Critical Food Plot Planting Basics

These food plot planting tips are basic but often ignored. The best seed and soil does not guarantee success! However, success CAN be guaranteed if you follow these often overlooked but critical food plot planting tips...
*From clover to switchgrass, all 12 of our NEW WHS Seed Blends are available for purchase right now! Check out our new seed blend website....
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*Do you want to learn how to build and transform your food plot program for this Fall? Check out my advanced whitetail strategy classes:
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[@mikebutler5317]

Basic threshold common sense everyone can start with in establishing plots. Doing the work and planting ahead of solid rain is the annual mystery link.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Ha, that is so true Mike!

[@jamesstewart4966]

Followed you for a couple years now. Went no till last year with a weed kill in mid may after a mow. Killed everything good, maybe too good because when I spread it in August, it never materialized. Also you have spoke before about turning the soil is bad sometimes.

[@WobblyRooster]

@@jamesstewart4966ph is off is my best guess

[@janitorialguy4436]

Always appreciate a refresher course, i always forget something. Thanks Jeff

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

You are very welcome!

[@connorkropp6017]

This is great content, I wish more hunters watched your stuff!!!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Thanks a lot Connor...we really appreciate the support!!

[@bowman8316]

I agree

[@timhatfield6367]

All on schedule here, Jeff. Thanks for all the knowledge.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That's great to hear Tim! And you are very welcome. It feels good to be on schedule, btw! We have really been attacking the land this year...kind of a relentless pursuit, ha

[@johndhead1]

Great info as usual. If you choose to do a spring planting don't forget about soil temperature. It has been very cold here in western NY. Well below the recommended minimum soil temp. from most seed companies.

[@alexpinnow6509]

Good information Jeff, just got buckwheat out last weekend. A little early but trying to combat weeds and flooding.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Nice...that's a good feeling tho Alex!

[@drewharman1690]

Going to plant our corn this weekend!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Nice...good luck Drew!

[@micon9460]

Man ol man just looked at your seed blends. Thank you for only charging $5!!!! Putting in an order now. I got tired of paying just as much as the seeds.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Thank YOU!

[@bowman8316]

Food plot video... Yayyy 👍🏼🎣☘

[@beaulyons5554]

Question- after years of doing food plots, how many tons of seed have made it into your front pockets? Enough to plant a large food plot 🤷🏻‍♂️ lol I bet it’s a lot. Have a great holiday. Thank you for the videos.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Haha...so true Beau! A LOT!! Have a great weekend yourself!

[@codyguyette3636]

Hey Jeff, I'm planting my first ever food plot. I'm planting in an old overgrown cow pasture, so pretty much tall thick grasses. I have sprayed and had a really good kill. I'm getting ready to plant my screening but question, I didn't mow it so its thick dead grass/thatch, if I were to broadcast my seed over top of it would it work its way through that thick level of dead grass/thatch? Same goes for when I plant my brassica blend in the fall. After I broadcast over the buckwheat not till method. Thanks, keep up the good work!

[@mattgawlik4726]

Nice

[@terryquinter8499]

Don’t u use brassicas as a nurse crop 4 clover in the fall? Will it shade out the clover

[@CharlesSmith-pu3wp]

I let my Rye go after last season. Can I leave it till fall, plant through it, and cut it over this year's seed? Instead of Buckwheat?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Charles you do not want to do that. I would kill it or mow it immediately. It will get too tall and too thick...it takes a long time to break down in your soil and a lot of nutrients to do so. Also, it will produce an incredible amount of seed and smother out all other plantings...also too many pounds per acre and too early for planting rye for the year. Just not good all around...

[@m2hunt34]

so if you do a brassica, perennial clover mix, what do you recommend broadcasting into the clover the following year?

[@darinbarber2922]

Great question! I was just thinking that as I have a steep 7 acre ROW that I have heavy clover on so I don't have to plant it each year.

[@bmxican9274]

Regarding last falls small kill plot rye. Should I spray it or mow it down. Or leave it.?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

I like to kill it...just to help control weeds. I often seed buckwheat into it for the summer.

[@poplardeer]

How early would you go with Fall plots in areas north of you?

[@Ray-fw3sm]

Do I need a Cultipacker for clover food plots or can I just broadcast the seed on top of the soil

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Ray! You sure do if you just tilled or discord the soil. But not necessarily if throwing in bare, settled soil. In particular before rain.

[@aaronc1942]

Hi Jeff. How would you address the soil ph level if it's above 8.0?

[@leodaman5234]

Just sprayed your recommended dose of 24D and Glyphosate on my soon-to-be clover brassica plot. Been 5 days and cameras aren’t showing any sign of kill/yellowing. WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? -Leo

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Leo! With the 2-4D, the broadleaf should show signs of wilting within 24 hours...hard to see on cams tho. They wouldn't be brown for at least 10 days to 2 weeks tho

[@leodaman5234]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 Awesome. Thanks for the tip. Had Dylan out this Feb for a consultation and we’re elbows deep in the plan. Was great working with WHS

[@MrRABland]

PlotStart is advertised as an “alternative” to lime. It's not, because it doesn't supply a carbonate ion to alter the acidic pH of the soil. It does supply elemental calcium, but so does ag lime. If fact, 40% of the ag lime (ag, pelletized, liquid) is elemental calcium, so do you really need PlotStart? It is said PlotStart also supplies carbohydrates, but that’s what water and carbon dioxide from the environment provide to a plant where through photosynthesis they are turned into sugar (carbohydrate) and oxygen (6CO2+6H2O = C6H12O6+6O2). Elemental calcium is important to the plant, but if you use lime then you're already supplying calcium to the soil.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Rick..actually the key ingredients to PlotStart are proprietary...

[@MrRABland]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 The literature states it's from brine, which would be calcium chloride, a salt. So on that basis alone calcium ions are being added to the soil, which doesn't affect pH. Calling it a “lime alternative” is very misleading and inaccurate unless they are specific about supplying calcium as an ion just like ag lime does. Just specifying calcium from a brine as an ingredient doesn't justify its use without additional information about what's in it. I'm not one to simply accept a company’s word about a product’s efficacy, especially when they claim it's a like alternative, which clearly it isn't. We need some truth in advertising here and not be so misleading. In fact, one of the comments here describes PlotStart as “calcium lime.” If I still had access to a liquid spectrophotometer I could tell what and how much is in it. That would be interesting... Also, there are other liquid products out there that advertise these plant enhancers with probiotics, carbohydrates, etc. Maintaining stability of these supplements is questionable at best.

[@Mo75149-j]

Plot start won't raise ph long term in my test. But i don't think it's designed to also. I added a gallon to a small plot and the ph never changed. Still at 5.8. Harper growing solutions liquid lime created by a actual farmer is a better alternative.

[@kevinleary5244]

I only have one backpack sprayer. Can i mix my plotstart lime with glyphosate to spray at same time/same tank/

[@MrRABland]

PlotStart isn't lime (calcium carbonate) and doesn't alter the pH of the soil. It's advertised as an alternative to lime, but it's not. It only supplies elemental calcium to the soil and 40% of lime itself supplies elemental calcium to the soil. So if you use a ton of lime, it's already supplying 800 pounds of calcium.