How much fertilizer per 50 bag of seed?

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And any y'all use that 4 way food plot seed?

Without soil tests we usually use 300 lbs of 13-13-13 per acre for normal food plots.This year I used a five way with Triticale,Oats,Wheat,Peas and Forage Radish. Topped off with Southern Belle Red Clover and Apache Arrowleaf Clover.

Goodness, I don't use near that much. Maybe I should use more, but we always just use 2 bags. I'm a cheapskate though.

Our last soil tests called for 60-40-40 recommendations for winter food plots per our last tests. This was the average across 40 fields totaling about 33 acres. Winter grains needs lots of Nitrogen.

I normally do a 2:1 ratio. If I plant 4 bags of seed ill spread 8 bags of fertilizer.

Cereal rye is a nitrogen scavenger, thats why i like it so much. Wheat on the other hand uses the heck out of nitrogen. Guys, it has nothing to do with how many bags of seed you use, its what the soil test tells you. If you don't lime your fields, then your throwing a lot of money away because unless your ph is at least a 5.5 or above your wasting fertilizer.

Less seed and more fertilizer in my opinion. When I worked at the feed store it always amazed me how many folks put 1 bag of seed to 1 bag of fertilizer.

Id guess thats the formula most clubs uses from what Ive seen.



We are not even fertilizing some of our bottoms fields this year and trying something different. TSC had pellet lime on sale for $3 a bag and they had a coupon for 10% off so for $2.70 each we could buy 4 bags of lime for what one bag of fertilizer cost.
So we bought 4 bags of lime instead of one of fertilizer and limed about 45-60 days ago and will plant them in the next 2 weeks. We will soil test them next Sept and see where they are on PH.

this is what we do 30 lbs seed= 60 lbs fert

Where did ya'll come up with this formula? It makes no sense. Fertilizer is per acre or per 1000sq ft. If you planted a CC field it only takes 12 lbs/acre of it, so how would you figure that?

Duplicate

Its formulated more by funds, or lack of than anything else.

Calculate not including seed what it would take a club to "do right" on every 10 acres of plots with lime ($3) and fertilizer ($12). Most clubs will be budgeting about 10% of that for their planting.

I agree with blumsden.....Most people probably have plenty of P in their fields if they've been steadily using 13-13-13 or 17-17-17.....it holds in the soil a lot longer than the other nutrients like N & K. If you have good nutrient holding capacity in your soil then your K will not bottom out and will likely just need topping off with some 0-0-60 depending on what you grew during summer months. The N part is not a set in stone number you have to use and you don't need a soil test at all really to tell you what to add. Its basically more N for more yield....how much do you want or need.

I've been tinkering with my N applications and adding all of it upfront is definitely not the way I'd go. Just about any field planted in late Sept or early Oct will be N deficient by January when we really want our fields to shine. If it's feasible for someone to do so I like the idea of adding 50 lbs/ac of 34-0-0 at planting.....and then 100 lb/ac again about 6 weeks later bout Thanksgiving....and if someone really wanted to try to push as much growth as they could then I would add another 50 lbs just after Christmas. These dates could be adjusted to what you think is optimal but a more spread out N application I believe would be better. You could probably even up the amounts of N if someone wanted. I think what I recommended would be about middle of the road.

CNC says, "push as much growth as possible...". This is something I've been studying on. Cattlemen won't overgraze a field but hunters have no control over deer overgrazing a plot. Even if you only 3-5 deer coming into the plot EVERYDAY for hours at a time, they can eat it down depending on size of plot. So, the hunter needs to "push as much growth as possible". I do close to what CNC says on the fertilizer. The plots are always eaten down to the ground. Would putting more seed out when planting have any affect one way or the other?? Even if it is going to be overgrazed?

There was a guy that went by the handle of Lickcreek on the QDMA site who had a seeding rate that showed this very thing. He is no longer with us, but really shared a lot of knowledge. He said that if your plots were heavily grazed to up the seeding rates. I always plant heavier rates.

Yep, he used 150 lbs/ac of cereal grains. I'm gonna try it this year.

I think aside from upping seeding rates then "pushing growth" will depend on how well balanced you have your nutrients, how much nitrogen you apply, and the physical soil properties we talk about in the no-till discussions.....overall soil function....things like water infiltration...soil structure....nutrient retention...etc....A lot of these fields are in poor condition physically.

I always plant too much seed because of the dang seed eating turkeys.

I've been planting plots for over 30 years. A lot I learned early on was trial and error due to there was as not as much info then. Now people don't have to waste time and money. The best thing I found in the early days was lime. Now everyone knows that.

The over seeding was something I found effective years ago. But I seed even heavier: 200lbs/acre. It works for me. Heavy application of N during the Dec lull(usually around Dec 10). NEVER have I burned any with N. The over seeing goes for clover also. For me, AWP and rape are useless even though I do use a little rape because it's cheap. Deer LOVE AWP and rape, but when grazed down, it's through. Usually gone by middle of Nov. here. Wheat and clover keeps on coming back.

