Food Plots South Mississippi

SE Alabama, if the rain holds like it has, last week of September.

Yeah, not waiting on the rain this year for sure. Looking ahead when we would have a couple of nights in the 50s to knock back army worm larvae, and that's when we usually plant. We'll buy the seed in Sept and hold it looking at the weather each week and then it's "go time"

I’ll plant somewhere around the second week of October when rain is a definite in the forecast. Not planting until I’m certain there is rain to follow it.

Every year for the last 30 other than the last two second week of October has always worked well.

Lesson learned a couple yrs ago: We planted when we could in early Oct and waited on rain for about 2 weeks. Everything came up no problem. But our food plots had some big bare spots and in the middle was nice fire ant mound. Kicked open the ant hill and there was all the seed.

A few years ago, due to weather and scheduling conflicts, I gambled and decided to plant all my plots at the end of the first week of November. I always try to plow my fields every 3 or 4 years to help with hardpan issues the week before tillage, then come back over it with seed, cultipack it, get some good rains on it and cooler weather to help with army worms, then do a 300lb/acre fertilizer application once the plots are an inch high, and all my plots looked like this by the first of December. I've done the same thing since then and get the same results (North Mississippi). Other than virtually no threat of army worms and a better chance of getting rain on the seed, another positive outcome I've seen from planting this late is that my plots are still in great shape later on in the season when every one else's are grazed down to the dirt. It extends my carrying capacity a bit further into the season, and that works out well because in our "quiet plots" (plots where we don't take any deer unless it's a shooter buck), late-late season is typically when we see mature bucks come out in daylight to feed. We are adjacent to big (60k+ acre) tracts of unbroken private and public woods, and a quiet plot with a lot of life left to it is a magnet for late January post-rut bucks who are hungry - for us at least.






If the weather trends towards being wetter than normal I may plant earlier, but if it looks like it's going to be normal conditions of the last few years then I have no qualms whatsoever about waiting until after November 1st to plant. It has worked out quite well for us.

What’s in that mix in the pics?

I’ll be in Missouri the 1st week of October. I plan on planting when I get back. I’m in Claiborne Co.

On another note, has anyone successfully terminated Japanese stilt grass from your food plots? I sprayed my plots with clethodim and crop oil today and yesterday and plan on spraying them with glyphosate the day before I plant. I’ll be using a no till drill.

Here my seed listing for this year in order of growth rate.

Whitetail Oats Plus - has some triticale in it which does grow slower, but helps with variety and give a guaranteed grain to last until late winter, even if we get some serious cold snaps. Though I have found the whitetail institute specific oat variety they use holds very strong until about 20 degrees which is plenty for our winters It makes a fantastic nurse crop for the rest of the mix and doesn’t stunt clover growth in the spring

Austrian Winter Peas- very quick, but deer hammer it before it fully matures. I usually seed a bit heavier than recommended in my mix because I know they will be hit very hard early and am using it as a buffer to help the brassicas avoid early browsing

Nitro Diakon Radish- very quick growth, especially the tops. Also provides some great soil benefits. The only real tuber in my mix, which gives them plenty of space to develop. I prefer them over bulb forming turnips. If I end up with bare spots, this is my go to for later reseeding as a filler.

Hunter Forage Rape- Non-bulb forming brassica with good re-growth ability. The fastest growing brassica in my mix. 6-8 weeks to get to grazing levels. Not as cold hearty as the other brassicas, but is a great addition to the mix for an early maturing brassica for the first part of rifle season. Good to about 20 degrees.

Winfred Forage Brassica- non bulb forming. If I was only planting one brassica, it would be this one. Very tolerant of less than ideal soil, fantastic re-growth ability throughout the season, and tolerates our cold snaps very very well. Slower growing than the hunter forage, but still fast enough to give you good forage come early December, especially with a shot of nitrogen 4-5 weeks after germination.

Kentucky Pride Crimson Clover- An upgraded variety of Dixie crimson clover. More cold tolerant. Won’t winter kill even in the cold snaps, gives improved bio-mass, and really likes the wetter winters we get. The increased bio-mass has been great in helping to crowd out any spring weed growth

Fixation Balansa Clover- Slower start than the Kentucky pride, but does really well in my slightly acidic soil. Great nitrogen fixer. Does well under the canopy created by my brassicas and produces extremely well come March through may, but the deer are eating in it already come mid January. The deer and turkey both love it.

Bayou Kale - slowest growing, but does extremely well in our climate. This variety is specifically made for the southeast. Is the king of late season brassicas for me and produces those big pretty brassica leafs.

They only true “slow growers” are the two clovers and bayou kale. But even they are producing good all of January.

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Japanese stilt grass

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Spot sprayer with Paraquat. Any Annual weeds can be controlled by it. There is no soil activity and if it is in a place with perennials they will come back unless you go way off label.
Use 1% COC
Just don’t let it go to seed.