Sunflowers for deer.

[N80]

Over the last year I've scraped up a few food plots on my poor, hilly soil using nothing but my boxblade. I've had a fair amount of success given the conditions. Got a fair stand of oats, wheat and cowpeas. They deer came to the oats last fall but they didn't seem to be crazy about it. They pretty much ignored the wheat. So far they haven't touched the cowpeas.

But, I also planted about an acre in sunflowers. Mostly just to have some sunflowers and maybe attract some doves. Well, they came up great. Got a really good crop for simply broadcasting. But, once they got up about 8 inches the deer mowed them down. Every last one. They are coming out in broad daylight with us watching them from the cabin porch about 75 yards up the hill. They seem to love these things.

The moral of the story is to plant something that you don't want the deer to eat. I won't get a single flower. But, the silver lining is that sunflowers are cheap and apparently pretty easy to grow. So I might just plant them every year as summer time browse for the deer!

 

[EddieWalker]

George,

Interesting. I would have thought the would eat the peas right away and ignored the sunflowers. Did you buy the sunflower seeds from a seed supplier or are they just birdseed? What type of soild do you have?

Eddie

 

[Jaybr]

I had the exact same thing happen a few years ago. Planted about an acre of sunflowers for the doves, they came up great. Checked on them 1 weekend and all had flowers, went back a week later and they where all eaten off at the head.

Last couple summers we planted a 10 acre field with sunflowers at our hunt club and had plenty left for the doves.

 

[N80]

Eddie I got them from a local feed and seed place. They are a variety called peredovick. They really didn't cost much more than the 'oil' seed you use for birdseed.

My soil is pretty bad. Mostly clay and rock. When I run the box blade rippers through it the rocks just pop up like magic. If you didn't know any better, you'd think I was trying to grow rocks!.

Jay, the deer ate these long before they had a chance to flower. They are eating the leaves off and leaving the stems. New leaves come back on the sides of the stem, but nothing comes back on the top of the stem, so I doubt I'll get any flowers at all.

 

[Jaybr]

The ones I've planted in the past where just "black oil" bird seed variety. I get them in 50 lb bags and broadcast over tilled soil then run a drag ove to cover. When the deer ate mine they only ate the flowers, but I did have some biologic plots on the property that they wore out.

This year at the hunt club we planted Pennington dove mix, which includes sunflower, millet, and sourghum. We added in 100 lbs of "black oil" and 50 lbs of "grey stripped" sunflowers and planted the same 10 acre field ( which I spent hours tilling with the new Kioti) as in the past. I'll let you know around Sept how it worked out.

 

[gary pate]

Hi fellas; I have enjoyed reading your stories and would like to share some of my experiences with you. I hunt in southwest Alabama. I enjoy planting different things for the animals each year. About 4 years ago I planted about an acre of turnips, something not to expensive to plant and easy to grow. I will eat a mess of turnips 1-2 times a year but really enjoy just pulling up the roots, wiping them off and eating them right there in the patch. Through the whole deer season there wasn't 10 tracks in the patch. Every once in a while you could see a turnip root that had a bit out of it or a few leafs nibbled on, that was it. The 2nd week of February I told my wife that I was going up and get my four-wheeler which I kept right there at the patch. I asked if she'd like to ride up with me and she agreed. Its about a 3 hour ride 1 way.When I got to the patch she said she would wait in the truck seeing as how it was cold and windy that day. I walked in the patch , turned around and went and told my wife she needed to see this. She wasn't real thrilled but she got out anyway and came with me. We were both just speechless. The whole turnip patch didn't have not 1 leaf left on a turnip. All that was left was the roots.It looked like some one had throwed a truckload of softball out in the patch. All we could do was just laugh about it. The point I'm making is that sometimes it takes the animals a while to figure out what they have is good. I have seen the same thing happen when I planted soybeans the next year. I guess I'm just keep them confused. This year its Tyrone soy beans,catjang peas,corn and buckbeans. We'll see what happens this year. Thanks

 

[jbrumberg]

Those animals know what is good. They are just waiting around until maximum ripeness/goodness and then make a buffet line out of your garden and/or orchard which is usually the evening before the day you plan to harvest . It used to make me and ; now I just accept the fact and assume that I am growing everything for them . With that mindset I am happy with the leftovers . Jay

 

[Jaybr]

Those animals know what is good. They are just waiting around until maximum ripeness/goodness and then make a buffet line out of your garden and/or orchard which is usually the evening before the day you plan to harvest . It used to make me and ; now I just accept the fact and assume that I am growing everything for them . With that mindset I am happy with the leftovers . Jay

As long as they leave me a few veggies to throw in the crockpot with the venison roast they can eat all they want.

 

[EddieWalker]

Gary,

Thanks for the story, I enjoyed reading it.

Keep us posted on how your food plot does this year, and if possible, please post a few pics.

Eddie

 

[Bill Barrett]

Thats good to know, I planted deer salad(brand name)and sunflowers for dove. If the salad dosen't work maybe I'll be ok with the sunflowers.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

I have the same problems with sunflowers. I plant them for doves and the deer maul them long before they head out. I plan on planting some in late Aug. or early Sept. as a deer foodplot.

