Vet Judy

The most often overlooked part of whitetail deer food plot success is weed control. Here are some additional facts that you should know about weeds in your food plots.

Broad Categories of Weeds

1.  Grasses( includes sedges and grasses).

     *Seedlings have one leaf narrow and upright  *Roots are fine and branching*  Sedges differ from grasses: some have triangular shaped stems rather than round or oval.

2. Broadleaf (plants, shrub, tree seedlings)

       *Two seed leaves that are broad with netlike veins *Root system coarse *Often has strong tap root

        * May be herbaceous (plant does not regrow from wood tissue above the ground) or woody (brush, shrubs, trees) *brush and shurbs usually have several stems and generally no taller than 10 feet.

Other Classification Systems are based on life cycle:

                Annuals, biennials, and perennials

1.       Annuals most common in cultivated crops

a.       Lots of dormant seed

b.      Grow fast

c.       Produce high numbers of seed

d.      Can be either winter or summer annual weeds

       Summer annuals: germinate in spring or summer, but die before winter, remain dormant  in soil for the winter or in some cases for years before emerging again

Winter annuals  germinate in later summer or early winter, they overwinter in their vegtetative form then in spring or early summer they flower, set seed and mature  and die. Seeds are dormant in summer months.

These weeds are the most concern in fall seeded crops (ex winter wheat and alfalfa) which go through winter dormant period. Note winter annuals can live 2 seasons but the life cycle is completed during one year

Biennial: life cycle lasts two years. First year plant forms basal leaves(rosette) and a tap root. In the second year the flower comes, matures and dies. No biennial grasses or sedges

Perennials: live more than one season. Some seem to go on forever. Have persistant resprouting roots, rhizomes, stolons, tubers, plant fragments etc. difficult weeds to control.

To avoid this problem it is important not to let the seedlings become established.

Spread by two routes: simple or creeping

 Simple: resprout from crown buds on tap root and spreed from seed.

                        Roots are fleshy, may be large (dandelion)

 Creeping: reporduce by creeping roots(canadian thistle, field bindweed), or above ground stems (runners or stolons) (bentgrass, bermudagrass) or below ground stems(rhizomes)(quackgrass, johnson grass). Also reproduce by seed.  ****once established most dificult group to control. May require cultivation repeated, herbicide, mowing.

Adapted from Washington State University Weed Management Principals. You can purchase this guide here: https://cru84.cahe.wsu.edu/ItemDetail.aspx?ProductID=14331 

Step 1: Soil Testing

Soil test: Most of the no-till blends are cereals, grains, and clover mixes (+/- brassicas) and most of these plants really like near neutral pH.  If you don’t know the pH range of your soil, you may be wasting your time and money.

Step 2: Mid May

Let the weeds grow 3 to 4 inches, then spray the field with Roundup (glyphosate). If it is taller than 3 to 4 inchers, cut it down first so you get better contact.

Step 3: Late May-Early June

Remove the dead thatch. Manual removal or controlled burning (with permits and qualified personnel) are both good options. If your soil test shows that your pH is below 6.5, use lime at recommended rates, or if no soil test is available add a minimum of two tons of lime per acre. Cheapest form of lime is bulk. Disk in lime to a depth of 4 to 6 inches

Step 4: Late June or early July

After 3 to 4 inches of new growth do a second spraying. Two sprayings will usually do an adequate job of weed control. If you have a particularly problematic plot it may take an additional spraying after next new growth.

Step 5: Late July Early August

Final Preparation of Seed Bed, Planting and fertilizing according to soil test. Add fertilizer as recommended in your soil test. Harrow drag the fertilizer into the top 1-3 inches of soil.

Do you have a small piece of property on which you would like to grow a whitetail deer food plot. Short on equipment? Got more time than equipment or money for tilling? Have to do small plots for hunting or photography to allow good distance ratios? Have you a piece of rented land that is a mere 40 to 50 feet wide?

On our property we have some such areas and in addition to being small they are limited to fall annual planting due to the fact that they are low spots and we usually can’t get in there until mid Mayor later. Also, the soil conditions are such that the location is best best suited to fall attractant type plots. See more on annuals at www.diydeerfoodplots.com/ at the resource page.

Usually, we have to  wait until the winter run off water retreats and find an area that kind of interfaces one of our fields and a known bedding area. Then a soil test is done. If we manage to have picked an area where soil treatments are minimal, then we consider this gold.

Usually the area is covered in poor nutritional and poor tasting grasses (See the piece on food deer love), so it doesn’t hurt my feelings to give that a full coverage of glyphosphate and a surfactant in May. This is when plant growth is really just getting accelerated and things are turning green. Since the plot is so small, we can utilize a backpack sprayer. Usually, there are two sprays required or three for some really tough locations, usually 2 to 3 weeks apart, as new greenery starts to show up.

