What cool season crop should I plant in a hidey hole plot in central Oklahoma?
Filed under: Food Plots
my name is mac moore and I own 300 acres in central Oklahoma in river bottom.
I have created a “hidey hole” plot off of my 6 acre plot field and trying to encourage bucks to use that plot during daylight and such to get better bow opportunities at them. I have eagle beans in different plot and plan to move them to the big field off this hidey hole field next year. my question is what is your opinion on seed to plant in hidey hole plot if the big field will be in cool season annual this year.
brassicas only? separate out oats only? or just fertilize the cool annual heavily in this hidey hole and try to make it more green and lush earlier.
plan to do cool annual in hidey hole and eagle beans in big field next year. just looking for best plan this year if its gotta be green and green
thanks for your expertise and time
Mac
Mac,
Your question is very similar to one recently asked by Mark. I shared with him…
I’ve been using the Broadside seed blend from http://www.EagleSeed.com for years. I like it because it includes a soybean variety that germinates rapidly. Deer are very attracted to young soybeans during the early fall. These soybeans attract deer to the plot. As deer are consuming the soybeans they find the radishes. Deer tend to eat the radishes next. As deer are consuming the radishes the forage wheat is producing forage and becoming very attractive to deer.
Broadside also includes two types of brassicas. One produces forage and the other produces forage and a large bulb. Deer tend to consume the brassica forage and bulbs during the late season.
The forage wheat will flush again during the early spring providing quality food for deer and turkeys.This blend has worked well to attract deer during the early, mid, and late season. In addition, we’ve tagged a pile of turkeys in these plots during the spring!
The combination of forage varieties does a great job of ‘mining” or “recycling” nutrients from deep in the soil and preparing a great seedbed for the crop next spring. We’ll start planting Broadside later this week. I like to plant Broadside 60 – 45 days before the average first frost date. That’s about October 10th here at my place.
Mac – I believe Broadside will work well in your hidey hole plot as it has forage varieties to attract deer during the early, mid and late season. Unless they associate the hidey hole plot with danger, they will likely feed there before dark!
Enjoy creation,
Grant
