Curt Lytle had
two primary concerns in the days after he settled on a 160-acre southeast
Virginia farm: building a house and planting food plots. An avid traditional
bow hunter, Lytle was eager to make his new oasis as wildlife-friendly as
possible. That plan included food plots — lots of them. In all, he created nine
at calculated locations in the pine forest that covered most of his ground.
Surprisingly,
however, 50 acres of Lytle’s land consists of a field that is leased to a
farmer who plants either peanuts, beans or corn. Why not carve out a few corners
of that field and plant food plots there? Lytle did, of course, but he wanted
more.
“I did a lot of
research and learned that the ideal situation is to have a large feeding area and
several smaller hunting plots that don’t get disturbed often,” he said. “It
made perfect sense to build food plots back in the woods. I live in an area
with lots of hunting pressure, so I wanted to give the deer food sources back
in the woods where they feel more secure.”
Many hunters do
not have the option of planting in existing fields. Their entire hunting
property consists of planted pines or mature hardwoods. There is nothing wrong
with hunting those woods, of course, but sometimes the deer prefer different
habitat and food sources. A food plot — or several — within big woods will give
the deer a variety of foods and can be the perfect antidote to a bad acor n
crop.
MAKE
A HOLE
Before you drop
any seed, you will need one basic ingredient to establish a successful food
plot back in deep woods: sunlight. Without it, your plants just will not grow,
no matter how fertile the ground. In most cases, food plot plants need at least
four hours of sunlight per day so you might need to knock down some trees. “I
was fortunate that all my plots are in pines. They were pretty easy to knock
over and push aside,” noted Lytle.
He owned a
backhoe that he bought for the construction of his house, but he used it to
build his plots, as well. He simply scooped the roots out and pushed the tree
over. Lytle also was careful to knock the dirt off the root ball before pushing
the trees to the sides. It was a smart move, he later determined.
“I’ve seen
other plots back in the woods that were cleared by bulldozers. They pushed all
the topsoil to the sides when they cleared the trees and the plots aren’t
growing nearly as well as mine,” explained Lytle. “It’s real important to leave
as much topsoil as you can.” Habitat and food plot consultant Neil Dougherty
subcontracts an excavator who specializes in food plot clearings and says it
can cost several thousand dollars to clear an acre. That may seem like a lot of
money but he says it is no different from buying a house and then remodeling
the kitchen.
“I think you
have to look at it in terms of overall value. Putting some money into
improvements will pay off in the long run, especially if you measure your
return in terms of your deer herd and the hunting opportu nities,” Dougherty
said.
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| Scratching out a food plot in the woods by hand isn't impossible. However, you need to choose your spot wisely and put in lots of serious labor to succeed. |
One way to
recoup at least some expense is to sell the timber. It is not always easy to
find a logger who will buy a small amount of timber, but if you can, you might
be able to recover upwards of $1,000 per acre in the trees you take out. The
more land you clear, the more likely you can find a buyer for the timber. If you
cannot, that is okay. Lytle made some phone calls to local foresters but
learned that the trees just were not valuable enough to justify the labor so he
ended up pushing the trees to the side.
Dougherty will
push the felled trees to the sides, creating funnels that force whitetails into
specific locations as they enter the food plots. He warns not to make the wall
around the plot too confining because deer will be reluctant to spend much time
in it if they do not have enough escape routes.
“Piling up the
trees also creates good habitat for a variety of wildlife, so it’s not
necessarily a bad thing to leave the trees you knock over,” Lytle added. “I
have foxes and woodchucks living in mine. It’s pretty cool knowing I have a
diversity of wildlife on my property as a result of my work.”
HOW
BIG, HOW MANY?
Dougherty says
the height of your trees will dictate exactly how much space you need to clear
in order to get that necessary sunlight. He typically recommends clearings of
at least 3/4-acre. Smaller plots are also more likely to be overgrazed before
the season ends in areas with high deer densities. All nine of Lytle’s plots
are about a half-acre, but he does not have high deer numbers.
