Most game food plot mixes are strong germinators. Till enough so the food plot seeds have a good probability of germinating and becoming sufficiently established before natural vegetation returns.
Rolling in food plot seed with a Cultipacker or roller will improve germination rate considerably.
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Your PTO powered roto-tiller is optimum for soil preparation. One pass should be sufficient. Deer seed mixes contain strong germinators. You do not need a perfectly smooth seed bed. Do not roto-till the fertilizer too deep, 2" is deep enough. You want rain to carry nutrients to the root zone, not deeper. Clover has shallow roots.
If the Pure Attraction seed blend has small seed such as Clover, do not drag. Small seeds require light to germinate. If you cover small seeds with a drag, they will not germinate. Dragging is for medium and large seeds. If you want to drag for smoothness and for some tractor seat time, drag after tilling but before seeding.
Seed only when soil is moist or rain is forecast several days in succession.
After sowing seed, roll seeds in if possible. The optimum implement is a heavy Cultipacker, which flattens clods, rolls in seed and presses a pattern into the soil which directs moisture to the seeds and may aid in erosion prevention.
Used Cultipackers are $400-$600. A Cultipacker consists of heavy cast iron wheels on an axle, supported by a frame.
You can buy a cheap poly roller from TSC or another farm/tractor supply store which will last several years, if you empty water before hard freezes. I have used the poly roller in Photo #4 for six years. ((No hard freezes in my part of Florida.))
Or you can press in seed with tractor tires, which will take time over 1.5 acres.
Then, pray for rain, like agriculturalists for 7,000 years. If the soil drys out you will gradually lose some of the seed, which is vulnerable after germinating.
It may take you several years to conquer the residual weed seeds in recovered ground. You can use 2,4-D herbicide ("Kills broadleaf weeds, not grass") in a one gallon, poly tank hand-sprayer to control the largest weeds which sprout amidst your food plot seed. Buy 2,4-D concentrate in the ag chemicals section at TSC or whatever your local farm/tractor store is. Deer will browse many, not all, weeds at some stage of weed growth. The objective is to prevent undesirable vegetation from producing seed.
Disc Harrows and PTO powered roto-tillers are both soil mixing implements which accomplish soil mixing in different ways.
