food plot help

[kasey]

I have never done a food plot i have a spot that is 30yards wide and 100 long.what do i need to do

[Michigan Mark]

Test your soil!

[NoCams]

kasey,
As a fellow TN mountain goat I am telling you that Michigan Mark above gave you the BEST advice...... test, test, test that dirt !!!

Most important will be the ph of the soil. You need to get as close to 7.0 as possible. You have about a 1/2 acre there may need 1-2 tons of lime to get your ph up to 7. Remember, if you check your soil and it is say 6.0 or so you may think, "Hey, I am close to 7, good enough. NOT SO !!! If you are off even a few tenths that is much more acidic soil than you would think. It may take a ton of lime to get your reading to come up even  a few tenths from say 6.0 to 6.5.

Once the ph is closer to 7.0 then you can worry about the other elements like phosphorous and calcium. Of the 3 numbers on your fertilizer bag the last 2 are normally what are lacking in our TN mountain land. Especially the last one ! You may have to put out a fertilizer like 0-18-18, little to no nitrogen but lots of the last two numbers. Go to the Farmers Co-op and get a soil sample kit and use it.

After deciding what to plant and your soil has been ammended don't forget to build some exclusion cages to keep the deer out and use to monitor how well your farming skills  really are ! Use some sturdy fencing wire and a few 6' metal posts to make some 3' diameter cages to scatter across the plot. I would think 4 cages would be enough to monitor your progress. We had the University of TN help us one year with food plots and without the exclusion cages you would have thought we were VERY poor farmers. The deer MOWED those plots down ! Inside the cages the crop was about knee high, outside in the plot it was 3" tall !!!

[BobCo 1965]

Test. Most seed Companies will offer the test and then the recommended fertilizer and lime for the particular crop that you want to plant. It only takes a couple days and costs about $8. You may also want to consider fencing off a portion of the plot till hunting season. That is a pretty big plot that you are doing, so it may be OK without the fencing.

[CoilSpring]

Kasey, I emailed you a Univ. Tenn document on food plots - Good advice above.   Soil test first (your local Co-op can help there too) and this document will fill in some of your questions as well.

[Pat B]

Your local Ag agent should have soil test info and containersfor you to send off to get tested. Generaly it is free.