“The pines
aren’t that tall and pines in general tend to let more sunlight filter through
than hardwoods,” he said. “I’ve had very good success with the half-acre plots
and they are the perfect size for me because I almost always hunt with
traditional archery equipment. If they were bigger I might not be able to get a
shot at a deer in front of me.”
Dougherty notes
that a 3/4-acre plot will not equal the same area in plant growth. The shade
from the surrounding trees will prevent proper growth along the edge of the
plots. Dougherty says a good rule of thumb is that you will lose a distance
equal to a third of the height of the surrounding trees. In other words, if the
trees are 30 feet tall, expect to have 10 feet of “dead” space around the edges
of your plot. Do not be too concerned, though; shade-tolerant native vegetation
will fill in and create more food. Blackberries, honeysuckle and other
beneficial plants will give deer and other wildlife even more food choices.
CHOOSE A SPOT
If you have
unlimited resources, you can build and maintain a food plot almost anywhere you
want. Naturally, you will be limited by steep terrain or perpetually wet
ground, but with enough money, you can knock down a hole in a forest, clear
boulders and even truck in prime topsoil if you need to. Most of us do not have
that luxury, of course, so we have to choose our sites carefully.
Dougherty
recommends planting hunting plots in strategic locations and a larger feeding
plot nearer the center of the property. He prefers smaller hunting plots up to
an acre within a few hundred yards of buildings and access points to minimize
disturbance of the deer herd.
“You want to be
able to get in and out of the hunting plots without blowing every deer out of
the woods, so I recommend placing them near the property edge, but not so close
that neighboring hunting pressure will spook them,” he said. “You should also
consider bedding areas. I like to establish plots pretty close to bedding areas
because deer will tend to use them during daylight hours more.”
Lytle built
nine smaller plots on his land for a variety of reasons. First, it gave him the
freedom to rotate hunting pressure to avoid burning out specific areas. He can
also vary his locations based on wind and other environmental factors, and he
considers deer usage as well.
“As the seasons
change, the deer tend to shift their use of the different plots based on the
foods in them,” he said.
More important,
planting several plots in various locations can have unintended yet beneficial
consequences. Lytle was reluctant to plant one food plot because it was poorly
drained. Turned out, that was a blessing. His region suffered a major drought,
but that plot stayed green and vibrant and he killed a couple of deer off it
after other plots literally dried up.
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| Sometimes you'll need to bring in heavy equipment to carve out a food plot in a forest. It can be expensive, but it can increase the value of your land. |
WHAT TO PLANT
Lytle has
experimented with virtually every type of food plot plant available at one time
or another. He has since settled on just a few. He is a big fan of Whitetail
Institute’s Imperial Whitetail Clover. Dougherty also likes Whitetail
Institute’s products and uses Imperial No-Plow and Secret Spot a lot because
they require less labor overall.
“I also really
like Tall Tine Tubers in northern regions and Imperial Clover is an excellent
all-purpose plot because it can withstand heavy grazing pressure, which you’ll
get in woods plots.”
Lytle can
attest to that. He has noticed a distinct pattern as the season progresses.
“They’ll be in
the big field early in the season, but as soon as they start getting bumped
around during gun season, they start working my woods plots over pretty good,”
he said. “It was definitely worth the effort to put them in.”
No Dozer?
Is
it possible to clear an area by hand and expect to grow a workable food plot?
Possible, yes, said Dougherty, but it is going to take a large amount of manual
labor. Ideally, look for an area that already has some plant growth,
particularly grasses and vines. That is a good indication of decent sunlight
penetration. However, you will still have to undergo a lot of work. First, you
will have to fell any standing trees and cut them up and push them off to the
side. Then you will have to clear the ground of leaves and other debris in
order to get seed-to-soil contact. “I know a lot of people who have tried it
and they ended up bringing in a dozer to clear the stumps. They just get tired
of trying to run their disks and other equipment around those stumps,”
Dougherty said. “I think it’s a whole lot better to do it right and spend the
money up front.”
