What should I plant in the small, shady food plot at my hunt club?

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I really like your site and the information your team provides. I have read your food plot information but have a question for you. My hunt club is 400 acres. We have about 16 small food plots. A few that are around 7,500 square feet and the majority are around 1,200 square feet. Most are clover mixes and some brassica. I have a private area that has a good bit of pines around it. It is  somewhat shady. It is about 1,200 square feet of possible food plot. With the shade/filtered light what do you recommend as the best type of food source to plant here? I want it to be very active during hunting season. It is located in north Georgia.

Thanks for the help,

Peter

Peter,

I find hidey holes (small plots off the beaten trail) great locations to kill mature bucks! 1,200 sq feet is about 3/100 of an acre. Hence, it needs to be a browse tolerant forage, or you must time the planting/hunting closely so deer don’t consume all the forage before there are good conditions to hunt! White clover is fairly shade and browse tolerant. I suggest making sure all weed competition is removed (using herbicide or tillage) and heavily fertilize the area. Fertilizer will accomplish two goals including making the forage more palatable than other food sources and allowing the forage to continue growing even if there is a lot of deer eating at the plot. Another great tool is a Hot Zone electric fence (you may have seen them used on GrowingDeer.tv). These solar powered fences keep deer out until you wish to hunt, then you can create a gap in the fence that funnels deer into a good shooting position.

Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.tv!

Grant