Best Food Plot Seed

I get lots of questions every day from customers inquiring about food plots. The most often asked question is “what should I plant”? The second most often asked question that I receive is “what is the best food plot seed”?

Often times when I get asked about “seed” it is from someone that is new to planting food plots so normally our conversation turns into one that is focused more on education in which I ultimately end up explaining how and why I believe food plots with lots of diversity are best.

However, I have been thinking about this question a lot lately in attempt to come up with a better answer to help everyone regardless of their experience. The kicker though, there’s always a kicker, is that there are so many variables that one needs to consider. There are countless and countless questions that you should ask before picking a seed. It really isn’t that easy!

Here are just a few:

• What were you interested in planting?
• How big is your food plot?
• How big is your hunting property?
• Is it a new plot that has never been planted at all?
• Will your plot be on an old logging road or on an old logging pad?
• Will your plot be on an overgrown field?
• Will your plot be on existing land currently used as a pasture?
• Does your food plot receive plenty of sunlight or is it shaded?
• What type of plot are you planting (destination plot, kill plot, staging plot, strictly to feed deer with no intrusion at all, mid-day browse near bedding areas)?
• What are your overall food plot goals (are you wanting a food plot program that feeds deer all year long or one that strictly wants to provide forage during hunting season)?
• At what time of year (all year long, bow season opener, rifle season opener, late season, etc.) would you like your food plot to be most attractive?
• Have you completed a soil test?
• What is your soil like (loam, clay, silty, peaty, chalky, or sand)?
• Is your soil extremely rocky?
• If your plot is in the woods will there be stumps or roots located in your plot?
• Is your food plot located in a part of your property where extremely wet soil will be an issue?
• Does your food plot have a severe slope that may have issues with erosion?
• What are you surrounded by (agricultural, mixed woods/agriculture, predominate woods/no agriculture)?
• What area of the country are you in?
• Do your neighbors hunt?
• Do your neighbors plant food plots?
• What is the deer population like in your area (high, moderate, low)?
• Do you have an idea of how deer utilize your property (bedding, trails, etc.)?
• Do you have a budget?
• What equipment (tractor, atv, seed drill, tiller, disc, cultipacker, drag harrow, etc.) do you have available to you that you can use to plant your food plot?
• How do you plan on eliminating weeds in your food plot areas?
• When do you plan on planting your food plots (do you have schedule conflicts or are you free to plant anytime)?
• Do you know when your area experiences it’s first frost?
• Are you concerned about soil health in your food plots?
• Do you understand the importance of liming and fertilizing correctly so that your plants are able to acquire the nutrients they need to grow?

Ok, so a few turned into thirty questions real quick. That’s quite a bit to think about isn’t it?

Can you see how it is practically impossible for anyone to say “there is one perfect seed” that you can plant to attract whitetails to your property? One variable after another comes into play before we can make a recommendation to someone. When I ready articles where someone says the best seeds to plant in your food plots are items like soybeans, corn, peas, or even brassicas I instantly cringe. I don’t cringe because those aren’t great plantings but because if someone reading that who isn’t an experience food plotter then tries to plant something that isn’t suitable for their food plot then it’s possible they may end up with a complete food plot failure. The potential scenarios are endless. The plot was too small for soybeans and the high deer density consumed them as quickly as they grew. The soil type was very sandy so brassicas weren’t able to grow. The soil was too wet for the types of seeds that were planted to get established. Those are just a few and we haven’t even said anything about lack of rain, poor weed control, or not applying the correct amount of lime or fertilizer.

So here is my new answer when someone asks me “what is the best seed to plant”.

Drumroll please. My answer is “the one that is most ideal to your unique situation”.

Makes perfect sense. If you want to know what the best food plot seed is for your food plot this year call or email us. We love helping others achieve their food plot goals and hunting goals each year.