Here in my home state of Michigan, baiting was banned in the last half 2008 and will continue to be banned until at least 2011. This caught a lot of hunters off guard since it was too late to start any whitetail deer food plot correctly. However, many hunters are thinking about starting their first one in 2009.

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