How To Make a Clover Food Plot for Deer Hunting
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Establishing a clover food plot can be a great addition to your hunting property. Clover provides excellent nutrition and is extremely browse tolerant once established. Watch this video to see exactly how we put in this clover food plot along with a few other methods to putting them in. You can use this method for any clover variety! White dutch clover, ladino clover, crimson clover, alsike clover, medium red clover, arrowleaf clover... the lists goes on! Food plots are the most important factor when trying to influence deer movement. Watch this video to see how you can easily make a clover plot that will last for years to come.
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Good stuff! Thanks again for the info.
Anytime! Thanks for watching!
Great information, thanks
Thanks again Mike!
Thank you
EXCELLENT!
Thank you!
Great how to video man. Planted my first clover plots last year. Looking good. I planted with cereal Rye just like you said. That stuff is growing like crazy this spring. I have mowed it once already. Sprayed it yesterday with Slay and Arrest yesterday. Hopefully it will start killing it off. I’ll mow it again in a couple weeks. Been a crazy spring here in S/W Michigan for sure. Stay safe. 👊🏻🇺🇸
Thank you Donald and it’s great to hear your clover plot is coming in strong! Let me know how the Slay & Arrest applications work. I need to mow mine too but its located in a low area and the ground is pretty saturated. I’ll probably take a weed wacker to it so I don’t get the mower stuck.. thanks again and stay safe! 🇺🇸
Whitetail Evolution LLC will do. 👍🏻
Is the goal to get rid of the rye after the clover takes?
Evan Matthews yes.
Yeah. Clover likes to grow down to work on the root system before it grows up. So if the deer come in to munch on it during the early stage right after planting there’s a good chance they could kill it. Planting a nurse crop or cover crop gives the deer something to eat instead of the clover. Cereal Rye is what we used for this plot. The clover will come back strong strong in the spring but so with the cereal rye. We get rid of the cereal rye in the late spring so the clover doesn’t have to compete with anything else for nutrition or sunlight. The rye is an annual so as long as you terminate it before it heads out and reseeds it won’t come back.
Would clover chicory and alfalfa do good together? I am in western Washington
They will. Alfalfa will go dormant early on but the clover / chicory with perform into the season
Another good job bud
Thanks Steve! Glad you enjoyed it :)
But u gotta have rain! Great for those areas that get rain. Without irrigation here in the Texas panhandle nothing grows but damn weeds. We've tried every brand. Glad for those that have these awesome plots. Gotta draw deer like a magnet? 👍👍
Spot on Tim! Rain is a must. Can’t grow much without a little moisture. The deer up here love a nice green food plot when fall rolls around.
I am now planting 3.5 acres of clover in different spots on my 80. The rest is mostly heavy cover in east central MN. I chisel plow then disc before broadcast seed and fertilizer in the spring. Once established I overseed to keep the stands thick over a 3 year or longer time period. I use a Clover seed blend and mow 1 or 2 times in summer as needed. Deer, Grouse, Turkeys and even Bear feed on these Plots. Deer feed until winter covers the fields with to much snow for them to move. I tired annuals but clover has worked out better for several reasons. Good Luck!
You have it down to a science! Keep up the good work Cleon 😊
Why does there have to b rain forecast? Wont the seeds just sit there in a dormant state and wait for the rain maybe in a week or two? (Clover is so small the birds wont eat it). Trying to learn here.
Respectfully,
DS
Most intuitive clover video I’ve seen on YT! Thanks for the knowledge.
Very welcome! Glad it helped!
How much seed per acre of each cereal rye and clover mix?
Winter rye 200lb pure acres
Clover think 8lb pure acres
What if my soil is very sandy? It butts right up to a creek and it’s in a perfect location.
Great question. You need to work on your organic matter as much as you can. I've done a few clover plots in sandy soil and they are tough to start but get better over time as the organic matter builds up. I would plant buckwheat in the summer a few times, smash it down the plant rye grain in the fall. Cut it in the spring and plant buckwheat again. Try this for 2 years and see where your organic matter is. Whatever you do don't till. Tilling will pull more sand to the top and flip your organic matter under. After a few years of the buckwheat and rye rotations, seed some white clover with your fall rye planting and it should come back really well in the spring!
When do you put lime down?
Great question! Really the only time I do not put lime down is during the hunting season. If the season is over and my plot isn't covered with leaves, I'd put it down to get the reaction with the soil started. If you plan to mix it in, I'd wait for things to dry out in the late spring / early summer.
If I plant mid August of this year, will it be thick/tall enough for the deer to be interested in it for October-December? Live in WV!
It should have time to come up before the season but it will look much better next year! It also depends on the variety of clover you’re planting. Are you going with an annual or perennial blend? The annuals will shoot up for sure. The perennials like to get the root system established first and then grow up. But again, you should have enough time. If you notice it’s coming in thin, throw down 100lbs/acre of cereal rye mid September or early October. I wouldn’t probably do that anyways as a nurse crop for the clover.