Late July or early August we can tramp through all the dead junk there. But here is the kicker about no plow, no tillage planting. You have to get that dead thatch out of the way! So here comes the back breaking labor. Oh, well, you saved on tillage right?

Out with a weedwacker and trim the dead stuff. Can’t use a lawnmower where we are at, because just too rough in there. After that, it is manual pick up. Again, no equipment access and just too rough, so it’s pick up the stuff  by hand or rake off the plot to the bush. With a rake we just rough up the soil a little just to allow a little seed to soil contact.

Using a hand seeder, we have used whitetail Institutes No Plow for these plots. It  is nice for these tough spots. Then finally we rake after broadcasting the seed.

Just a heads up about using this approach. Saving on tillage doesn’t mean you can entirely ignore all parts of the growing process.  Make sure to soil test for best results. This mix has cereal grains, brassicas and clover which all do better on near neutral soils. It is not that you can’t put this on more acidic soils, it is just that best growth, palatability and sustainability occurs when conditions are more ideal.  The more the conditions deviate from suitable, the more likely you are to have excessive weed competition and disappointing efforts.

It is always a great idea to use products both suited for deer plots and suited to the region you are in, but unless you tend to some of the agricultural needs, you may still be disappointed. We have found that NO PLOW from whitetail institute is one of the best options our there for no till food plot plans.

I have a few other ideas up my sleeve for those of you wanting some results but are short of property, money or time. I shall keep you posted.

For more information please visit our DIY Deer Food Plots Website

1. Crops:  Some crops that deer seem to love are soybeans, clover, alfalfa, rye, corn and oats. Standing corn is used for both food and shelter. This is the category that food plot plants fall into. For more plant information please feel free to check out our free resources at www.diydeerfoodplots.com/

2. Forbs: These are herbaceous plants (other than grasses) generally seen growing out in open areas.  Deer eat these and hide in them too.

3. Shrubs: Known as bushes. The deer also eat these and use for cover.

4. Trees:

Mast-bearing hardwoods: Oak, beech, hickory, chestnut are the ones that deer prefer.

White oak group is preferred over red due to more bitter taste of the red. White group examples are post oak, white oak, chinquapin, and chestnut oak. These trees generally produce acorns every year.

Red oak examples are red oak, black oak, pin oak, willow oak, and water oak. Most of these bear mast every two years.

Beech trees seem to be inconsistent with mast production but deer do love these.

Fruit-bearing hardwoods: Apple, pears, cherry, persimmons( all time favorite), and plum trees are the most common. The deer eat the fruit and the leaves. Deer hunters love these trees, especially whenthey are ripening at hunting time. Other wild fruit loved by deer include: wild grapes, scuppermongs, muscadines, mulberries, and sumac, osage orange fruit,maypops,paw-paws and honey locust.

General Hard Woods: Maple, birch,ashes, elms, and gum trees are notable here and provide cover and food depending on conditions and area.

Soft Woods: Pine, spruce, cedar, hemlock, firs and junipers also important for food and cover pending conditions.

As part of your food plot location strategy you may consider the fruit and mast bearing trees are excellent drawing features in deer habitat.

Accurately determining the size of your deer food plot is one of the elements of having a successful food plot. It determines proper seeding rates, lime application and fertilizing rates. Here are some examples of how just guessing can lead to big problems in your food plot.

a) Too little seed leads to poor uniformity and decreased competition for weeds. The result here: you spend tonnes more time in weed control and your deer food plot annuals or perennials forage won’t flourish.

b) Too much seed result in plants that are too close together. They don’t get proper nutrition due to competition from their own. This results in plants that are more susceptable to poor moisture levels, decreased fertility in the soil, and increased weed competition.

c) Too much lime may potentially swing the pH to the opposite side of neutral. Neither acidic nor basic soils are good for most plant types that we chooose for our food plots. The vast majority of soils are acidic enough that this may seem unlikely, but I have seen it happen.

d) Too little lime or lime applied to the wrong level in the soil will not raise the pH sufficiently. This means the soil will remain more acidic than you would like and the nutrients and the fertilizer will not be available to the same extent. You may as well throw you money out!

e) Too much fertilizer is a bit self explanatory given the cost of fertilizer. Remember anything you do for the plants, you do for the weeds. The other important thing is that too much of a good thing can actually be toxic to the plants you are desperately working to grow.

f) Too little fertilizer is a little like depriving yourself of proper nutrition and then wondering why you are sick and weak and feel awful. You need to give the soil what it needs based on your soil test, nothing short of that is really a good idea for the forage, even if money is tight. It leads to weaker plants and thinner forage and may allow weeds and schrubs to take over the plot. Then you will end of spending money dealing with that problem.