So, I hunt a private 150 acre small farm. I have only planted fall food plots on it since getting the hunting rights 4 years ago. I have never planted any summer plots and am looking for some pointers. The 3 plots I plant are small, less than a half acre each. What would y’all recommend? Thanks

Sunn Hemp/ iron clay pea or buckwheat mix

That’d ^^^ be real hard to beat there.

For small plots they r right.If you have many deer it might be hard to do anything on that small of a plot.

Those plots are not large enough to make a bit of difference. They will mow them down, after spending a fair amount of money planting them. As has been said, those are your best choices if your hell bent on planting them, but what I would do in the future is add a lot of durana clover and chicory to your fall plots. They will explode come spring and will feed your deer, with adequate rainfall, until august. Both are high protein and drought resistant.

Thank you. When would be the best time to start planning and then planting these?

I planted a couple of plots this size last summer. One plot was a mixture of lablab and sunflower and the other was ICP/Buckwheat/sunflower. In one plot I used milorganite to try and keep the deer out for a few weeks as the plot matured and I did not use any Milorganite in the other. The plot with milorganite lasted almost until fall planting. The plants had a few more weeks to mature before getting browsed on too heavily and it really helped. Once the deer found the plot without Milorganite it was all ate up in about two weeks. This was problematic because it left the soil totally uncovered and the sun was drying it out quick.
Ill probably go back to the same plan this year but Will use Miorganite in all my small plots to let them get established before heavy grazing. Any plot that I had over 1.5 acres in size did awesome. In these larger plots we use WMS pea patch blend.

I planted all these right around the end of May/ beginning of June... worked out well

How much Milorganite did yu put out?

A good covering is all you need. I normally do 1 bag per field at the house and my fields are 1/2 acre.

When do you apply it? When planting or right after sprouts?

If it's close when everything starts coming up good. If I'm not gonna be back for a while when planted.

I would do a soil test to check the ph and fertilizer requirements. I would spend the summer getting the ph right. You can still plant something like buckwheat, while the ph is increasing. Deer typically wont decimate buckwheat like legume plantings, unless your deer density is high and your habitat is poor. Buckwheat does add phosphorous to your soil. When its time to plant this fall, add the durana and chicory to your fall mix. Be very careful not to get the seed too deep. Over a 1/4" deep and it wont germinate. Do you disk or throw and mow? If you disk, plant your cereal grains first and cover them. Then spread clover and chicory seed on top and walk away. If you throw and mow, plant it all at the same time.

Thanks for the information. Great stuff advise. I typically disc, plant and then drag, but will start top seeding clover in my fall planting!

Not to hijack the thread but instead of starting another and it pertains to summer plots...

Since buckwheat is known to smother out most weeds, could I plant it with some corn? I plant feed corn (not RR) but weeds are a problem. I have a 4 row planter setup on 30" rows and I double planted it last year (15" rows) in an effort to keep out the weeds and to help the lower than ideal germination of feed corn. Planting rows that close did not help with the weeds.

I dont care if some weeds are there but I would rather it not be so thick that I cannot see into it during season. Since buckwheat dies at the first frost and most weeds stop growing then would it help?

If so my plan is to spray gly, wait 2-3 weeks for a good burn, disk lightly, plant buckwheat, cultipack then run the 4 row planter over field.

Any thoughts......

Don’t do that. Corn cannot stand any competition if you really want to make corn.

Ok. So if I plant feed corn what can I spray to knock back most weeds? Atrozine?

So spray gly, disk, plant on 30” rows. Then after it comes up and weeds start to grow, spray atrazine?

Any other methods I could try?

At what rate do you recommend spraying the atrazine? I do 2oz per gallon for roundup (works easy to 2.5 gallons to my 160 gallon spray tank)

here’s a bulletproof corn recipe over the top of RR or non RR corn.

Atrazine 2 qts per acre
S- metolochlor 24 oz per acre
Callisto or laudis 3 oz per acre

Spray when corn is boot top tall on 30” rows right before row canopy

What kind of natural browse do you have on the tract? If you have some briar or honeysuckle patches get a few sacks of triple 13 and fertilize it.

I did a bag per half acre as well... I gave time for germination and then hit it.

The best luck I have had with small food plots is planting a pure stand of buckwheat late April or early may. I would wait till it seeds out then I did a mix of icp and sunn hemp about 60/40 respectively and cast into the bw then Bush hogged the bw over it. What you get is a second free crop of bw protecting your legumes till they grow a bit and fertilizer for them as well.

So many times I make a comment on a thread that is hopping.......then it stops. HAHA am I the thread killer?

I checked the plots yesterday and they all have a good bit of clover from my fall planting. What should I do in the spring (and when) to encourage the clover and give it the best chance to thrive? Should I mow the fields to keep it low enough so the clover doesn’t get shaded out and just not worry about spring planting?

Are these annual or perennial clovers? If they are annual clovers, then i wouldn't do anything. I would just let them run their course. If they are perennials then I would wait until early April and spray the plot with clethodim to kill any grasses that might choke out your clover. This will also kill any cereal grains that are in the plot. You can mow to keep broadleaf weeds in check. Don't use any nitrogen fertilizer during the spring or summer as this will promote weed growth. You can use 0-20-20 in lieu of a soil test. If it needs liming, then lime it.

Wont 2,4 DB work for the broadleafs without hurting the clover?

Yes, 2,4,db will kill broadleafs and wont hurt your clover. If you know what your doing, you can spray gly on your clover in April and kill the grass and the broadleafs, without killing your clover. Broadleaf weeds don't bother me, unless you have a lot of them. I even hand pull them, if there's not too many of them. Grass on the other hand will choke out clover.

So how do I learn how to "you know what your doing, you can spray gly on your clover in April and kill the grass"?

How does that work?

My sprayer takes about 18 gallons to spray an acre. When spraying clover, I mix 2 ozs., per gallon and spray it. It kills back most weeds and all grasses, but doesn't hurt the perennial clover. I'm not sure what it will do to your annual clover. Make sure the clover has taken off with that explosion of growth that comes during the spring and that the clover is not stressed in any way. It may brown the edges a little, but it always bounces back. Don't try this in the heat of the summer when most clovers are stressed. Clover is hard to kill, just ask landscapers. Why don't you mix a little up in a small handpump sprayer and test it on a small section, before you go full bore.

Thank you. 2 oz \gal is my regular mix. (2.5 gallons into 160 gallon tank)

I will try with hand sprayer first though. Thanks for the information.

I’ve sprayed gly on clover in the spring at 1 oz per gal and it worked great.

Prefer to use .5 oz cleth and 3 oz butyrac per gal now. Don’t have to worry about killing it.