Whitetail Evolution LLC I was going to go with the whitetail institution imperial clover. I won’t really get to hunt much next year so I’m trying to find something that will come up quick before season since I procrastinated lol
That’s a great product. I’ve used it multiple times. If I remember correctly it’s ladino clover and Berseem clover. That should come up if you have good seed to soil contact and get it down before a rain. If you wanted to fool proof it, throw down some crimson clover with it. That’s an annual and a fast grower. The local farmers elevator would probably have it. Probably just 10lbs per ace since you would be seeding it with other clovers. But again, the cereal rye would come up and act as a nurse crop for the clover. You just want to make sure you mow it down in mid may to prevent it from reseeding. You’ll be left with nothing but clover.
Whitetail Evolution LLC I was thinking about planting winter rye as you mentioned cereal rye. Do you think planting them together would be okay? Or should I wait until the clover is starting to grow up?
I would wait on the rye. It grows pretty quickly and you’ll get great germination with cereal rye. Deer prefer cereal rye when it’s younger. Once it gets taller they lose interest. I would plant the clover when you you have the seed bed ready and before a rain. Wait until mid September or early October to broadcast the rye. Again it’s because you want the rye to be attractive during the season and especially the rut!
I have learned over the years . Never drop trees . Too much work. Do a standing kill . No leaves means no canopy and sun gets to ground . Tree rots standing and can make your food plots right away !!
What editing software do u use
I use Final Cut Pro. If I didn’t use that program I would probably use Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Both programs are top of the line and relatively easy to use after watching a few tutorials / working on your videos. What I love about these two programs is that as you progress with your video editing capabilities the software will let you push forward as it’s made for professionals.
Whitetail Evolution LLC thanks for ur info like the content
Thank you! We’re trying to document as much as we can as we do the work on our property. Hopefully it saves a few people from some of the mistakes we’ve made!
Along with food plots for deer, I keep honey bees. I saw your buckwheat soil builder video as well as your clover video. Buckwheat and clover meet some needs of both.
I have an existing plot of clover that has a good bit of weeds in it. The organic matter is 3.9% . First question is, If that is too low, should I kill it off and plant buckwheat to improve the soil. I would then plant clover and cereal rye into the buckwheat crushing and spraying it. Going forward I hope I would be improving the Organic Matter and thus the quality and resiliency of my clover plot.
Second question: If the Organic Material is problematic - I have a tiller. Would it be advisable to kill the existing clover and till prior to the buckwheat planting to ensure good seed to soil contact. Or should I just kill the existing clover and plant the buckwheat into the undisturbed soil for soil improvement.
Third Question: IF THE ORGANIC MATERIAL % IS NOT PROBLEMMATIC I will follow the sol test recommendations. Aside from frost seeding, how else can I improve the stand of clover.
I just applied my lime as per whitetail institute soil test.
Great questions!
If you have a mower you can mow your clover and spray the grasses and broadleaf weed with selective herbicides. Mowing the clover will add organic matter to your plot over time as you are not bagging the cut clover. Think about your lawn, if you don't bag your grass and let it decompose into the yard, you'll have a healthy lawn compared to someone who bags their grass.
If you have low organic matter the last thing you want to do is till the ground, this will just flip your organic matter back into the dirt and you'll be starting from scratch. If you feel your clover is weak and you want to plant buckwheat, hit the clover with glyphosate and 24-D, wait two weeks then broadcast your buckwheat before a good rain. Once the buckwheat is about to go to seed (5-6 weeks), broadcast more buckwheat into that stand the smash it down, then hit it with glyphosate. Once the second stand is about to go to seed (5-6 weeks), broadcast clover blend into the buckwheat then smash / spray it like before. This should be in early to mid August. a few weeks later seed rye grain into your new clover stand as a nurse crop for your clover. The following spring when the rye is about to go to seed cut / mow it down and you should be left with a pretty pure clover stand. Frost seed more clover if necessary.
why do a soil test and then spray the soil with harmful chemicals that kill soil biology ? The soil test won't matter after you spray the soil with harmful chemicals that kill soil biology. The chemicals will change your soil biology and PH , so the soil test you took won't matter. The chemicals that you spray will change the soil pH level. So the soil test you took before you sprayed the chemicals has one PH results then you spray the chemicals, the soil will have a different PH. So why take a soil test before you spray ? those results won't matter because your soil biology will be changed after you spray chemicals on your soil.
Appreciate the comment. The chemistry within the soil will change after applying herbicide but you will still have a few ballpark figures to work with. When putting in a food plot for the first time, you will need to address the weeds in some capacity, my preferred method is with chemical. Now going forward, you shouldn't have to apply too much as a lot of the weed growth can be 'managed' with mowing.