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Food plot plant knowledge thread

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Food plots are definitely becoming more popular every year. I am far from an expert, but have dabbled with them for 3 years now. Maybe I should say, this will be my third season planting them. With this topic becoming more popular, I thought a thread specifically for plants used would be a good idea. Someone has an idea: Put it in the thread. Someone has a question: Ask it in the thread. This could become the mother of all informational food plot threads with the knowledge on this website.


To start, I will throw some info out there in regards to one of our plots. Last year we put out purple top turnips, radishes, brassica, and red clovers. We put out some oats and other mixes as well, but a large percentage was the radish/brassica/clover/turnip mix. Some areas did well, others not so nice. Time was not on our side and this property had not been worked in decades. The PH was NOT tested. The fields were NOT sprayed. However, like anything, we had to start somewhere. Working the ground, getting something planted, and getting a start on the property was better than doing nothing.

What we have going into this season. The radishes helped aerate the soil. The ground has now been worked for a season. This year the disk won't have to work quite as hard. The areas which were overgrown and had lots of brush are now all cleared out. We can go in this season, spray, turn the ground, and plant with a clean slate.

Questions: We are seeing some great resurgence this spring. What I thought were mustard weeds from the road are not. It appears to be either the radishes or turnips coming back. Has anyone seen these mixes come back in the past? I thought they were annuals.

Observations: The red clover is dynamite right now! The clover was barely noticeable last year due to the tonnage on everything else in the plot. Right now there are red tops on the clover about the size of a strawberry. The clover is filling out nicely. Some of these areas we are just going to mow the clover as it goes to seed and let it fill in. Next year we will most likely till it under and take advantage of the nitrogen which we are receiving without paying for the fertilizer!
 

rossbows

Junior Member
My radishes and turnips came back as will. They stayed green all winter from not getting that cold to freeze them out. They are flowering as will going to spray them with round up. Another thing i like to use for nitrogen is rye let it get about knee high then spray it and work it in puts off lots of nitrogen.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
My radishes and turnips came back as will. They stayed green all winter from not getting that cold to freeze them out. They are flowering as will going to spray them with round up. Another thing i like to use for nitrogen is rye let it get about knee high then spray it and work it in puts off lots of nitrogen.

Ok. I was starting to think I was losing it. I didn't think they were supposed to come back. Definitely never had a hard enough freeze to get them out of the ground. Ours stayed green most all of the winter as well.