Kevin from WI asks,
Tips for saving a food plot - Hi Bill- have always loved your stuff, whether it was articles, videos, and now the blog-style approach. You're one of the best in the industry, and we are thankful that you are continuing to educate us and pass along your wealth of experience and knowledge. One area I have learned a lot from you in the past is in the area of food plots. Your Poor Man Food Plot videos were the cornerstone of teaching me how to plant food for deer on a budget. So my question is this- what is your go-to approach for saving a struggling food plot? I know we cannot control rain fall and other weather conditions, but what can we do? I have seen some suggest over seeding, or planting a recovery crop like winter wheat. Just wondering what would your approach be? And lastly, here in the Midwest bowhunting is right around the corner. When is it too late to 'fix' a food plot for this years fall hunt. Thanks again for all your great content! Kevin
Bill responds,
Topic: Rescuing Food Plots:
This is a soybean plot in late July/early August. You can see that it didn’t do well from a combination of dry conditions and deer damage. This is the perfect candidate to “rescue” either by broadcasting a brassica blend into the field and hoping for rain, or drilling it in and using the existing soil moisture to jump start the brassicas. It is surprising how little damage even a no-till drill does to a thin stand of beans like this.
Kevin,
I am sorry I only got to this now. I was out of the office for a few weeks. I always rescued my plots with Big N Beasty. I would either drill it in (if the spring planted crop was poor enough) or I broadcast it in front of a rain (if the spring crop was doing OK). Drilling is much preferred because it gets the seed into the ground where it can start growing much sooner and given that you are usually trying to rescue a plot in August, the sooner you can get the seed to germinate the better.
I like the brassica blend because it grows fast and produces a lot of forage (more than cereal grains).
Annual rye or winter wheat will work good too, but those definitely need to be drilled and not broadcast. As mentioned, these grow fast but don’t produce as much forage.
In my experience, it is too late for Big N Beasty after about September 1. Ideally, you plant that in late July or early August. You can still plant winter wheat or annual rye (cereal rye not ryegrass) in early September. After about September 15, it is too late for any rescue plot or late season planting. There just isn’t enough time left for the plant to germinate and start growing before the weather turns too cool and the days are too short for good growth (especially where you are in WI). Hope that helps and I hope you have a great season. (10/5/21)
