Food plot planning

I'm planning on planting a food plot in the corner of my lot that I'll be building on next year. The lot is about 4.5 acres of field and 4.6 acres of woods. I'm thinking of putting the food plot in the back corner of the field and putting up a stand in this corner. Then planting trees around the plot to build up the wooded portion of my land to about 5.5 acres total. My primary focus will be whitetail and turkey for hunting.

My questions are: 1. How big of a food plot to go with? 2. Do you plant the same thing every year or change it up, I've heard it depends on the farmer's crops in the area. 3. Do you manage a food plot as you would a garden, or let nature take its course once it is planted? 4. Does shape of the plot make that much of a difference? 5. Would a small pond next to the food plot be beneficial? I will probably need fill to build and there is no major water source within about 3 miles.

I probably won't plant the plot this year, but want to get it plowed up so I can plan out where to put the trees since it'd be nice to get those in this summer. I grew up hunting a swamp so we never dealt with food plots, it's all new to me.

Thanks in advance for the input!

Got my fall/winter plot in this weekend. Did a combination sample plot with brassicas and chicory and reseeded my clover plot from earlier this summer. First time this area has been tilled up - gave my forearms a workout with the front tine tiller! Hopefully it's worth it. 

The blend I use has turnips in it, but the deer just don't winter near my plot. After the rut, I keep seeing less of them and when the snow comes they are all but gone. The turnips are pretty much wasted I think...maybe the tops get eaten, but that's about it.

My plot will be finished by the weekend also, or at least ready to be planted depending on rain. Only takes an hour or so to spread seed and light drag, so I wait until rain is coming.

I’ll be wrapping up all the food plots this weekend. Tilling up the 1.5 acres of clover I planted in spring and planting 1/2 in winter rye and the other 1/2 in arctic forage oats. I’ve never done the oats before so curious how they’ll do. Also finishing up the new food plot, gonna spread lime and some 10-10-10 fertilizer, disc that in then plant that in winter rye as well. The 2 food plots are not on the same property. I’d like to do some brassicas but the ground just isn’t ready yet, maybe I’ll do that next year??

Brassica specs. 

Got a good amount of food plot/habitat  work done this weekend! Got the 1 1/2 acre clover plot mowed, got 4 8ft apple trees planted and fenced in and plowed up and disced a new 1 acre plot which I’ll plant in a couple weeks in winter rye. One of the 40’s I lease has a logging road that loops through the woods, that’s what I plowed up and disced. Should make for a good season. Can’t wait!!

You can lightly spray rounup on clover and it will kill weeds.   It will stunt the clover a little but in a week it will bounce right back. 

You will habe to find some exact numbers but for example if I had a quarter acre plot and wanted to kill it all I would use 6 ozs of roundup in a 2 gallon sprayer.     To just get the weeds cut down to 1 or 2 ozs.     Grasses take very little chemical to kill. 

Cant hel you on the 2 4 D.    I have some but only use it to kill all when starting new sites or to get weeds in the yard i dont want back.    

Overseeding into your standing clover you have alot of options if you have rain in the forecast.     Spread your seeds.   Light roundup spray and the weeds will die and lay on your new seeds like a mulch.     Best seeds to oberseed this time of year are brassicas becuase the seed is tiny or my favorite foolproof seed Winter Rye.    I dont remeber your plot size but 3 weeks before bow opener fire a 50 lb bag on your plo5 and walk away.    You can do it again a couple weeks later if you want.   

I shot a buck in a tiny plot like 1(32 acre plot oening night last year.    Cost me $10 and about 30 minutes of work.   

Got a good amount of food plot/habitat  work done this weekend! Got the 1 1/2 acre clover plot mowed, got 4 8ft apple trees planted and fenced in and plowed up and disced a new 1 acre plot which I’ll plant in a couple weeks in winter rye. One of the 40’s I lease has a logging road that loops through the woods, that’s what I plowed up and disced. Should make for a good season. Can’t wait!!

I was told 2, 4-D with not harm clover. Not sure if there is any truth to that but if you try it let me know!

I round-up'ed my second plot this past weekend. Gonna till her up this weekend, wait a week or two and give it another coating before planting a brassica plot for the winter.

For that early clover plot I put in, it is mainly weed free still just struggling as expected. Can I just over-seed in another month or so or should I kill it all off before re-planting for winter?

BTW - for anyone doing more secluded style plots with limited water access I highly suggest a small pool as a watering hole, I feel like I get more pictures of the deer drinking than actually eating

Is there a weed control product that won't kill clover?

Unfortunately non frost seeded clover or fall seeded clover tends to do exactly what you mentioned....curl up in the heat do to a poor root system.   

I went against my own thoughts and planted some clover in may as well.   Its a .25 acre field and i added 20 lbs of winter rye as a cover crop.    The rye got tall asap and shielded the little clover shoots which held moisture longer in the morning.   After it was 6 weeks old the clover really started growing and i mowed it as high as possible with a riding mower.    Rye is now dead or dying.   Clover is striving.  

I like the recommendation on just spraying weeds with round up, waiting a week until theres some dead brown thatch to hold moisture and simply spreading clover into that thatch layer.     Now you do not plow up new dormant weed seeds that will sprout with your new clover.    

New plot breakdown.   Plowed 20 year old set a side grass that was basically like breaking up sod.    After several weeks of dragging then letting dry and die then repeat I had a couple inches of thatch and dirt to work with.    I threw down 5 lbs of crimson clover that I got for 8$ at a co op.   Threw partial bag of old winter rye on it for a cover crop.   The plan was to break up the soil add some nitrogen and made a easily workable field for fall turnips.    The field is so nice thick and tall right now I am going to have a hard time cutting it down.   

I found the best thing for clover is after you spray weed killer on your plot is to NOT till it up again!

This tilling after you killed the weeds only brings up old dormant weed seeds and I have made that same mistake.

Broadcast the seed over the plot and just roll or culipack it and it will do fine!

yama - what seed mix did you use? Seems odd to have that much weed growth even after using round up. I didn't use any round up and weed growth has been minimal, maybe the mix was heavy on the cover crop? Rape grass can block out sun if too thick.

So I decided to ignore sloshkosh's suggestion even though i knew he was right... Planted clover mid june and it did well until this heat kicked in and it stunted out at ~4". But the boys have been loving it so i'll need to replant next month anyways, they'll have it mowed down to nothing. Fun to experiment with different crops anyways!