Step One: Nick using a weed-eater to clear the area!!
The “no plow food plots” are in and all I need now is a little rain. Wow that was work! The day started with me taking a friend hunting, Nick still had a 4th season turkey tag for here in Iowa. We tried for a few hours to call in a turkey for him and the turkeys had none of it! That was ok because he had come up for a different reason. Nick and I had planned to do a little work to the areas we hunt for whitetails. The landowner had harvested a few trees this past winter and we now had some openings in the forest canopy. The idea was to put in a few 20 yard X 20 yard, no plow food plots close to the areas we hunt. These are in addition to our traditional food plots that we may or may not hunt over during bow season. In other words these are hunting plots not really food plots, designed to get deer to visit areas we will hunt over.
We had to use all hand tools, as you can see by the pictures we first used a weed eater to clear out as much under growth as we could, then raked away as much as we could.
After the weed-eater had it’s way!
Next we sprayed what was left with RoundUp, there wasn’t much to spray but we wanted to give our seeding the best start it could get. It is important to note that we then let the plot dry for about an hour, to insure that we didn’t damage the seeding we are about to plant. Ideally we would have liked to have sprayed it a few days before but we both have day jobs and didn’t get to it.
The next step was to rake again with a garden rake to loosen up the soil just a bit. We are planting a mix that the most seeds only need contact with the soil to grow. We used a small lawn seed spreader to seed the mix. As for the mix we seeded we went with BioLogic Hot Spot and added a food plot additive called Alfa Clover Plot Performance Additive by BioLogic.
Food plot additive called Alfa Clover by BioLogic
What does this add? A unique blend of alfalfa and clover cultivars that are specifically engineered for deer, it can be added to any food plot mix. Why? You might ask because I love clover plots and in most cases I like to add one of these additives to all my mixes. It’s personally what has worked for me and it’s a cheap way to add a little extra!
Okay last we added a starter fertilizer this isn’t something that is a must do but again it has worked for me in the past. One last light once over with the rake and all we need now is timely rain. Before I left I put up a trailcam so I can get a few pictures as it starts to grow and get some idea of deer usage. I will update everyone throughout the summer and into the fall, on how this plot grows and produces for us.
Finished: Rain Please!!!
