More hunters than ever before are interested in making food plots for deer. But many think it’s too difficult or believe they don’t have the necessary equipment to get it done. I want to dispel that notion here and briefly explain exactly how simple it is to create a food plot using no power equipment at all.

Hand tools are all you need to create a small food plot of half an acre in size or smaller. For bowhunting that’s all you need and the smaller the better. Mine are only 1/8 of an acre, 25 yards x 25 yards, and they draw deer in like crazy.

So here is a list of the hand tools you need for making deer food plots.
- Hand-held or backpack tank sprayer
- Spade shovel
- Leaf rake
- Steel come-along rake
- Fertilizer spreader
- Hand-held seed spreader

If you are new to making food plots for deer, you may be looking for a roto-tiller or cultivator in the list to break-up the ground. You may use one if you like and even pull a disk behind an ATV or tractor. However the average hunter doesn’t have access to those luxuries and may not even be able to get that equipment through the woods back to where his honey hole is located.

If we fast forward through the planting process, the following is all you need to do to have an awesome attraction food plot come hunting season.

Step 1 – Decide on an area with suitable soil and remove any small trees or brush. Do not remove the grass or weeds by disking or turning them over. Take a soil sample and have it tested. Do not skip this step!

Step 2 – Spray the weeds and grass with a herbicide such as Roundup as soon as they reach 8″ inches tall in the spring. In about 4 weeks spray the weeds and grass again and leave them there to fully die all summer. This is also when you put on your recommended pelletized lime from your soil test results.

Step 3 – In early to mid-August you can rake off the dead weeds and debris and apply any fertilizers recommended from your soil test results. Then lightly loosen the surface of your plot with a steel come-along rake. This is when you’re glad your food plot is small.

Step 4 – On the same day in early to mid-August, use your hand-held seed spreader to apply your seeds.
If you are using a seed blend of different size seeds, be sure to open the hopper of your spreader just enough to allow the smallest size seeds to pass through first as you cover the whole plot. Then open it up to allow the next size seed to pass through and so on until your recommended amount of seed is all gone.

That’s it! You’re done. Now go hang your treestand, cut out your shooting lanes, and don’t step foot in your deer food plot until hunting season. Making food plots for deer is fun when you keep them small. Think of the fun you can have hunting 2 or 3 different plots.

However, I’m glad there’s one thing where that doesn’t apply and that’s whitetail deer food plots. I should clarify that by saying if you want to attract deer in the fall so you have a good shot at them with a bow, then smaller plots are definitely better.

I would consider large plots of at least 2 acres or more to be for better suited for firearm hunting, a winter carrying food source, a safe haven for deer from hunting pressure from your surrounding neighbors, or just recreational viewing of whitetail deer.

When it comes to having a “kill plot”, it is hard to beat a 1/4 acre food plot way back off the beaten path, deep in the woods where the deer feel safer. A 1/4 acre is only about a 35 yard square peice of ground. You can shoot a deer from one end to the other with most bows today. My 3 daughters have all taken deer with a bow at a real young age because of our 1/8 acre food plots. If you like to watch whitetail deer from your treestand and want to give a beginner a great chance at multiple deer,  then small food plots are your ticket.

They work so much better than bait piles for reasons too many to list here.

Because they’re small, you can create multiple deer food plots to accommodate different wind directions and keep the deer from patterning you at just one plot. A big reason I like multiple plots is that I can plant a different forage in each one. Sometimes more than one forage in the same food plot. this insures that no matter what time of the hunting season it is, there will always be a plot that is in its peak attraction for deer.

Don’t let all experts intimidate you into thinking that creating a food plots is hard. Many of these food plotters want to sound like experts in their field. (No pun intended). All you need is a simple step by step list of what to do,  when to do it, and how. And none of it is hard. You don’t need a tractor, ATV, or all the stuff you pull behind them. All you need is a 3-4 gallon hand-held or backpack tank sprayer, a shovel, rake, fertilizer spreader, small hand-held seed spreader. Notice you can carry these items a long way from the road where there is no ATV access. The more remote the better. I’m sure you’re mind is already thinking of all the locations you know about .

The only tough part is carrying your bags of fertilizer and/or lime to your honey holes. Even then, you probably only need to do that once every 2-3 years. Why more hunters aren’t doing this is beyond me.

If you need a step by step guide to help you on your first few food plots, just visit http://TrophyFoodPlotSolutions.com

Here are a few examples why you may want to rethink your decision to plant clover in your food plots for deer.

