peas to sprout so they can clip em off at 2 or 3 inches tall... That would get em using the area more, then could spread some corn and 'choot em if the wind is right.

Could probably just use corn and will do that in a few areas - have like 13 possible stand sites that will either get plots or 1/2 bag of corn spread about the weekend before the season opens. Have a couple cameras and maybe get a decent buck before the lease holder this year. Otherwise I want to be marking "my spot" for the long weekend rut hunt end of October. We have 4 guys on lease, 2 are light duty hunters but we were clear cut last year and my stands are in the stuff where they didn't cut. Always enjoyed walking a mile in not to spook anything and often seen a bunch of deer...

6 weeks to go.

Gotta get out fishing some too. Should be interesting.

 

Thanks, Tony. That's a great testamonial for the hemp.

I'll try to keep an eye on what I plant, how it starts and how the deer like it.

 

Update!

They started logging the final 100 acres of the lease.

Gonna chew on this a bit, see what can be done.

 

They logged the front 400 acres last year in November & December (yes screwed it up last year too but I was in Colorado for muley and didn't do the rut hunt). It was very wet and they couldn't get to the back part. Guess they started last week and are finishing clearing the entire place from one property line to another. How long does it take to level 100 acres? A couple of weeks?

I'd feel better about this if the political unrest wasn't likely to ramp up towards the election. Need to be home election week for sure. Would really like to hunt and shoot a couple of bucks chasing does - my best day out there has traditionally been Oct 26. And the bucks seem to be on their feet at 10 am around that time. At least they did when there were trees.

Opening day of rifle is Oct 17 and the other guys on the lease will be there. I've got no idea who they are (never met or even seen them) and it may affect my hunting we all typically hunt diff areas but now those are gone.

A wait & see game for now.

 

Hancock Seed Mix arrived today.

They don't mess around.

 

Boss - that's pretty impressive.

Deer in the backyard with crocodile-sized gators getting em when they pass thru... Maybe train the gators when they are young to eat raccoons...

 

Threw in the towel...

I have 50# of seeds, 4 wheeler won't turn over but once at a time(even on jumper cables), loggers have tore up the place good from what I hear, and the back half is pretty much flooded. Switching to Plan B.

Will donate seeds to get drilled in when food plots are planted at the end of the month.

Skipping this weekend.

Lease holder said he's gonna "seed" a couple areas for us to hunt early next week. The corn will last about 3 days if no pigs show up. So if he throws on Monday or Tuesday, will be prime for reseeding on Friday for weekend hunt.

Leave Friday before season opens to get a new feel for the lease and what it offers at this time. Using another guy's 4 wheeler for hauling dad and dead deer around.

Need to make sure xbows hit where they are supposed to.

So, we'll see if the deer like the clear cut as much as they do Sam's pond.

Fingers are crossed and money spent. Let's go hunting already...