Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Food plots.. When and what?

I’m getting anxious! Let’s get a thread going on what everyone is planting and when are you hoping to get them in?

I’ll start.. I’ll be planting a 4 way clover mix of red, arrowleaf, berseem and ladino. I’ll add a 3 way grain with it. Ideally I’d like to get it done around October 15th if we can get some rain.

Planting the usual…one and a third bag per acre of WMS deer magnet with a couple extra pounds of bardura red or arrowleaf added in. Not really any different than your mix sans the ladino. I’ll also juice up some durana spots this fall too. Most western edges or nooks of fields with afternoon shade gets durana as well as road shoulders.

My South Alabama property. We are planning October 10 weekend and will be planning Wms dear magnet topped with some extra oats.

My new property here in North Alabama, I will likely be planning middle to the end of September…I will be planning WmS, dear magnet, Mississippi mix, and a bag of Bama blend as some sort of a test due to each field not being bigger than a third of an acre.

Barbour County, AL - Planting after the 15th of October. Sandy sites get Abruzzi Rye (cereal) planted by throw and mow. Loam soils get Winter Wheat and Dixie Crimson Clover with a combo of plow and plant or throw and mow. May mix in some Abruzzi Rye or oats to the loam plots just because. Site determines the planting method.

I don't get overly complicated with the winter plots. Attractant with enough clover to carry them through turkey season. Deer seems to hit them just fine with this basic offering. I would spend more time/effort on lime and PH than complicated seed for the fall/winter but that's just me.

We will be planting Sept/ 26TH if there is rain in the forecast. We will plant WMS Deer Magnet, WMS South East Cover, WMS No Till and Southern Seed - Super Buck.
With 24 green fields we try to offer the deer a variety of seed blends. We would plant some Buck Buster seed, but no one around us carries it.
We will disk fields a week before we plant.
We put out fertilizer along with seed.

We will plant when there is sufficient precipitation in the forecast for mid October or later, but may plant one spot for bow season in a couple weeks. Planting forage oats, imperial clover and rape brassica.

More clover seed into small plot in mid October pre rain.

Depends on rain but usually late September to early or mid October in FL Panhandle. Used to be a Green Patch Plus fan. Last few years I changed to Hot Spot. Planting Biologic Hot Spot heavy as easy to plant no till even though will be using a tractor and a disk. It’s a better product since they changed the formula a few years back. And the deer like it.

I see a lot of people switching over to the WMS seeds, I think I will try a couple of their mixes this year. I have heard good things about the Barduro red clover. Does it last through the summer and drought? I have done a little research on the Durana, and from what I understand, it lasts about three times longer than other perennial clovers without reseeding and stands up to drought exceptionally well. Is that what you have found to be the case as well?

I think WMS has quality products and it’s convenient for me to buy the pre mixed blends. I find their planting rate to be too light which is why I add seed. I’m only a couple years using Bardura and it’s the longest lasting thing in that mix…but nothing made it through the heat and drought at my farm this summer. The durana also looks like it’s fried but a little rain and cooler nights will bring it right back surprisingly well.

I absolutely think deer preference is a pure ladino but Durana gets good use and is hardier for me.

I appreciate the info. I am going to try some Barduro and Ladino this year. I have always used Biologic Non Typical large leaf Ladino with great results for my perennial fields, but it doesn't like the heat and drought very well, so I usually have to overseed every year or so. The deer definitely hammer it though.

It's so dry around here that I have no idea when we will plant. In the past, we used to plant around the 1st week of Oct. The last 2 years we have planted in early November due to it being so dry. We've got the plots diced and the fields that are suitable for throw and mow were mowed in July because they were 8' tall. We plant oats, wheat, cereal rye and crimson and freshen up WTI clover in spots it likes. We need substantial rain bad

We got several inches of rain yesterday afternoon. Sure wish we could get half that much three or four days after we plant in late Sept. and then several; more times in mid Oct.
Wish -- wish -- wish

Careful what you wish for. The most dependable source of that kind of rain in September and October comes with a strong counter clockwise rotation, hurricane winds and possible tornadoes. I ran up to plant two years ago ahead of a storm that was missing Mobile but looked good to cover the camp with the outer bands. The east side of Beatrice got over four inches. My camp closer to Franklin didn’t get a drop.

I’m going to cut out the brassica components this season on my primary plots. Cereals will be mix of rye, black oats and triticale. I’m going in heavier with clovers.

Depends on where in the state you are and where the hurricane comes to shore.

Are yall buying WMS seed blends at co-ops or ordering from them directly?

From seed store

Think they have a dealer locator on the web site.

What makes WMS seed any better than a cheaper brand that has the same germination rate? I saw one bag of their mix at the feed store that was $68 for a bag. I think the cheapest bag of WMS seed mix i saw was 38 a bag. Thats just crazy to me