Food Plot Salvage Tips

Don't let drought, browsing pressure or weeds drag your food plot down! Instead, here is how to still build a beautiful field of food plot green for this deer season...
*Our 14 WHS Seed Blends are available for purchase right now, including all of our deer hunting blends! Check out our new seed blend website....
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*Would you like to make sure that you have an outstanding food plot planting strategy for this deer hunting season? You should check out my books, seed, rut web class, podcasts and hundreds of deer strategy articles:
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[@bowman8316]

WNY had a bad drought last year but tons of rain this year... wish i could send some rain to all who are dry ! I feel your pain 🌧☘

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Man...really, enjoy it and we are happy for you! Hopefully the clouds are turning for all of the rest of you!

[@joshny4766]

Tough year for my buckwheat in CNY. It just didn't get a big jump due to dry weather and the deer kept it browsed down from there. But as Jeff said, all is not lost! Salvage time!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Salvage time for sure Josh...get after it and you can still have a great plot for Fall 😊

[@vervi1jw1]

Same thing happening to me in NW MI. Finally starting to get rain though.

[@upstatebowhunter1617]

I got a late start this year, but I think I'll be able to pull it off

[@jeffborchardt4705]

I just planted mine yesterday in East Central mn and hope we get some more rain to get them going. One of the driest summers I can remember.

[@brodycampbell2990]

I invested in water totes to give my Plot 1/4” worth of “rain” at every spraying I do. It takes time to water, but I’d rather spend the time to water then waste time counting on forecast of rain. 1700 gallons of water is equal to 1/4” of rain on a 1/4 acre plot. There is 27,166 gallons of water in 1 acre 1” depth. Having enough food and cover for the deer makes your hunt a lot more profitable and enjoyable knowing you’re impacting the deer herd the right way. Obviously there is other variables to harm the deer hunt, but as long as you get growth you can start checking off the hit list on steps for a great hunt😎

[@karlstruck5297]

I just grow grass, weeds and clover mixed. Cut it a few times a year. Freshen it up with some clover seed in the spring every 3 or 4 years. Deer LOVE it. I use the KISS method. It is so green in Nov/Dec. When everything else is brown. A little clover seed goes a long way. If I never freshened up the clover they would still love it.

[@ranhen8951]

Perennial plot power then add the brassicas, nice thanks for th tip love the info as I am a seasoned gardener and this is very interesting Jeff, just love this stuff

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That is great to hear...what a different perspective!? 😊 It is very enjoyable...

[@ranhen8951]

no first, love the seeds Jeff, yes drought here in Harrison, Northern AR Boon County AR

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Good luck Ran...maybe not a bad thing you are beginning late? Really appreciate you!

[@erickrupa1748]

Buckwheat did not do well in west central Wi. I did plant my brassicas just before the rain that came July 27 & 28th. Thanks for the video

[@vervi1jw1]

My first time ultimate no till. My buckwheat is about the same size as yours at this point. I thought I was doing something wrong, but it seems the drought has really stunted the Midwest.

[@janitorialguy4436]

Got some weeds popping up, spraying tonight 2nd time in a month. I don’t care how expensive gly is no weeds!!! Thanks Jeff

[@bowman8316]

Compare 'n save gly at tsc 👍🏻👍🏻

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Amen to that!

[@ranhen8951]

I have a well with about 1000 feet of mainline tubing so I can put a tripod sprinkler over a plot to get it wet if I need too. Any way to do that where you are Jeff with your ATV?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Boy I wish! We have roughly 17.5 acres spread out over about a mile...up and down steep grades.

[@richardbosco4918]

I busted my butt in April and May with a plan to plant buckwheat around June 1st. We received no appreciable rain for a month and a half. Meantime, the weeds came back on most of what I had burned off in the Spring. I decided to skip the buckwheat this year and just spray weeds until the forecast looked right. We started to get good moisture about two weeks ago and I decided to take a chance and planted a plot with your Power Greens. I am VERY pleased with this product! It's popping nicely! Not just the buckwheat, the whole blend!. Excellent germination rate! My only issue is some rills on the weed free ground due to the lack of buckwheat thatch.

