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Utilize
Your ATV / UTV to Prepare a Food Plot for Hunting
::Continued::
Selecting the area hopefully has your new plot
location receiving a fair amount of sunshine and
moisture, although if your doing a fall plot,
keep in mind that those leaves blocking the sun
will be leaving as fall grips your region, allowing
more sunlight to reach your plants. The trick
to the equation I have found is to prepare the
area and ground so that your seeding occurs about
4 weeks ahead of the leaves starting to fall.
This allows the seed to germinate and grow before
being smothered by the leaves that fall and will
continue to grow heavily until the coldest of
frosts hit or snow covers everything(More on what
to plant later in this article). Your regions
weather will dictate when you need to plant, but
a general rule of thumb is at least 30 days before
the first frost.
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Get resourceful to keep cost down. A discarded
pallet will help lightly cover seed to assure
germination when pulled by your ATV |
Using your machine to haul away trimmed limbs,
trees and brush is just the start of making your
new plot, and once you have the area cleared,
it will be time to get the dirt itself readied
to accept the seed. There are small discs available
that your ATV will pull, but in all honesty, most
are so small and so light that getting them to
actually break the soil is not worth the expense
or your time. If you are back in the middle of
the woods, a wooden pallet turned upside down
and drug behind your machine will be all that’s
needed for most plots in a wooded setting. If
money is no object, then you can buy one of the
bigger units available from companies like Plot
King and or Summit but be prepared, they cost
half as much as most ATV’s! The basic idea
for your basic plot is to score the surface enough
to allow good seed to ground contact. You do not
need to have the ground tilled to an 8 inch depth
for most commonly used food plot seeds, so keep
this in mind before maxing out a credit card to
own a $4700 do it all attachment! Besides, just
how well do you think those attachments hold up
to hitting stumps and rocks, answer is they don’t!
Even my full size tractor implements take a beating
so think conservative when starting out.
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Once you get the food plot area cleared
you are nearly ready to seed your area |
Once you have the ground cleared and worked up,
it is time to figure out what seed to plant. Some
research by you and a call or two to the seed companies
will help narrow down what will grow in your plot.
Oats (Rye, Wheat and Barley) will almost grow on
pure rocks. As a testament, I had some growing in
the bed of my Ranger on top of some barks from wood
cut while clearing a new plot for this article!
Oats are also one of the most used seeds in many
of the popular game mixes, and you can read the
contents of the bag on the bag itself, usually a
small white card attached that gives you a break
down of what’s in the mix. If you’re
just starting a plot and it’s in the woods,
I suggest sticking to forage oats and or wheat.
Both grow easily, and are a huge benefit in nutrition
to all wildlife that consumes it. Trying to get
a $100 bag of a designer seed to grow in the middle
of the woods is a big waste of money in most situations,
stick to the basics and you will be rewarded for
your efforts. Save the high dollar stuff for the
perfect soil and setting if you can find it!
Before spreading the seed, you will want to figure
out if you need to add lime and fertilizer. For
most woods plots adding both will not hurt a thing,
how much is the bigger question and best left
to the experts. Me…well I wing it! 10-10-10
fertilizer is the most commonly sold in 40 pound
bags. I apply it at the same rate I planted the
seeds and may add another spreading 3 weeks after
the seeds germinate and are growing. Ideally,
lime would be applied ahead of planting, however
applying it during the actual planting will not
harm the process, it just won’t be able
to leech into the soil to help as much, but it
is usually needed! If I could only have lime or
fertilizer, lime would get the nod. (Using a PH
meter is invaluable and they are cheap and easy
to use)
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