Progression of a food plot...

Will make great nesting cover too

Beautiful picture and plot TC

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year to all my fellow food plotters! Been a while since I've updated this thread. With the acorns about gone and browse becoming more scarce I thought I would update this thread to show the progression of our largest food plot - the "bean field" as we call it, even though we haven't grown beans since 2014.

Back in the summer I limed the field with 2 tons per acre in established area of plot and 3 plus tons per acre in the new section in the south end of the field where I clear cut about an acre while thinning the pines.


Fall Planting
Here was our seed arsenal for the bean field for 2017 - Wheat, trophy radish, purple top turnip, regal graze ladino clover and Pennington durana clover. Clover was planted around the perimeter with wheat as a nurse crop. The goal is to have the clover growing around the perimeter throughout 2018 and provide forage until planting next fall.

The interior was planted in radish and turnips with wheat broadcast over it a month after planting the brassicas.

The new section in the south of the field was planted in wheat since this was the 1st year planting after liming.

Here's a few pics taken a couple days ago from the middle of the plot looking north and another pic looking south.




Here's the clover with wheat as a nurse crop around the perimeter of the field. Next spring and summer this should be a pure stand of ladino and durana clover.


Close up of clover in the wheat around the perimeter already up since planting in early October.


Radish vs Turnips
If I had to choose only one...I'd go with radishes over turnips every time. Been planting radishes since we started in 2011. Radishes always get browsed on our place before turnips. Deer will eat the turnips. I'm already seeing a few bulbs being munched on but the greens on the turnips get mostly ignored until the radishes are browsed down to the ground. Here's a pic of a radish and turnip growing next to each other. Notice the greens on the radish are eaten down while the greens on the turnips are mostly ignored.


Lime and Fert
Get the proper ph balance in your soil along with fertilizer and stuff grows! This turnip is almost the size of a soccer ball. Some of the radishes are well over a foot long.


Benefits of Tubing Bare Root n Small Trees
A page or so back I posted pics of yates and horse apple trees that were grafted onto B118 root stock. The scions were 6 to 8 inches long at grafting. On the advice of my buddy that provided the scions and showed me how to graft, I tubed them in 5 ft tubes. Here's a pic taken back around the end of October showing the unbelievable growth that occurs in tubes. This graft was about a foot tall when planted and is now out of the 5 ft tube. Tubes WORK!


Plot comparison when we started this process in 2011 compared to today. Gone from about 3 acres to just under 6 acres now. 4 kieffer pears, 10 apple trees and several native persimmons now growing in this plot to add additional soft mast in the years to come. Still a work in progress and a labor of love!

I bet the deer walk around with smiles on their faces. Awesome.

A work of art, Triple C!

Nice work & good info.

Thx for the comments guys! Lot of sweat equity in that plot.

Thanks for the update. Place is looking great!

Looks awesome TC, but if you had seen what that group of feral cows have done to mine, you would be crying with me!

GAGE said:

Looks awesome TC, but if you had seen what that group of feral cows have done to mine, you would be crying with me!

Click to expand...

Gage...Been following your trials n tribulations on your feral cow issue. In 7 seasons only had that happen once on our place and you are right...They can make a mess of a food plot in a hurry.

Triple C said:

Gage...Been following your trials n tribulations on your feral cow issue. In 7 seasons only had that happen once on our place and you are right...They can make a mess of a food plot in a hurry.

Click to expand...

While they are still active in our plots, they have recently found the yard durana/fescue around our cabin. We hunted them over the weekend, but they never showed.
Our brassicas are wiped out, my tree plantings have taken a beating (hope they can recover being eaten) but our clover should survive, so not all lost.

This plot is now pushing 6 acres in size. Started out at about 3 acres in 2011. This year we're planting daikon radish and either wheat or rye grain later. We planted the radish this past saturday. Had a huge rain event late friday and made for perfect planting conditions.

We sprayed the field 3 weeks ago with gly, lightly disc'd it a week ago and then ran the Plotmaster over it to create a firm seed bed before broadcasting the radish seed. Cultipacked the seed following the planting. Made for a long day. 5 acres of radish is a lot to plant. We planted 2.5 acres in radish in another plot as well. Over the years, I've found deer prefer radish over turnips. Thus my reason to go all radish on my brassica this year. Goal is to give the radish at least 60 days growing ahead of 1st frost. Come late September, we'll broadcast grain into the radish stand.

Green around the perimeter is white clover that we keep going year round.




This trail leaves the field and meanders thru a section of thinned pines with hardwood draws on either side of the pines. Deer often take the path of least resistance. This mowed trail is used often by deer entering and exiting the field.


I'll post up some pics as the radishes start growing. Best of luck to everyone this fall!

Looks like its going to be awesome, Triple C.

That should be an incredible draw this year, good luck!!

That is a BIG food plot, you are a hard worker. Looking good!! I know you like radishes and the deer prefer them over turnips. But have you or anybody ever try rape how do they do?

SR PLAN said:

That is a BIG food plot, you are a hard worker. Looking good!! I know you like radishes and the deer prefer them over turnips. But have you or anybody ever try rape how do they do?

Click to expand...

I have not tried rape. I almost picked up a 5 lb bag when I was picking up the radish but didn't. Prolly should have as I'll give anything a try.

There is always next time