[@drewharman1690]

Getting ready to order some WHS seed! Loving the video mode on the tactacams

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Oh man it is awesome... especially in HD! Beautiful...

[@bowman8316]

Cool viking ink 👍🏻

[@dswish1730]

Planted yesterday morning.And by 2pm we got 3 good rains up until about 7👍

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Man that's perfect D!! We had one of those days on Thursday! Planted roughly 11.5 acres, fertilized and added Plot Start at 1.5 jugs per acre the day before. Also sprayed all plots with Glyphosate...and then it rained .6" over night starting about 4 hours later. It was perfect!

[@ranhen8951]

my first year doing a plot for deer, my first spray was a week ago with Round up so I am way behind killing weeds but will make it weed free, I have 2,4-D getting Clethodim very soon, for September fall power greens planting then Rye 4 weeks later as you said

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That sounds really good!

[@bowman8316]

Thank you !

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

You are very welcome!

[@oldfatnugly]

I keep hearing yall getting drought, yet over here it just barely stopped raining... constant flooding, roads being destroyed, all the lakes overflowing, etc... i think weve gotten well over 2 feet of rain this summer compared to our normal maybe 4 inches.

[@jasonw9423]

A tip to make your roundup work better. Here in Georgia the water has a neutral or higher ph so I started using a water acidifier and it helped. Before, the roundup would sometimes work well and other times it didn’t.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That's interesting Jason...1st time I have ever heard that, thanks a lot for sharing!

[@jasonw9423]

The label says it’s a blend of hydroxy carboxylic acid, phosphoric acids and ammonium sulfate polyacrylic acid.

[@user-vd2bm1sm2d]

Jeff, I hear you talking about doing some planting in late September and October for rye. Are you okay doing that given that deer season is arrived? Are you worried about all the scent?

[@exotictones1054]

We went threw alot of dry n know everything is mud.good thing all my plots are dead.sprayed just before the last three storms.hope it dries some so i can plant.

[@j2farmandoutdoors]

This was my first year doing your "Ultimate No Till." I planted approximately 8 acres of buckwheat across different plots around my farm. Due to drought I was able to get about half of those plots 98% weed free so I will be sowing the peas and oats and brassicas and follow the ultimate no till approach per your methods. However, the other half of my buckwheat plots that got overtaken by weeds, I decided to mow short. Given the time of the year what is my best option for these other 4 acres? Could I get by tilling the ground or is that always a no-no. I have my peas and oats and brassica seed for this area as well. Thanks for any insight. I enjoy your channel and appreciate the information.

[@kernsy6715]

Hey Jeff great video. I have just got your brassica seeds and power greens seed, I have the same bag seed spreader as you do, what setting do you recommend to spread the seed out?

[@benborgschatz9525]

I think the setting for brassica is 1.5 if your using the earthway hand spreader.

[@misterwhymer4473]

When layering rye.. do you cultipack every time you spread seed, or just pack the first time you lay down seed and over seed the following two and let it sit as you had spread it?

[@JackFrostTheDeerHunter]

Do you have to roll/cultipack the brassicas if you have bare dirt? I have soybeans that have significant bare dirt due to excessive rain this year and I hate to leave bare dirt going into the fall. I took a chance and spread 8 lbs of your brassica mix to see what happens without using a roller. If it fails, it's back to the rye in September.

[@cameronsims5802]

My Buckwheat is growing extremely fast since planting June 18th and most is already waist to chest high. I was planning on planting Mid August. Should I plant slightly early to prevent from getting to tall to thick? Central Indiana location

[@justinjhauser5110]

Hey Jeff, I have a 2.75 acre brassica / pea, bean, buckwheat, radish plot. 50 / 50. I've gotten good germination with a ton of young plants, but there is alot of grass coming in as well. I was only able to spray one time prior to planting. Would it be OK to spray clethodim with my atv sprayer or would it do too much damage driving on the plants or hurt the young plants with the clethodim.

[@paulm6832]

Jeff, I have a plot that I feel like I'm losing to pigweed. I can't slow it down. It keeps coming. I keep spraying it as it emerges but more comes back in a couple weeks. Depression is setting in. Any thoughts?

