Spring Food Plot ?

[HogHunter34]

Anyone plant spring plots in the East Tx area? Our place is located in northern Anderson county about 16 miles south of Athens, Tx
Areas we will plant is sandy loam. It’s good soil for peas, beans, watermelons & other garden type vegetables.

Any suggestions for that soil type & what time frame do you plant?

[Low Fence]

Do soil test now, so you can adjust ph now! Depends on your acreage. I’m big on cow peas with sunflower and millet lightly mixed in. But if you ain’t got 1.5-2 acres min your probably gonna get wiped out planting traditionally. Put resources into protein feeder if so

Lots of threads in game management on this with great advice

I typically plans last of April to 2nd week of may

[jaspermac]

Plant soybeans and put a hot wire around some it until late sept

[ranchdog]

I have put in a lot of spring plots of Cow Peas and Soybeans and basically if you can't plant a huge plot and protect with hot wire you are better off putting out 1000 lb protein feeders. A few springs I finally got a big enough plot and hot wired it after a ton of work AND then the grasshoppers showed up by the thousands and ate everything. I started spraying for the grasshoppers one late afternoon / evening AND almost died due to heat exhaustion. Constant weeds one year was so bad in the summer the next year I switched to RoundUp Ready Soybeans and spraying all the weeds every few weeks but the deer tore down the fence somehow. That was it for me. I never put in another spring plot. Protein feeders for me.
Now fall plots of Buck Forage oats are the bomb and easy to care for.

Good Luck.

[Drycreek3189]

Low Fence nailed it with one exception, at least for me. If your deer density is not real high you can plant peas and IF your ph is right, IF you remove weed competition beforehand, and IF you get timely rains, they will last until midsummer or later. If you have lots of deer, they won’t last over six weeks, but even then all is not lost. Say you plant first of May, the peas last until June 15, you can then plant buckwheat and it will last well into the summer IF you get enough rain. Lots of IFS in plotting for deer, but it is what it is.

You also will have provided the deer with much needed protein for six weeks to two months and that ain’t too shabby.

[HogHunter34]

Thanks. I also plan to supplement some protein as well