What Can I Plant in Sandy Food Plots?

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Question

All of my food plots are basically sand/sandy loam with a little bit of black topsoil in spots. All are located on hillsides near my creek. I have tried Biologic and Whitetail Institute products with marginal success. I do follow soil sample recommendations annually. However, most companies are too eager just to sell their products. I need some advice on what products WILL produce good forage tonnage in the type of soils that I have AND keep the deer coming back for more. I live in southern Mississippi near Mobile, Alabama.

My sincerest thanks

Gene

Gene,

I certainly won’t promise that any cultivar will “produce good tonnage at your site and keep deer coming back for more.” I don’t even make that promise to myself on The Proving Grounds because there are way too many uncontrollable variables! Deciding what crop to plant should be based on gads of determinants, including soil type, typical soil moisture availability, the deer density/acreage available to plant ratio, amount of sun/shade the plot is exposed to, season of planting, etc.

If your ratio of plot size to deer density allows the use of crops deer strongly prefer, Eagle Seed forage soybeans are often a good choice. They are hardy, can produce literally tons of forage, and deer readily consume them (unless they’ve never seen a soybean plant before — deer always have a learning curve to new forage). However, there are places where forage soybeans won’t perform well. These can include plots that are very small in size, areas that are totally shaded, areas with high amounts of salt in the soil, etc.

So, to help yourself analyze what works best at your site, I’d suggest:

  1. Always use a utilization cage (see GDTV 14)
  2. Try different crops, and keep records!
  3. Take a soil test from each plot annually, and make sure you tell the soil lab what crops you plan to plant! Labs can’t provide specific fertilizer recommendations unless they know what crops are to be grown. The more specific information you provide the lab, the more precise their recommendations will be. Let me know what crops you decide to plant and how your crops do this year.

Growing Deer together,

Grant