The Best Ways to Cover Seed for Food Plots

Seed

• Hunters increasingly find the use of food plots beneficial to hunting strategy. Planting the right seed at the right time of year helps deer grow bigger and healthier. Good quality, tillable soil is the key to attractive crops for deer. If you have a large planting area with adequate rainfall, plant clover on one-half of the field and corn on the other half. Instead of corn, you could plant soybeans. Both options provide summer and winter food for deer. Oats are a good cover crop for clover. Plant winter grains with soybeans to improve the efficiency of the plot.

Native Plants

• Improve native plant areas with pelletized fertilizer during late fall and early winter with 10-10-10 fertilizer. This process is less expensive than seeding and it creates better yield of native plants. Improving the nutritional value of your land attracts more deer. Using native plants as cover, you can sow the area with cereal grains and winter-hardy oats, such as wheat and rye. Hardy winter crops help keep deer in your area for hunting season. Deer find alfalfa inviting, so adding alfalfa seeds to areas of native plants increases the deer population. A cultipacker can be used to cover the seeds. It creates a smooth but firm seedbed, making sure the seed placement is shallow. Disking is not recommended for covering the seeds because it places them too deep for germination.

Soil

• Before making a decision on the type of seed to sow, test the soil for proper pH levels of 7.0 with a soil test kit. A lower pH level will stunt the growth of plants, making a good yield nearly impossible. Till poor quality soil with the ingredients needed to bring the soil to the proper pH level. Spread seed and either use a cultipacker or lightly cover the seeds with soil by dragging a wood board across the ground.

Specialty Mixtures

• Specialty seed mixtures, sold in garden centers, provide cover for seedlings and game birds, such as pheasants, quail and ducks. Seeds contained in mixtures sprout at various times; the early sprouts help protect the remaining seeds from heavy rains and high winds. Base your choice of mixture on the type of animal you wish to attract, soil quality and climate.