2000 - Summer Checkup

 

 April 15 2000  July 9, 2000

Disaster. That is the best word to describe what happened to our food plot.

We made two critical errors. The first was that we failed to plow the field under in the springtime. If you recall from our last food plot installment, I decided to squeeze one more year out of the plot - this was a mistake given the amount of weeds and grasses that were expanding throughout our plot. The second mistake was not checking on the plot until 7/9 - nearly 3 months later. Here is what happened:

The past spring was one of the wettest on record, dropping nearly 3x the amount of rainfall than the previous spring. While the plot was ok last year, we did notice a lot of weeds popping up. The heavy rains, along with the weeds which were already established in the plot - engulfed our entire food plot, choking out the clover and alfalfa.

We bush-hog'd the entire plot as low as we could get it but it is still a mess. There are isolated pockets of clover and alfalfa but it is 10% (at best) of the entire plot. The rest is garbage weeds, ferns and raspberries. What we should have done is tilled under the existing plot, limed and fertilized, then planted new clover seed. Most importantly, we should have checked on the plot in mid-May, June, then July. Because we waited so long - the clover was all but obliterated by the weeds. We may have been able to prevent this with close, constant, mowing.

At this point I need to consult with our food plot experts at Deerclover.com and seek their advice. If we have to we will plow the plot under to remove the infestation of weeds. Stay tuned for an update.

  For information on planting your food plot, along with supplemental minerals and plot seeds - please visit deerclover.com, a Bowsite.com sponsor.