Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Food plot help!!

I need some advice on a seed/mixture to plant this time of year that can grow in really sandy soil....I'm not sure what to plant..our bow season starts at the 2 of October so I need to get it and find something out pretty quick....all opinions/advice welcome...THANKS!!!

Rape and other brassicas are what you need.We plant it in very sandy soil and it grows great. It grows fast too be plenty thick/tall by oct. 2nd we planted a week ago and expect it to be good by mid sept when our bow season starts.

I would think that wheat and rye will grow very well for you. They will almost grow on blacktop if they get enough rain, and they grow very quickly. They will also green up in early spring and be attractive to the deer until they get about 8" tall. Good Luck.

The brassicas will tend to get "sweeter" after they have been hit by a frost...we have never seen much activity until then on any brassica plots. You may want to consider that. As for wheat and rye, I would suggest oats instead, as the deer we have hunted showed a distinct preference over both wheat and rye. Our bow season starts on 9/8 and just yesterday on two bowhunting only spots I planted a busted bag of soybeans, knowing that it will only be for early season and won't be drawing deer away from our gun season food plots...frost will have killed it by then.

The brassicas as a whole have never worked as good as a good clover/oats combination in my annual plots, or Imperial Whitetail Clover in the perrenial plots.

My 2 cents.

Rye grass will grow very easily and typically iron clay peas will. The only thing is to seven dust the clay peas when they get 6" or more high to keep the bugs off of them.

Not sure what part of the country you're from , but I've tried Brassicas with minimal success here in PA for 4 years. As mentioned earlier, they won't hit the brassicas till you have a good heavy frost as that's when it gets tasty. One year they hit the brassicas as we had snow in NOvember, every other year the deer never even bothered it all year. I would suggest wheat, oats or rye as I've had good success with all of them. They come up fast, and the deer seem to prefer them in the early tender stage of growth. 2 weeks prior to the bow season would probably work best as it will grow 4 inches a week after seeding if the weather is right. Plant it too early and it won't be as palatable for the deer come bow season.

Good luck

We've planted many different types of seeds in sandy soil. The only two that reliably work are clay peas and wheat. I've tried the different Biologics, a few different oats, different clovers, turnips, a few Ryes. The deer would not even eat many of the plots we planted over the years but, they'll mow down wheat and peas every time. All of them would grow when fertilized and adequate rain came but, what's the sense in planting plots they don't eat?

Our procedure is:

Bushhog, Disc, Drag, broadcast seed, Drag, broadcast fertilizer.

Using the above process and alittle rain, you'll have a nice green plot in just a couple weeks.

Good Luck

Reloader7RM

Oat & Rye. I add wheat for variety in my sandy soil.
I top dress with some fertilizer and wait for the rain.

stumpy

ya didn't the state you live in
plus is this just short term for hunting over in bow season

oats is good
soybeans maybe if it will not freeze there

how about this:
http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/products/secretspot/

Ive tried them all and like plan old grass seed that grows in your area. The trick is to have the plot away from traffic and near cover.

Winter time, run over it with some rye grass and during summer, mow it monthly. That will keep the weeds out.