[@railroader8728]

You answered my question… do I scratch up the ground with a time harrow or just broadcast seed on the bare dry dirt? I’ve killed all the weeds already. I don’t have much thatch left. It sounds like a harrow will only dry out my topsoil and expose dormant weed seeds. Am I right?

[@phillipquinn1652]

I put my seed out last night and we got 7 inches of rain over the night. I’m thinking my seed washed away

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

WOW, that's a lot!! Hopefully you had some thatch in there like dead buckwheat or rye?

[@craigkowalczyk3516]

I don’t think the heavy stuffs going to come down for quite a while

[@geraldconway9737]

How long after spraying 24-D Amine at rate of 1 pint/acre do you have to wait before planting brassica? Label says 15 days for 1 pint/acre & 30 days for 1-2 pints/acre as waiting period for soybeans...currently have rain in the forecast for this weekend & wondering if worth the risk to plant as I sprayed on July 24th a rate of 1 pint/acre of 24-D Amine.

[@jasonthomas-zx7ns]

What are you spraying when your cultpacking the buck wheat?

[@user-wo7ud6kf9f]

What would you recommend me to plant in south louisiana

[@EJJ123]

Looking for a little advice freshly cleared and leveled three quarter acre plot in Maine mostly sunny dry and partially Rocky dirt I've planted a cheap Walmart mix late spring that barely came up just planted red and white clover any seed recommendations I can plant next season to improve the soil

[@exotictones1054]

Why do you over spray weed killer so far out past your packer.n your rows are the width of the packer.hope you get what I'm asking.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

I turn the sprayer on, every other row...

[@mattyarber]

I planted buckwheat. When im ready to plant the Big Boost brassica blend mid to late August, do I just use the roller to smash the buckwheat down or do I spray it as well and kill the buckwheat then plant big boost brassica? Thanks for you videos. And appreciate all the advice and help.

[@troyrobinson1362]

Jeff I just hiked my property in Indiana and noticed the recent storms we had this week knocked a lot of my buck wheat down. Looks like I rolled it already. I was planning on planting next weekend, rolling the buck wheat, and spraying. Now I'm worried there is no way for the seed to get to the soil with a lot of the buck wheat already laying flat on the ground. Should I spray it now before planting or cut it? What would you suggest? Thanks

[@ranhen8951]

How many weeks do you need to wait when you spray Simazine prior to planting your food plot Jeff - I forgot, about two weeks ?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Ran...simazine can stay in the ground 60 days or more. I will not hurt switchgrass tho.

[@benborgschatz9525]

Don't spray your food plot with Simazine. If you have weeds, use 2 4-d and glyphosate. 2 4d stays in the soil for about 10 days, depending on how much you spray.

[@chrismarfia9917]

I tend to plant broadleaf with broadleaf...like brassica with clover...so I can spray clethodim to eliminate grassy weeds. Trying liquid lime this year. Hope it works like the powder.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Good rule of thumb!

[@jerrodharper6508]

I’m gonna broadcast alfalfa in my clover in September in ky. Think that’s fine???

[@williambrown6856]

What would be the best for planting in sandy Florida in September

[@ggrinnell22]

Why would you mix glysophate and 2-4D together? Gly kills everything and 2-4D is for broadleaf so aren’t you duplicating? Other than that another great video so thank you

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hey hunter...Gly does not kill clover, smart weed, water hemp, pig tail and a huge # of other broadleafs. Glyphosate is very weak but does well on grasses....2-4D rounds it off with an effective kill on dozens of broadleafs Glyphosate won't kill. Other than that...good comment 😉

[@ggrinnell22]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 Thank you for the response! I did not know that. I’ve used gly for years and it kills all my weeds must be I’m lucky enough not to have those broadleafs. I’ll start mixing it now like you recommend to be sure. Thanks

[@GermanTree874]

2-4-D REDUCES the effectiveness of Glyphosate. I was making that mistake before I learned that.

[@ranhen8951]

I hates weeds, lol

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Amen!

[@jesse4530]

I have a kudzu field that i want to kill or at least reduce the size considerably. What would you recomend for killing it?

[@shelbycrowder4462]

Plants antler king no till

[@kurtpearson2793]

First

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

I think so Kurt!