1999 - Checkup & Maintenance

The Bowsite Food Plot 

May 30th (Previous)

August 28 - Hammered

Our first visit back to the plot was not a good one. The summer drought here in the Northeast US made our food plot more enticing for the deer and they simply devoured it. It was obvious that the plot was in need of maintenance so we headed for the local fertilizer store to buy some 5-25-25 fertilizer. We also needed to mow the weeds down, some of which were five feet tall and stealing vital nutrients and sunlight from the clover. The majority of the clover was barely 3" tall.


The Buckwheat was nearly dead

While our clover, though short and stunted was still green and healthy, our buckwheat plot was all but dead and turning brown. We'll chalk this one up to experience and try something different next year. By the tracks and droppings, the deer did not spend much time in the buckwheat anyway.

Where the clover was surrounded by tall weeds, we found several stems of clover that were nearly four feet tall like the one shown below. Had this plot been fenced, this would have been the size of our clover.


Where the clover was protected, this is how tall it grew!

I fertilized the 3 acre plot with 300 lbs of 5-25-25 and hoped for rain. The clover plot in general was doing well, the deer sign is tremendous and we even found a fresh scrape at the east end of the plot. We spoke to some of the neighboring landowners - all of which know about the food plot - and they remarked seeing some good bucks this year on my land. We'll see in October.


This was a pleasant surprise, a late summer scrape

 Coming Soon - Opening week deer hunt on the Bowsite Food Plot!