SW Miss and food plot dilemma

The deer will survive just fine.

Well, there are no good options! If you plant now and it doesn't rain you run the risk that the seeds germinate and then die of thirst. But if you wait for rain it may end up planting too late in the season for that early flush of growth needed to get your food plot established (which is what happened to me last year when I planted on Nov. 12.)

FWIW, I'm in SW Miss too (Wilkinson Co.) and I was thinking about planting this weekend but decided to hold off for now. But after last year's experience I'm not going to wait more than another 2 weeks.

What are you planting? If it’s a blend with species that will grow in the spring like clover, I would wait for rain. You definitely don’t want to run the risk of planting now, having the seeds germinate and then have everything die due to it not getting moisture. If that happens, you ruin both your fall and Spring forage. I plant Legacy Blend in the fall and Heritage Blend in May. I’m waiting to plant as well.

All fields have been sprayed, burnt, disked and tilled.
They are dry like baby powder.
Trying to decide whether to sling seed this weekend or not...

I am in Adam’s county and have not planted. Waited to plant last year until 11/10. Food plots were great. Made one mistake and that was waiting to buy weed and fertilizer and they ran out of what I wanted. I have everything chopped and materials purchased. I am not worried at all and will wait even longer than last year up until 11/15 before I plant with no rain

We planted two weeks ago and morning dew has been enough to get germination. I don’t think there’s much risk in planting now. There’s generally enough moisture to keep the planting from failing completely, and if you wait until there’s rain in the forecast (like we all did last year) you run the risk of temps dropping and not getting any real growth before winter. The way I see it as long as you make an honest effort to cover the seed, you’re not any worse off than it sitting in a bag.

Germinating without rain in forecast is worse. They will burn up now. I planted Sept 30 because that was my only available weekend and hoped they would just sit in the dirt until next rain. Nope, they germinated and now look shriveled

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I don’t think there’s much risk in planting now. There’s generally enough moisture to keep the planting from failing completely.

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Fair point, but I would add one piece of advice for planting in these hot and dry conditions (learned the hard way): do NOT put out any nitrogen fertilizer at planting unless the fertilizer can be thoroughly disced in. At temps above 70° nitrogen that is not incorporated into the soil (mechanically or dissolved by rain) will volatize and be gone by the time the plants need it. This is particularly true with Urea.

The good news is that nitrogen isn't needed for germination so you can wait until you until you see growth to apply.

No kidding. If I could water then I have no problem

With water

Sorry bud, I had to, forgive me