Vet Judy

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.