RuttedUpBuck
New Member
Fellow critter gitters, New to the forum but my boots have been caked in the Georgia mud!
I recently purchased a home on 5 acres that shares property lines on 3 sides with an 8,000 acre state park that allows no hunting in the heart of Alachua County, FL. The state park is a very diverse ecosystem and is packed full of all types of wildlife. There are great genetics on the state park and the park has always been known to house some of the biggest bucks in the county.
For many years I have been able to hunt a close family friends farm in Worth County, Ga. I have learned a ton about hunting big deer on that farm as well as food plots and habitat management. The worth county property has been owned by the same fella for 35 years so everything is in tip top shape, there’s not a whole lot of “new property management” taking place.
My lack of knowledge of property planning leads me to reaching out for some help from someone whose got more knowledge than me. My goal is to turn my 5 acres in alachua county into a small “deer paradise”. I started throwing out some corn shortly after buying the place and would see 15+ deer feeding on the corn daily. I put out two 350lb boss buck feeders and filled them with FRM Midway 20 and the deer empty them both in about a week. As far as just killing some deer, regular old baiting would work fine but I really would like to maximize the potential of the location. The 5 acres consist of mixed hardwoods with a variety of large pines, hickory, sweet gums, live oaks, laurel oaks, swamp chestnut oaks, swamp white oaks, hop horn beam, magnolia, as well as a few other species of trees. As far as soft mast, the property has serviceberry, Hawthorne, Chickasaw plum, muscadine grapes, and a few other trees/bushes I have no idea what they are.
My potential idea is to remove the majority of non mast producing trees to open the floor to sunlight. Portions of the property get plenty of sunlight to grow food plots but some areas not enough sunlight to dry the soil after real hard rains, which I feel like could lead to root rot in a variety of plots? Once the majority of non mast producing trees are cleared I was planning on planting a large imperial clover plot, or a clover/chicory mix (to have a spring and fall plot). I could also mix in oats and brassicas for the fall.
Chestnut Hill nursery (famous for their dunstan chestnut tree) is just down the street, I was planning on putting in a variety of trees along the edges of the property. It looks like chestnut hill nursery sells trees that are already at mast producing age, has anyone bought and planted trees that were already mast producing? I was thinking of an early and late drop persimmon, early and late drop pear, some crabapples, and some dunstan chestnut trees.
Sorry for the long post, but would really appreciate it if anyone had some good advice as to how I could provide the best and most attractive food sources for the deer. Thanks in advance for your time and help.
Many thanks, god bless
RuttedupBuck
I recently purchased a home on 5 acres that shares property lines on 3 sides with an 8,000 acre state park that allows no hunting in the heart of Alachua County, FL. The state park is a very diverse ecosystem and is packed full of all types of wildlife. There are great genetics on the state park and the park has always been known to house some of the biggest bucks in the county.
For many years I have been able to hunt a close family friends farm in Worth County, Ga. I have learned a ton about hunting big deer on that farm as well as food plots and habitat management. The worth county property has been owned by the same fella for 35 years so everything is in tip top shape, there’s not a whole lot of “new property management” taking place.
My lack of knowledge of property planning leads me to reaching out for some help from someone whose got more knowledge than me. My goal is to turn my 5 acres in alachua county into a small “deer paradise”. I started throwing out some corn shortly after buying the place and would see 15+ deer feeding on the corn daily. I put out two 350lb boss buck feeders and filled them with FRM Midway 20 and the deer empty them both in about a week. As far as just killing some deer, regular old baiting would work fine but I really would like to maximize the potential of the location. The 5 acres consist of mixed hardwoods with a variety of large pines, hickory, sweet gums, live oaks, laurel oaks, swamp chestnut oaks, swamp white oaks, hop horn beam, magnolia, as well as a few other species of trees. As far as soft mast, the property has serviceberry, Hawthorne, Chickasaw plum, muscadine grapes, and a few other trees/bushes I have no idea what they are.
My potential idea is to remove the majority of non mast producing trees to open the floor to sunlight. Portions of the property get plenty of sunlight to grow food plots but some areas not enough sunlight to dry the soil after real hard rains, which I feel like could lead to root rot in a variety of plots? Once the majority of non mast producing trees are cleared I was planning on planting a large imperial clover plot, or a clover/chicory mix (to have a spring and fall plot). I could also mix in oats and brassicas for the fall.
Chestnut Hill nursery (famous for their dunstan chestnut tree) is just down the street, I was planning on putting in a variety of trees along the edges of the property. It looks like chestnut hill nursery sells trees that are already at mast producing age, has anyone bought and planted trees that were already mast producing? I was thinking of an early and late drop persimmon, early and late drop pear, some crabapples, and some dunstan chestnut trees.
Sorry for the long post, but would really appreciate it if anyone had some good advice as to how I could provide the best and most attractive food sources for the deer. Thanks in advance for your time and help.
Many thanks, god bless
RuttedupBuck
