Ani-Logics Outdoors

As the days are getting shorter and temperatures have passed the peak of summer, fall is so close I can smell it. We had a cold front move through the other day where it was 49 degrees, and it fired me up thinking about my favorite time of year being right around the corner. As the crops and native vegetation start to dry down, it’s the perfect time to get some new lush green growth in front of your deer. I will highlight some of my favorite picks and how I use low-budget techniques to have a successful fall food plot.

PREP

This year I rented a compact tractor with a tiller to prepare the seedbed. It would have been $250 per day, but I was able to knock this 1-acre project out in under 2 hours, so they only charged $100.

The plots I’m planting into were sprayed with glyphosate earlier in the year, so I wasn’t dealing with overgrown areas. If you happen to be planting into an overgrown area, you should mow it down and spray the re-growth before you plant. Here is what the seedbed looked like prior to planting:

BLEND CHOICES & PLANTING

With the seedbed prepped, I hand broadcast my favorite fall plot, which is The Perfect 10. It is a blend of 10 different annual seeds that will mature and grow at slightly different stages so that there is always something palatable to the deer throughout the season. I like to get this planted about 6-8 weeks before average first frost. If you are wondering when average first frost will be, here is a helpful frost calculator I use from the Old Farmer’s Almanac: https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates. This blend goes in at 40 lbs to the acre, and it has some bigger seeds that do better if you can get them pushed into the soil. The tractor I rented had turf tires, and the soil was loose enough, so I just drove over it a couple times to act like a cultipacker. Here is what the plot should look like about 2 weeks after planting:

Next I put in my test plot of Fixin’ Clover. Again, I simply hand broadcast the seed and rolled it in with tractor tires. The cool part about Fixin’ Clover is that it can be hunt-ready within about 3 weeks of planting because it’s an all-annual blend. The seeds are bigger and have more energy to germinate compared to perennial clover, and it’s also highly attractive to deer.

If you are looking for the highest tonnage fall food plot, the Pro Brassica Blend is what you want. Last year I hit the few fall rains perfectly and grew some giant purple top turnips and radishes in the Pro Brassicas. 

Some think the deer won’t eat them when they get this big, but our deer were gnawing them off right in the ground.

As far as the single best single seed you could plant in a fall plot, I would have to say Radishes. The top growth is highly palatable, and I often see deer selecting the freshest shoots at the center of growth. 

When the deer shift their focus from greens to high carbohydrate diet as the season progresses, the tubers become highly sought after.

PLOTS FOR THE END OF THE PLANTING WINDOW

Lastly, and I mean that literally, there are two types of fall plots to plant if it’s getting toward the very end of the planting window. The first is Caveman Blend, which is our no-till throw and grow. It will grow practically anywhere and be hunt ready in as little as 2 weeks. The other one that can be planted late in the growing season is the Amazin’ Grains. Last year I did some experimenting just to see how late it would germinate, and the seeds I planted Oct 7^th in Minnesota came up and made a viable plot even after we had received a frost. Those seeds will germinate with soil temps below 50 degrees, which is why they are Amazin!

Here is what my late germinating plot looked like on Oct 25^th:

Don’t forget about fertilizer for your fall plots. I find this selector guide helpful for knowing what fertilizer to put on plots where no soil sample was taken. As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have any food plot questions. Happy plotting, everyone!