No till food plots

[contaucreek]

Hoping to start a small food plot for deer. Any of you have any experience with this in central Ontario and willing to share prep/crop advice? Thx..

[Marker]

In my experience, here are the best results:

Today: Plant apple tree saplings which will start producing in a year or two. Plant Oak and Sweet Chestnut seedlings which will produce in 15 years. Bait with corn.
Every year going forward: Open the forest floor to plant more Oak and Sweet Chestnut seedlings.

Continue to bait with corn until the fruit trees bear fruit, expect losses and be happy with a few trees which reach maturity. I get about one mature tree for every 1000 seeds I plant, and about one mature tree for every 10 saplings I plant. Every critter in the woods consumes Oak, Sweet Chestnut, and Apple trees so you need to use tree protectors.

Oak seeds and apple seeds (not saplings) can be collected for free, just be sure to select the right variety and you will get good results. You will want White Oak, and Sweet Chestnut (not Horsechestnut as they contain a toxin). Sweet Chestnuts seeds and apple saplings I purchase from local growers.

I have tried food plots such as clover, winter wheat etc etc but the rodents consume it all before it beomes viable for deer. I am not a farmer and do it all by hand in a forested area so if you have access to an open field and commercial seeding/ discing machinery you would have much better luck.

[contaucreek]

Hi Marker. I hunt in an old homestead crabapple orchard and we are slowly opening it back up and the trees are responding to the sunlight and have blossomed again this year. Adjacent is a tree free meadow but only maybe 100' by 100'. It is there that I thought a plot might be good. Our camp spans 100's of acres and has lots of oak, apple and beech.

[werner.reiche]

In my experience, here are the best results:

Today: Plant apple tree saplings which will start producing in a year or two. Plant Oak and Sweet Chestnut seedlings which will produce in 15 years. Bait with corn.
Every year going forward: Open the forest floor to plant more Oak and Sweet Chestnut seedlings.

Continue to bait with corn until the fruit trees bear fruit, expect losses and be happy with a few trees which reach maturity. I get about one mature tree for every 1000 seeds I plant, and about one mature tree for every 10 saplings I plant. Every critter in the woods consumes Oak, Sweet Chestnut, and Apple trees so you need to use tree protectors.

Oak seeds and apple seeds (not saplings) can be collected for free, just be sure to select the right variety and you will get good results. You will want White Oak, and Sweet Chestnut (not Horsechestnut as they contain a toxin). Sweet Chestnuts seeds and apple saplings I purchase from local growers.

I have tried food plots such as clover, winter wheat etc etc but the rodents consume it all before it beomes viable for deer. I am not a farmer and do it all by hand in a forested area so if you have access to an open field and commercial seeding/ discing machinery you would have much better luck.

I have had poor success with planting apple trees. They make it for about 3-5 years and then die. I do have lots of wild apple trees - those do well. When I find a small one, I put a wire enclosure around it until its about 8 feet tall. Not much success with no-till plots. I do plant white clover along my trails - that seems to work okay. Mostly I try to work with natural forage. Cut a lot of maple and keep trimming back the shoots that come out of the stumps when the get over about 4" tall. Some of these stumps have kept growing shoots for more than 10 years.

[Gilroy]

Hi Marker. I hunt in an old homestead crabapple orchard and we are slowly opening it back up and the trees are responding to the sunlight and have blossomed again this year. Adjacent is a tree free meadow but only maybe 100' by 100'. It is there that I thought a plot might be good. Our camp spans 100's of acres and has lots of oak, apple and beech.

Well killing of the meadow grass is the first priority and you can use fire to help or something like round up or as I do simply leave a tarp spread over the area and kill the grass off in a month or so.

I would then burn as much crap in that area to give yourself ash which can be turned into the soil. If you can then get access to some farmers manure throw that into the mix. In the fall I mix in ground up leaves from the fall clean up around the cabin.

The first year I would plant clover which will attract deer and grouse and you can turn that into the soil in the spring as it will give you nitrogen. Sawdust, small wood chips it all helps, bass carcasses.

I have tried apple trees and have about 10 that have survived and are now producing fruit but that process took about 10 years and I probably planted twice the much.

I tried sweet Ohio chestnut trees, five in all that were 6feet when planted. I have lost 3 of them and the two living are barely making it and have not produced mast yet.

One of the best things I did was collect acorns from city trees here, threw them out to attract deer and the squirrels have stolen them and forgot about where they hide them, so now I have young Oak trees growing up all over the place.

Once your food plot if up and running the deer up my way like turnips once the frost hits them, they will take they will take the tops off initially and hit the turnips later on in the season, sometimes before the end of the gun season buy mostly after in the shoulder season, but its a safe bet nothing will be left the next spring.

They also like to hit squash which is easy to grow and the seeds available and cheap from a supermarket buy.

Really a simple process of putting nutrients and seed into an area and mother nature takes over, its a bit of work and you need a little luck with rainfall and what not but well worth it.

If you can find an old composter bring it up there and throw in everything you can to make compost.

You will need to till every spring to keep the food plot open and prevent the grass taking over again.

[Marker]

I have had poor success with planting apple trees. They make it for about 3-5 years and then die. I do have lots of wild apple trees - those do well. When I find a small one, I put a wire enclosure around it until its about 8 feet tall. Not much success with no-till plots. I do plant white clover along my trails - that seems to work okay. Mostly I try to work with natural forage. Cut a lot of maple and keep trimming back the shoots that come out of the stumps when the get over about 4" tall. Some of these stumps have kept growing shoots for more than 10 years.

What is your soil condition? This will dictate what to plant, eating apples require sandy loam well drained soil, Crab apples will tolerate a wider variety of soil which you may have. I would take some wild apples you have and germinate the seeds to start some seedlings at home then plant those in your location.

[contaucreek]

I would like to learn how to propogate apple trees from the property. Approx 60 trees in camp yard. Some even have pink flesh.

[finsfurfeathers]

I would like to learn how to propogate apple trees from the property. Approx 60 trees in camp yard. Some even have pink flesh.

If you have trees already try your hand at grafting great way to have several varieties that ripen at different times and would have faster turn around than starting from seed.

Or try your hand at starting root stocks if you have a good variety

Would also consider pear as would be something different and not used much

[contaucreek]

^thanks

[C.F.]

I do a no-till method which requires a chemical sprayer , a hand seeder , and a cultipacker or some sort of lawn roller. This method requires access to farmer grade RoundUp (glyphosate).
For a fallow field I would spray twice with a 2 week gap in between. I would time it so I could plant buckwheat either this weekend or last weekend. Then wait 7 weeks max ( after that time you run the risk of the buckwheat re-seeding itself). At this time you walk through the buckwheat and broadcast your fall blend of foodplot seeds. After that you run the buckwheat over with your packer. Apply fertilizer that day , and then a month later , apply nitrogen if needed after that.
This method works great, the buckwheat outcompetes the weeds and creates bare dirt underneath. Once you crimp it over your fall seeds it helps keep the moistures in and creates a thatch for the fall seeds to grow up through.

if I started to late to plant buckwheat , I would spray 2 times before your fall planting date and attempt to use the dead weeds as cover by seeding I to them and running them over with the packer.