1. In a typical spring, the deer will hammer my winter rye while the clover is just starting to be used because it wakes up about 3-6 weeks later than forages like rye or wheat. At the same time there is a literal explosion of forage in the woods to the point the deer have everything they need and more from the natural habitat. So while clover is coming into its time of the year, the deer herd’s actual level of need for it is at its lowest point of the year relative to the condition of most northern habitats.

2. When our northern late June and July drought hits, the clover turns “stemmy”, dormant, and the nutrition levels decrease. This is at a time when the natural habitat is doing extremely well. Chicory is a GREAT forage to add into the mix for this time of the year, in fact, during some summers you can’t have enough.

3. Clover wakes up again with the August thunderstorms, stops growing with our typical early October frosts and freezes, and in most years is eaten to down the dirt by the end of October so there is nothing left for the rest of hunting season in those food plots for deer.

4. Clover is great from early May to late June, and again from late August through mid-October, but that’s it. Think of clover as 24% protein (very high) at a time the habitat in the whitetail woods is in high gear. It’s basically a great crop when times are very good. But it is much better to have good forage available when the deer need it most.

5. Then there is the less glamorous forage of rye or wheat. Only 17% protein, but it has a window of utilization from Labor Day to early December, (longer in southern portions of the Midwest), and then again for the month of April. Basically a good crop when there is literally nothing in the whitetail woods. Add in appreciable brassica growth in adjacent fields and you’ve got more bang in the cool season forages for a very critical time of the year than the clover does for the entire year. Also, when do you as a land owner have the biggest opportunity to shape your deer herd? During hunting season right? If your food plots for deer are not in high gear during the hunting season, you will lose deer to your neighbors.

It’s not that clover is a terrible choice, but in wilderness settings of northern regions, 40-50% of the plantings should have a base of clover and chicory. Even then I avoid most “all-clover” plots unless I just don’t want those plots to be used during hunting season by deer due to hunting access issues. Basically, if I don’t want to bump into deer on a plot during and after late October, I plant it in all clover. Instead, I split up the deer food plot so that you have better overall utilization and efficiency which helps separate the deer herd and allow for more room on your property to attract and hold more deer. This will help you grow a quality deer herd while allowing for segregation of the sexes.

Unfortunately many hunters have ideas of planting whitetail deer food plots in open areas and the deer will just file in come hunting season.  There is a lot more to a successful “hot spot” than most people think. I was a city slicker when I was young like a lot of other hunters and didn’t know the first thing about growing a food plot until years of trial and error.

If you want to eliminate the mistakes most people make when creating their first food plots for whitetail deer, you need to ask yourself the following questions.

• What time of the fall am I going to be hunting, early or late?

• Are there already other farm fields with crops and what kind?

• What type of soil do I have on my property, is it sandy or clay?

There are other questions to ask but let’s answer these three first.

The time of the fall you plan to be hunting is critical for the type of plants you choose. If you want your food plot to peak during the early fall for bowhunting, then you want to plant a perennial such as ladino (white) clover or falcata alfalfa. Deer absolutely love these legumes during the summer and early fall. However, right after the first hard frost you’ll notice the deer backing off a bit because this forage loses some of it’s pallatability (good taste).

If you want to really draw the deer in during the firearm or late muzzleloader season, then you want to go with a mix of perennials and annual brassicas. The brassica family of plants consist of forage rape, kale, canola, and turnips. You may be more familiar with these brassicas, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, brussel sprouts, etc. During the summer and early fall, brassicas have a bitter taste due to the alkaloids in the plant. However, after the first hard freeze, the bitter taste will be eliminated and these will become the preferred best food plots for whitetail deer.

If you have other fields with crops in your area, don’t plant the same thing. Deer love variety. If your neighbor’s fields are planted with corn and/or soybeans, plant something that will be more attractive for the late fall after a hard freeze. It will be too difficult competing with the security that standing corn provides and soybeans are less attractive after they turn yellow and brown.

Before you start spraying weeds to prepare your future whitetail deer food plots, check the soil to see if it is too sandy or has too much clay.  You should be able to tell. Dig a 6″ hole with a spade shovel. If there is a lot of sand with very little consistency to it, or if the ground is so hard that it’s difficult to dig a simple hole, you have too much clay. In either case you’re better off to find an alternative spot.

If you take the time to answer these questions before you get started, it will save you from wondering where all the deer are while you’re sitting in your tree stand and wasting a whole hunting season.

Good Hunting,

Randy VanderVeen