Now the fertilizer: Follow soil sample. If nothing has been done to the soil I probably would split the applications of N. The initial fertilizer with no test would be 17-17-17 at 2oolbs/acre. Then 150lbs/N about 6 weeks after first growth and then again about 6 weeks after that.

2 bags fertilizer to 1 bag of seed. We are not very scientific about it.

You are correct. It's just deer hunting and not trying to make a living. I go to extremes because it's more of hobby for me than hunting. If deer hunting was illegal, I would still plant food plots for them. I have squirrel feeders out and don't hunt them.

CNC - have you changed your opinion on the value of adding N to your plots later in the season? I thought i remembered you saying it wasn't necessary if you had your soil in proper condition? Maybe I'm confusing you with someone else; memory ain't too sharp now my

I've thought for decades that 100 lbs of 34-0-0 around the first of December was the magic bullet for deer plots.

I don't think that one was me. I've always been for trying to reduce inputs through better management practices....but N seems to be the one nutrient that's gonna be the toughest to reduce......especially in a situation where you have to produce a lot of growth on a small area.

Sorry, CNC, guess it was somebody else. I remember I finally posted a pic showing that areas getting extra N were a lot greener that some strips that I missed.

The biggest mistake I see people make,besides low pH and not liming, is not using enough fertilizer. 2 bags of trip 13 on 1 acre is only 13 pounds of n, p and k.
Most crops need at least 60 lbs of nitrogen per acre, 450 lbs of trip 13 would give you 58 1/2 lbs n/acre. 13 lbs would be barely better than nothing. Deer will find and use the food with the most benefit to them and and barely fertilized plots ain't it

Guys, it don't rain soon, we ain't going to be fertilizing.

Yeah, no joke.....This will be the first time that I've not had a food plot ready by bow opener. On the bright side, I do have a great kill on everything in the field. It's brown and crunchy.

I have always planted more seed than suggested, usually double the recommended application, because I broadcast and drag. You can cover it all up and depending on the forecast for rain, birds are going to hammer any exposed seeds.

As for the fertilizer, 2:1 is pretty good number to stick with. At the minimum that usually equates to 300 lbs per acre. Then sometime just before Christmas, hit them with about 100lbs per acre of AN.

This formula has worked well for me over the past 30 years and I have never been disappointed with any of my plots, except the one time that army worms hit a couple and at that point I stopped planting before the third week of September.

Quite honestly, you don't need your plots ready before bow season. You really want them at their peak during late December and January when there is no more acorns or browse for the deer to feed on. Early bow season, I would focus on the natural food sources, acorns, persimmons, honeysuckle etc.

I just scratch my head at some folks who are hell bent and determined to plant their plots around Labor Day to only have to replant them every year due to lack of rain. The worst thing that can happen is to plant them in early September, get a decent rain and they pop up and then scorch for the next 3-4 weeks because of no rain.

We put out 200lbs/acre of fert this weekend. So that is 200lbs fert/100lbs of seed/ acre. The fert was a custom mix according to our soil sample. Just have to pray for some rain this month! October is the month when we average the least amount of rain at 3.3". I would be exctatic if we got half that! Give me .75" in 2 weeks and .75" 2weeks after that and I think my fields would make it!

I've always planted my food plots around the second week in September and have for the past 25 years and have never had to replant. This is in NE Alabama.It hasn't rained enough to get my plots germinated, this year. May be a first for me.

I like having food plots to hunt over during bow season. I'm not "hell bent" to make it to happen or anything but in a normal year I would plant right ahead of a good weather front in late Sept or early Oct and have a nice stand going by opening weekend…..with deer activity already coming to it. Right now I'm still waiting to plant. I like food plot hunting during bow season because its usually an easy way to get a quality shot on an old slick head. You may not see a bunch of deer and you may not see any “shooter” bucks…..but there’s usually a really good chance that if there’s a cold front coming through and you play your wind right, that you can get a shot on a doe on a good healthy food plot.

I don’t do much hardcore buck hunting anymore during bow season. That’s not to say that I’m not buck hunting. One of the largest deer I’ve ever killed walked right under my stand on opening afternoon of bow season a few years ago coming out to feed in my plot. A good front was coming through and deer were feeding. However, when you look at the averages or probabilities of actually killing a mature buck during bow season, I’ve come to the conclusion that its far more fun for me to not even worry about killing a “good” deer until the rut and spend bow season trying to get one or two quality shots on a doe. A simple and minimally intrusive place to do that is on a food plot during a cold front. They’ll very likely be an old doe or two feeding around them.

CNC, your philosophy on bow hunting is just like mine.

And were 2x a dry as everybody else in the state up here.South facing side of some mtns the trees have turned brown and skipped the colors.