The turnips are a whole different story. Turnips and rape are generically called brassicas. Deer will not even touch them before a good frost. The frost causes the sugar to enter the leaves and they magically become deer ice cream. They are absolutely the very best late season deer food plot and worthless prior to frost. We used to see very few deer in late Dec. and early Jan. after the rut until we discovered brassicas. Now we find the deer are concentrated on our brassicas plots. We plant a variety called Dwarf Essex Rape. The seeds germinate very well and are easy to grow. The seeds are very small like clover and don't need to be disked under very deep. In fact, just sowing on top of a good seedbed gets very good germination. Using a cultipacker enhances the process even more.

One other thing about foodplots. If there is a good acorn/mast crop, your foodplots will get very little use. Acorns are far and away a deer's favorite food source. All the oats/wheat/clover in the world will not get them away from the mast producing oak trees.

 

[N80]

You got that right about acorns! We had more than I have ever seen this year and they showed little interest in my meager little food plots.

But, for us here in SC that is going to make foodplots a huge issue this coming fall. We had a spring deep freeze a while back that killed most new tree growth. Killed all the leaves on the poplar trees and a lot of the growth on the various oaks. I have young, but acorn producing sawtooth oaks that the freeze killed all new growth, even 8-10" of stem growth. Even my pines had the top tassles killed. So my predicition is that we will have few, if any acorns this fall. Which is going to make food plots more important.

However, as I've said before, if you can find one tree with acorns during a bad acorn year, well, its better than bait!

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

You got that right about acorns! We had more than I have ever seen this year and they showed little interest in my meager little food plots.

But, for us here in SC that is going to make foodplots a huge issue this coming fall. We had a spring deep freeze a while back that killed most new tree growth. Killed all the leaves on the poplar trees and a lot of the growth on the various oaks. I have young, but acorn producing sawtooth oaks that the freeze killed all new growth, even 8-10" of stem growth. Even my pines had the top tassles killed. So my predicition is that we will have few, if any acorns this fall. Which is going to make food plots more important.

However, as I've said before, if you can find one tree with acorns during a bad acorn year, well, its better than bait!

N80.....I plan on putting out some sawtooths (or would that be sawteeth?) next spring. I hear that they grow like a rocket. How many years did it take for yours to start producing acorns? Are the deer readily coming to those acorns?

 

[N80]

These were on my place when I bought it from my B-I-L, so I don't know exactly. Maybe 10 years? But yes, they grow really fast. They are also very hardy. Right-of-way crew had to take a couple of them down to stumps and they shot up like gum trees from the stump.

The deer do like them. The acorns are huge. Mine are 15 to 20 feet tall and they've been making acorns for several years now. I wouldn't say they make tons of acorns at this age, but you will never find a whole one on the ground. They get gone fast. They eat them right off the low branches.

 

[bigdeer2000]

i also planted sunflowers for dove. planted 4-5 acres and all that is left is the 10 or so rows that are next to the road. planted the giant gray striped variety.certified seed was 7.00 per pound.ended up buying purina bird feed seed witch happens to contain the variety that i wanted for 50 cents a pound.it did contain some trash but not enough to be a concern to me. germination was great, only problem is the deer. only other thing i have planted that the deer worked over faster was lab-lab.should be planting millet this week for dove season (60 day maturity) but is so dry don't think i will.hopefully we will get some rain to plant fall food plots later this summer. deer,turkey and squirrels will have to make out without mast crop, so fall and winter food plots will be important.

 

[Sigarms]

I will eat a mess of turnips 1-2 times a year but really enjoy just pulling up the roots, wiping them off and eating them right there in

Being a relocated yankee, you made me think of a phrase that I've since learned "down south".

"My asss is like a turnip patch, come get your mess".

Is the phrase only used in N.C by some "strange" people I know, or is that phrase used in other areas as well?

 

[gary pate]

Good evening Sigarms; I'm going to be like Roy and be nice. I don't see what your phrase has to do with my thread. I've heard the saying several times in Alabama. If you decide to come further south you might want to think twice about using that phrase so freely. You could wind up getting your plow cleaned! Have a nice day.

 

[N80]

Gary, I think it was just the turnips that reminded him of the phrase. I've lived in the south all my life. Never heard that phrase. Sounds to me like it may have been born in a trailer park. Who you been hanging out with Sigarms?

 

[gary pate]

HI TNhobbyfarmer; The part that puzzled me the most is that all the roots were still in place. It being February, they would surely be sweet. I can't remember seeing them the next trip so I guess they finally ate them. I planted a patch 2 years ago one half the patch I planted Buck Oats and the other half I planted Bio Logic. Sometimes they would walk through one to get to the other, then other times it didn't seem to matter. Good luck and have a good day. P.S. remember to thank GOD for all we have.

 

[Sigarms]

Good evening Sigarms; I'm going to be like Roy and be nice. I don't see what your phrase has to do with my thread. I've heard the saying several times in Alabama. If you decide to come further south you might want to think twice about using that phrase so freely. You could wind up getting your plow cleaned! Have a nice day.

Number one, it was not your thread, but your post (N80 started the thread). I made a comment to your post.

N80 hit it on the head, I'm sorry for your misunderstanding. Thank you for your words of wisdom, next time I'm in Mobile and Birmingham (sp?), I will be more careful. Should I look you up

Have a nice day yourself

I might add, when I feel like saying whats on my mind (per the correct time to do so), I say exactly what I mean, not some phrase that leaves you scratching your head trying to figure out what the heck the guy is talking about