Small Deer Food Plots | Step 1: Planning and Preparing Small Food Plots

The topic of food plots is hot right now, spring is in the air and hunters are getting anxious to start turning dirt. While we all dream of a 3-tiered, multi-species, 10-acre food plot, the reality is much, much smaller than that. Small food plots at or less than 1 acre in size are what the majority of food plotters plant. These small food plots are small clearings under the stand, on the edge of the corn field, and the small opening in a giant woodlot. While these food plots offer great hunting locations and work well as kill plots they often fail time and time again. Why? Lack of attention, planning, and preparing. While these food plots are relatively easy to make, lack of preparation and lack of attention get the better of the hunter and a sparse lifeless plot is a result. This year make your small food plot pop, and actually create a deer food plot worth hunting over.

How To Plant Successful Small Food Plots for Deer | Buck Advisors (Video)- Food plots are popular among deer hunters, with the majority of food plots at or less than 1 acre in size. Establishing a successful food plot of this size battles a whole new set of elements from deer overbrowsing to hunter pressure. In this first installment of the "Small Food Plot" series, The Buck Advisors' Weston Schrank discusses his plan and preparation for this year's small food plot.

While the planning, considerations, seed type, and preparation are all important topics to cover, one seems to slide under the radar time and time again. While many articles, videos, and how-tos cover pH and recognize its importance, they rarely if ever offer an easy solution. It seems every writer, host, or advice giver is blessed enough to own nice equipment, a big food plot, and plenty of spending money. For those less fortunate, with little equipment, small food plots, and not a whole lot of financial support, food plots can be a struggle.

While you might be able to put in the money and time for hard work, clearing, spraying and raking the ground, you are far less likely to, ONE, get a soil test and, TWO, spend the money and headache to get lime on it. Chances are you have access to some sort of sprayer, and if your goal is to increase the soil health of your food plot, that’s all you will need! DeerGro’s PlotStart solves the problems of a small food plot’s needs.

PlotStart™ is a calcium-based spray for use on food plots, crops, vegetables, trees, and lawns. Developed by an American company that is a 30-year veteran of the agricultural industry, PlotStart™ provides instantly soluble and available calcium PLUS a unique mix of complex carbohydrates, amino acids, and micronutrients NOT found in traditional fertilizers allowing your plantings to explode from seed to plant and begin to grow at full potential.

MADE IN THE U.S.A., PlotStart™ targets the soil providing the most beneficial growing environment possible. PlotStart works perfectly for small food plotters. 1 jug, a backpack or four-wheeler sprayer, and some water, and you can make available nutrients that were once locked and inaccessible to your food plot species. This is part 1 of a 3 part food plot series, on how to plan and prepare small food plots. In the next two episodes, what to plant in these small food plots, and how you take these two to the next level to increase your hunting opportunities will be discussed.