Fertilizing Fall Food Plots

I think that everyone has gotten plenty of rain so food plots should be doing well if they have not been flooded.  Because of the excess moisture you may want to consider giving food plots a boost with some extra fertilizer.

For the most part, our soils are fairly sandy.  Sands are not good at holding moisture or nutrients.  Therefore if you put out fertilizer prior to or at planting it has been used by the plants or it has been leached out of the rootzone. 

The crops being grown will determine what type of fertilizer you would want to use.  If fertility levels in your plots are in the medium to high range and you have any of the small grains planted you would be fine to apply 34-0-0 at the rate of 100 pounds per acre.

If you have a mixture of clover with small grains or something like chicory you could switch to something like 5-10-15 at the rate of 200-300 pounds.  Clovers and other legumes fix nitrogen.  Rhizobium bacteria inhabit legume roots in nodules.  These bacteria actually fix the nitrogen for the plant to use and in return the bacteria receive carbohydrates from the plants for energy.  As deer feed on these legumes some of the N is released and made available to the other plants in the mixture.

Plots that are strictly clovers or maybe even alfalfa can be fertilized with straight potassium in the form of 0-0-60.  I would recommend between 50 and 100 pounds per acre now and and again in the spring.  If you have trouble finding that analysis you can always use 5-10-15 at a much higher rate.  You will need 300 – 500 pounds of this mixture to supply the needed potassium.  the bonus is that you will be getting some extra phosphorous and a little nitrogen just in case you had trouble with the nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Here are some things to consider if your plots are looking puny.  Most of our food plot forages like a pH in the 6.5 range.  If you did not soil sample you may want to do this before you waste more money on fertilizer.  Most legumes are sold pre coated with the proper rhizobium bacteria.  If your seed was not coated, was old or was uncoated and not inoculated you may want to consider using a nitrogen containing fertilizer like 5-10-15.  Finally really sandy sites and nitrogen loving crops like leafy greens and chicory may require even higher recommendations than mentioned previously. 

If you have any specific questions please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  mackiv@uga.edu, 478-862-5496 or 478-825-6466.