Bowsite Food Plot - Spring Planting, 2003

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Follow along as we grow a new food plot in 2004

April 17 , 2004	May 31, 2004

Before we go into our 2004 planting, let's evaluate our Long Term History of the Bowsite.com Food Plot

Year	Overall Result	Commentary
1998	Good	New planting of Imperial Whitetail, did fairly well despite heavy grazing in summer and fall. No noticeable weed or grass intrusion.
1999	Excellent	Unbelievable second year results. The plot was as good as it could ever get. Deer really browsed it down in fall but held up well.
2000	Fair-Poor	Weed and grass growth took over plot. Imperial Clover all but gone.
2001	Poor	Had to plow under, installed Imperial whitetail again, but the weeds and grass took over quickly. Had to plow under in late summer and installed buck forage oats. Had marginal success with growth.
2002	No Plot	We decided to spend the entire spring/summer spraying roundup and killing existing vegetation. We planted peas in the fall but the deer over-browsed and killed it.
2003	Poor	We planted Imperial No-Plow. The Rape came up in abundance, but the deer never touched it during archery season. Our plot was a failure despite a successful growth of rape.
2004	Good	So far, plot is looking good. Heavy spring rains in the NE along with a new planting are showing positive results. Still some bare spots to overall progress is good.

View the Entire History of the Bowsite Food Plot

Our first check up of 2004 shows positive results, but many bare spots which we think can be explained...

May 31st - Spring Checkup

	Healthy clover can be seen growing between a strong growth of Chicory.
	My daughter Abigail poses in the plot to give perspective on plant height.
	Despite overall good grown, some areas were sparse. Since the bare spots seemed to occur where I had made a tilling pass after planting the seed, I believe the seed got planted too deep in these areas. To fix this, I reseeded the sparse areas by broadcasting over these areas during a rainstorm.
	Some of the Dwarf Essex Rape (left over from last year) popped up again. Not enough to concern us however.
	Here's a good view of the plot, you can make out the Chicory, left-over Rape, and clover. So far, no grass or weeds have shown up in the plot.

On a scale of 1-10 I'd give the plot a solid 6. We have some leftover Rape, and bare spots, but overall the plot is looking good with strong growth and no weeds or grasses.

We'd like to hear from you - Discuss our conclusions, 2004 choices, and perhaps other recommendations?