honeysuckle

[Mack in N.C.]

read some where that if a deer had only honeysuckle to eat all winter it could survive on it.....looked in Managing Wildlife and it talked about how important it was and so on........anyway i ahd to do some cutting today on our land.......alot of the honeysuckle  is high up the small sweetgums(10-20 ft up a 20-30 ft tall sweetgum).(these sweetgums are growing rampant on old dairy pastures).....so waht i did is cut some of the trees down today without cutting the vine so now there is one big huge mass of honeysuckle laying on the ground........i will see next weekend if they have eaten these , hopefully they wwill not be touched as that would mean there is plenty other forage for them but its there if they need it......this book even talks about fertilizing honeysuckle........anyone done that???......mack

[Graybeard]

Oh they love it all right and will flock to it. If you really want to concentrate them there fertilize it. Green briar is another wild growing plant they really utilize where it grows and here in Bama that's about everywhere. Also called sawbriar.

[Totenkopf]

 When I bought this place in MT there was none around here. I ordered some mail order and took good care of it on a woodline. Since then I have transplanted, getting 20 or more stands of it. Very good tool to have a lot of sustainable forage.
 Two more I started were crown vetch and a weed called small burdett. These two are loved by them as well. Nothing beats perennial food sources that require little care.
 When I first started hunting this land I had to go about five miles away to an old homestead place to have any success. Now I could shoot from the house if I wished.

[Mack in N.C.]

gb, i think i will fertilize some of it this spring......even though its all over our land some of the best vines are up in small trees....i guess it has grown out of the reach of browsing......there are  right many more clumps groing up small sweetgums.....i am also going to lay those trees down and if i fertilize it the vines should grow all over the laying down trees and branches....mack

[Graybeard]

Some of the best places I know about are brush and bushes covered with honeysuckle vines. In many places around here they just cover up everything. Deer love it but when fertilized they will home in on that ahead of the unfertilized every time. Having an area with a lot of it and then fertilizing only that nearest your bow stand is a good way to get a good close range shot.