Prior to the 1980s, a food plot was nearly unheard of. Now, it’s hard to imagine hunting deer without them. Even as food plots became more common, most hunters didn’t have the equipment or know-how to successfully plant one. Today, there’s a lot more science and information about food plots for the laymen. YouTube channels like Dr. Grant Woods’ “Growing Deer TV” have created hundreds of hours of incredible DIY videos on how to plant the perfect food plots. This hunting content and hunting shows in general have created a FOMO movement in the hunting culture where many hunters think they must have a food plot. However, throwing seeds on the ground and hoping for big bucks isn’t going to work. There is a process for planting food plots, and if followed properly, it might draw and hold deer on a parcel of land. 

Food Plots 101

Before you start selling food plot stuff, it’s always best to have a base knowledge of what you’re trying to provide to the customer. Planting food plots is like farming. A farmer ensures that a crop has everything it needs to maximize yield. Likewise, a food plot will be grazed on by deer, which means it must continue to produce forage to keep the deer coming back for more. The following are must-haves if a customer wants to actually attract deer. 

Sunlight: Without sunlight, food plot plants can’t photosynthesize and create sugars. The sugars are what deer are tasting and find palatable. Without these sugars, deer won’t find a food plot worth hanging around. So, don’t plant a plot in a covered-canopy forest.

Nutrients: Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are the nutrients found in fertilizer. They represent the three numbers found on the bag. Nitrogen is responsible for the green plant growth. Phosphorous helps grow roots and cellular walls in plants. Potassium helps the plant move nutrients throughout its system and adds to better-tasting plants. Without these essential nutrients, expect thin, yellow-colored plots that not even crickets will eat.

Soil pH: This is often the most overlooked aspect of food plots. Many soils are acidic and require lime to raise the pH to an ideal level. No, I’m not talking about the citrus fruit that adorns a cocktail, I’m talking about crushed limestone. Limestone is neutral on the pH scale and will help neutralize acidic soil. Most food plot plants grow best in neutral soil with a pH of 6 to 7. When a food plot is planted in acidic soil, the plants can’t take up the full amount of fertilizer they need, resulting in poor-performing plots and money wasted on fertilizer that leeches through the soil. 

Who’s the Customer?

There are usually two types of customers in this category: Those with the proper tools and those without. The customer with the proper tools has a tractor with implements like a set of discs, sprayer, seed and fertilizer spreader, etc. This customer is usually planting acres of ground and will likely shop at a local co-op or feed and seed store to buy in bulk. This leaves you catering to the customer without a tractor. 

The customer without a tractor will go about food plots in several different ways. At the most basic level, they will use hand tools to clear ground and plant a food plot. While this method won’t yield much acreage, these hunters can establish small “kill plots.” These plots can be created in between deer bedding cover and major feed destination points, such as large agricultural fields. Kill plots can be created with chainsaws and pruners to remove small trees and saplings and weed eaters and leaf blowers or rakes to clear leaves and grass. 

The next step up in this customer group are the guys utilizing ATVs to help plant plots. This customer can get more serious with the proper ATV implements, like smaller seed drills, discs, sprayers, and seed and fertilizer spreaders. A seed drill, which puts seed directly in the ground, can plant many acres, but these are expensive implements. An ATV disc can do a decent job turning over ground for smaller plots. The sprayers and seed spreaders can cover a lot of acreage. This group can get more serious about planting different types of seeds and planting more ground. 

Soil Test Kits

Anyone who is serious about planting a food plot needs to test their soil to ensure they are putting the right amount of fertilizer and lime in the ground to ensure a successful food plot. Whitetail Institute sells a soil test kit that makes it easy to do and understand for hunters. These can be purchased through Whitetail Institute and placed in the food plot section of your store. Customers simply follow the instructions on the kit and send off the sample to the specified lab and they’ll get the results back in a week or less.

