SOIL PREPERATION AND LIME:

A GREAT PLOT STARTS NOW!

If the intended plot has never been plowed before or has laid fallow for years and is choked with vegetation, you're going to have to find a way to mow it down or kill it with herbicides. This usually means that you have to locate a tractor for hire at some point early in your project, or you have to walk the plot with a pump-up sprayer filled with an herbicide that kills everything it touches (or invest in an ATV boom sprayer).
If you decide to spray (which will give you a clean start) you need to remember to schedule this chore at least two to three weeks ahead of your plow date.

If you decide to spray (which will give you a clean start) you need to remember to schedule this chore at least two to three weeks ahead of your plow date.
 

SOIL SAMPLE:

INFORMATION YOU’LL NEVER GET ANY OTHER WAY

This is an excellent time to find out more about your food plot with a soil sample.



Lots of food plots are planted each year without benefit of a soil sample, but it is very simple and inexpensive and can make a big difference in your plot. Collect the samples according to the directions from your county agent, deliver it for analysis (either to the office or by one of the many mail-in services, check the internet) and by the time your vegetation has died you'll know what to do next.

Chances are good that you'll need lime. Most soil needs lime to adjust the pH to 6.5 to 6.8 which is best for growing food plots. Find out Why Lime is Important. The best solution is to go ahead and try to break the ground up now that your plot is cleared of growing vegetatio. Then have the lime delivered according to the "tons per acre" information on your soil test results and then disk it into the ground more as you do your final preparations. The soil test is loaded with info on exactly what you need to do to have the soil in the best possible shape for your plot. Do as much of it as you can.

 

LOOKS AREN'T EVERYTHING:

Many first year fields are not the most attractive food plots when you’re working with limited equipment. You may have clumps of dead weeds sticking up, small tree stumps you have to plow around, rocks too big to move ..don’t worry. This is not a beauty contest, your trying to grow something for deer that’s good for them and good for you and you’re doing the best you can with the equipment at hand.
 
Soil preparation is an important part of any successful food plot, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t achieve the “firm, level seed bed” mentioned so often on planting instructions (remember, this is LEVEL 1). Certainly, the better the seed bed the better the chance for a successful plot, but don’t be intimidated into giving up just because you don’t have access to a hefty tractor and a variety of implements. The key is to break up the soil to the point where each seed can be surrounded in enough moist earth to germinate, so whether you’re using a small ATV disk, a garden tractor or pulling a disk behind a 4 X 4 truck (yes we’ve seen it done), keep going until the soil contains as few chunks and clods as possible. A few bumps and lumps won’t hurt either (as long as the soil feels “fluffy”) although seed may “pool” in these areas and grow in a tight cluster. Good smoothing can be accomplished with nothing more than a length of chain link fence with a couple of concrete blocks on top pulled behind an ATV.
 
Other tips:

• Plant when soil moisture is adequate. Don’t plant and hope it will rain if you are experiencing drought conditions. Wait for rain, then plant.
• Do your homework ahead of time and you’ll have a much higher level of success.
• Have your soil tested
• Fertilize according to the soil test.
• Lime if needed to correct the pH.
• Prepare a good, weed free seed bed
• Plant into adequate moisture with inoculated seed if needed.
• Control weeds.

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