Woodland food plots?
Wisconsin
Purchased a small parcel of land (25 acres). Cedar swamp, hardwoods and various pine species (northern Shawano County). I am doing some research on types of food plots that would work in the woods. I don't have large areas to accomplish this. Looking at small areas, 100 sq feet or so?
So I don't have to "re-invent the wheel", does anyone have any helpful tidbits of information on the type of seed used that worked for them? How the plots themselves did? How they actually accomplished it? I don't the resources (both monetary and machine wise) to do larger plots. Just looking for some advice as I have never done this before because I never owned my own land.
Have read where folks spray round up, cultivate/use a rototiller, broadcast fertilizer and seed and hope for the best. Would a guy have to put some sort of fencing up around it to protect the plant during their early growing periods? Is this the normal practice? Anyone have any advice on the type of plant that might work well? Thanks in advance!
The basics
The basics
I created one in the woods last year by dropping some trees, raking it up manually, putting down over 400#s of lime and 150#s of 19/19/19. I broadcast Grandpa Rays' Soil Builder mix. He's a sponsor here and he's a wealth of knowledge on the topic. I did this in May and it grew amazing. The deer were in it all spring and summer.
This was done with a small push spreader, hand spreader, chain saw, and a rake. My cultipacker was me and my son walking over it after we planted it. No soil sample. Area gets fair sun only. I will be opening it up more this year. Had to start somewhere. This is in wetter crappy cedars.
I then broadcast in GR's Fall Draw in late August and had deer (and a bear) in there all fall.
Happy do you have any fall pics? Is this perennial seed or annual?
It's an annual. I posted one fall pic in my post above as well as adding one here. The deer ate in there all fall long. I'm guessing they dug in there this winter too.
what a bunch of crap
what a bunch of crap
stuff grew!
stuff grew!
If you grow it, they will come, even on terrible soil.
If you grow it, they will come, even on terrible soil.
I did a 2nd in the woods plot last year too. This one was off a very old logging trail I found and then opened up by clearing loads of cedars, tag alders, and buckthorn. I sprayed it all down 2 times with Gly/AMS and Garlon4/diesel. It was a hope and a prayer basically and I did not expect anything to grow. I could not "muck" up the soil due to the load of stumps and roots. This was all 100% manual work. Once again, my cultipacker was my feet.
I planted GRO's Logging Trail Mix as a flier and I was shocked to see how it grew. The issue is that the sweet rye grass really took over after the deer ate the fescue and clovers. The deer liked the sweet rye grass but not as much as the other offerings I had added to my crappy cedar swamp last year.
This year, I am going to spray this down again and go more traditional as I now know stuff will grow. I again added over 400#s of lime and around 200#s of 19/19/19. I will do the same this year. I am thinking GRO's Soil Builder or Inner Sanctum mix with brassicas added for fall.
Thanks Happy.
My small piece of dirt is heavily wooded too and has a north facing ridge on the southside of the property. I plan on thinning out a section near the creek and do a similar planting.
My land sucks. It is crappy cedar swamp with not many high spots. I was able to get in 4 plots last year with the 2 above being in the woods. They were done with a chain saw, brush cutter, push spreader, chest spreader, hand spreader, and a rake. Of course, a good quality seed helped. I did not have soil samples but laid down a lot of lime and triple 19 and stuff grew and the deer ate it.
I was able to get some machinery to help me with the other 2 plots. The biggest is still less than an acre in size. Those other 2 were still planted with hand spreaders and my cultipacker was my ATV with a weighted down Otter ice fishing sled.
I did a whole lot of chain saw work prior to getting a guy to finish clearing for me. If I can get stuff to grow on my crappy land, anyone can. You don't need all the machinery either I have learned.
Encouraging to hear.
I plan on just using a chainsaw and a bow rake. Clean up the floor, broadcast the seed and rake it in. My first inch or two of top soil is rich with organic matter but below that is like sandbox sand. Closer to the creek is richer.
I too will be using Grandpa Ray's nutrition program this year. I sent 3 soil samples to John earlier and he gave me his recommendations. Soil Builder to build organic matter , fixate nitrogen and smother weeds. Then come back in late summer work it up and plant some Four Galore, Full Draw and some grains. I'll tell you what, John will get you headed in the right direction to add not only good food source but also the needed nutrients heading into winter.
Wow, thanks for the input and pics happy! Looks great! That's exactly what I was looking for. Ill have to give it a shot this year. It's funny, some of the pics could have doubled for our cedar swamp...ha!
i have scratched dry humps in cedar swamp and thrown Alsike clover seed. works great.
Just a note, here in Wisconsin Phosphorus (middle number) fertilizer is not legal to apply in most cases. Special permit required..
I've scratched in plots similar to happy's with good success using hand tools and my Ranger. I rake the areas as clear as I can of leaves in the spring after things start greening up and spray with gly. I will spray it again a couple weeks before I want to plant. I then use a rake and leaf blower to clear any loose debris then plant either clover or rye, spread my fertilizer and set my treestand on a runway near the area. Works great for me.
A hundred square feet is only 10x10. That's pretty small for any type of food plot. Our small woodlot food plots range from about 15 yards wide by 40 yards long to 1/3 acre. We've had good luck with turnips and clover.
Have only had the land for one season. I'll have to really look at possible sites and determine if it's even feasible secondary to the tree canopy and available 'soil'? The higher ground is inhabited with beech, maple and red oak trees, so I don't really want to start cutting those trees down just to make plot. You are right, 100 sq feet is small. Gotta love the learning curves :)
My first throw and grow wasn't much bigger, Cedar. I just keep extending it year after year. Now it's kind of a "Z" shape, but it spans probably 80 yards. Clover came up last year, but not very much. Rye grass always comes up lush and green, but gets mowed quickly and peters out late summer. This year I will start from scratch and go clover, maybe turnips as well.
The pic below is what I want my property to look like.
