FL Food Plots - Finally getting it right...

[Land_Owner]

http://www.angelfire.com/on2/LandOwner/images/Food-Plots-2006.html

With great anticipation we await the opening of another season.  We hope your preparations are "greening up".

[WylieKy]

 Land_Owner,
I looked over your pictures, and it looks great!  You are, however, missing one major item.



Me in that stand! 

WylieKy

[dw06]

Nice pics Land Owner.I've got buckwheat that is coming up good the past week,hope that keeps deer around and in good shape.

[Land_Owner]

Gotta get you into the West Road stand to keep the hogs from uprooting the good stuff I planted for the deer. Hog hunting is 24/7/365 on private land here.

My hunting partner exclaimed that we're probably "going to have to bush hog shooting lanes through the fields".  Mayby not such a bad suggestion now that germination indicates 110% of what we planted grew.

[K.K]

Looks great!  I tried my hand for the first time this year.  My Imperial and rape has exceeded my expectations.  I'll definitely be doing more for my herd in the future! 

[rihmfire]

Land_owner
Wow..... nice food plots....how many acres do you plant and
where is your property in Florida? I live outside of Port Orange/Daytona
and I lease about 400 acres in Eureka Florida, just north east
of Ocala Florida...How did you get your food plots to grow so nice?..
It seems everytime we plant, the deer mowe it down in no time..
Not to mention poor soil quality...We dump tons of lime and fertilizer.
PH around 7 ....plants just can get start unless we fence them in..
We plant cowpeas, soybeans, some clover, brassica, rye etc.
What do you guys plant and which seems to do the best?
Nice pics. do you have any pictures of deer taken off your property?
Ronnie

 

[Land_Owner]

Mims, FL is just a little traffic light intersection at US1 and SR 46 north of Titusville.  We plant about 3.5 acres in total.  Mostly iron and clay peas, white clover, and sorghum in specific fields and roads.  The peas climb the sorghum and both shield the clover until it has a chance to mature.  We plant wheat and oats in the other fields and roadways.  The turkey can't get enough of it.  The hogs are difficult to see as they disappear in the tall sprouts but easy to cut off as they reemerge.  The deer just wander around as they will.

If you are already liming and fertilizing, my BEST RECOMMENDATION is to innoculate the seeds thoroughly with the right bacteria.  Buy and use more than the manufacturer's recommended dose of innoculant for the intended type and rate per acre of seed.  Fifty pounds of peas were placed in a 55 gal. barrel and rolled around with innoculant and a wetting/sticking agent until the peas were nearly air dry then spread.  The clover was wetted with sticky agent and innoculant then placed on a flat plastic table cloth and cascade dried by scooping up seed and letting it fall back to the cloth until air dry.  We give due credit to the innoculant this season as well as very favorable rainfall and well disced and prepared seed beds. 

All seed was placed by hand cranked spreader and then driven over with the tractor towing 20 feet by 8 feet wide chain link fence.  This rolled the seed under 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch of ground cover.  Probably a little shallow for the peas but just right for the clover and sorghum.  This also knocked the ridges off of the disced fields and made the whole very uniform in appearance.

If you are hiving a lot of browse prior to the season opening, try some deer tape around your plots and place some exclusion zones in the fields to see whether it is Army worms or deer that are getting to it before you are ready.  The deer tape keep the deer out for a while and usually long enough for the seeds to get up and established. 

Good Luck.