Herbicides

Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Round-up) is typically used when prepping a fall food plot. Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide, which means it kills both broadleaf and grass weeds. The first step is to mow tall grass and weeds during late summer. Then, a week or two later, use a water solution with glyphosate to spray the freshly growing vegetation. This will kill the existing vegetation that would compete with your food plot seed. After two weeks, the existing vegetation will be dead and brown. At this point, it can be burned off or disced into the soil in preparation to spread the food plot seed. 

Most herbicides also need a surfactant added to the mix to help it penetrate the plant’s leaves. There are numerous brands of these herbicides that you can find for retail. If you do decide to carry these, it’s best to get them in small packets or bottles where the customer can mix them per gallon of water for small plots. The most common method for applying these is with a hand pump sprayer or backpack sprayer for small plots. An ATV sprayer can cover considerable acreage and typically has a 15- to 25-gallon capacity. For customers interested in growing clover-only food plots, Whitetail Institute sells grass- and broadleaf-specific herbicides in small bottles to kill weeds but not the clover.

Throw and Grow

This is a common name for food plot blends that don’t require a full-scale farming operation to plant. There are many brands out there selling a variety of throw-and-grow blends. A couple of the quality blends that I’ve used are Big Tine’s Buck Brunch and Whitetail Institute’s No-Plow. These blends have hardy, fast-growing seeds like clover, brassicas, radishes and forage wheat. These blends can easily be spread with a hand spreader and require the least amount of soil prep. A guy with a backpack sprayer and a rake can plant a quarter-acre plot that will attract deer during the fall hunting season. 

Clover is another great option for deer; it will grow in the fall and through the spring and summer with plenty of soil moisture. Whitetail Institute is the king of clover with its Imperial Whitetail blend. They offer this variety in convenient bags that are ideal for small food plots. The small seed will readily grow in plots that don’t need a tractor to prep. 

ATV Implements

As mentioned earlier, a hunter can plant a lot of food plots with a larger ATV (400cc engine or larger). Kunz Engineering sells discs, mowers, plows and cultipackers for ATV use. These are high-quality products that will get the job done, too. 

An ATV sprayer is an important tool for spraying herbicides for food plot prep. Like most things in life, there are cheap ones and expensive ones. I’ve found the cheap ones break easily and typically require upgraded parts. For the past decade, I’ve used a CropCare 25-gallon sprayer with fold-up boom arms that will spray a 12-foot swath when booms are deployed. This thing is a beast and flat-out works. We plant roughly 10 acres of food plots each season, and I rely heavily on this model. They’re not cheap, but will last. 

There are also all-in-one planting tools for ATVs. Ranew Outdoors manufactures the Firminator. This attachment has the seed box, disc (there’s also a model with a rototiller), and cultipacker all in one implement. With one pass, your food plot seed is distributed and covered with soil. Another option is the Genesis Seed Drill. Like the Firminator, it is a one-pass implement, but it doesn’t disc the soil up. Instead, it cuts a slit in the ground, drops the seed and covers it. With the Genesis drill, the ground is never ripped apart and over time can build fertile topsoil on your plots, which improves soil health. 

Not every retail outlet is going to sell ATV implements, however. These are expensive pieces of equipment that take up considerable space, and you would need a serious customer base to move these items. Gauge the interest of your customer before going this route. 

Attractants 

Don’t overlook attractants. At the end of the day, hunters want to have a shot at a deer, and attractants, where legal, can accomplish this. You might have customers who are interested in food plots but who are not willing or able to put in the work. And trust me, planting food plots is a lot of work and money. Ani-Logics Outdoors offers an incredible variety of attractants. They have a line of liquid, powder, block and brick attractants in numerous flavors. Most of these come in 5-pound bags or hard blocks that easily fit on shelves or displays in a retail environment.  

When deciding what to carry in your store for customers interested in planting food plots, I suggest starting small. Carry the products that require the least amount of effort for a customer to have success. Your customer’s success will also hinge on your knowledge of planting food plots. If you don’t know anything about food plots, do your homework. You can start by calling the folks at Whitetail Institute. They have a dedicated hotline to food plot experts ready to answer your questions and get you set up. 

There’s something rewarding about working the soil and seeing your efforts spring to life. Seeing a big buck eating on your customers’ efforts is even better!