Food plot/Orchard Expansion

[CedarSwamp]

We have a small 0.2 acre food plot that we plan to expand into an “L” shaped plot and almost triple the size. I want to clear it and plant the entire thing in clover and oats the first fall then plant it all in apple trees the following spring. I know I’m giving up diversity if I no longer plant it in a food plot, but I think lower disturbance of having it in just an orchard versus orchard and food plot will improve the hunting.

What are your thoughts?

I’m in an area with more woods than Ag, maybe around a 70% woods to 30% Ag field mix. We have roughly 120 apple trees planted on the 360 acres now plus other fruit and oak trees that we’ve planted. This plot is about 300 yards from the nearest food plot/apple orchard and it’s about 30 yards in the woods from an Ag field. There is substantial bedding cover in three directions of this plot. We have 6 other apple orchards and 5 food plots on the property currently.

I’d get rid of food plots all together and only do soft and hard mast trees in them all instead, but worry about losing the diversity of the brassica and cereal grain mixes that we plant. I enjoy apple trees the most, but I’m afraid there will be a point that I’ve got more apples than the deer and bears can eat anyways. I just love that I can have apples dropping in a single location from August thru December.

Any insight would be great!

 

[sandbur]

I am at the point where I will probably have more apples than the deer can eat. I do have several locations with apples available from Sept 1 well into Feb and March.

I also still have corn in the middle of the foodplots. I am in heavy ag country.

But still planting apples. Got these from Small Chunk.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jordan Selsor]

120 apple trees currently! That’s impressive!
How close is the nearest apple orchard to this plot? Established orchards? Meaning your apple trees producing?
I know what you mean about pressure. Sometimes I think food plots are over rated. My ground was just as productive the first yr I hunted it with no food plots! Not sure what zone your in but have you considered a pear plot? Olympic, Kiefer, moon glow and Aryes be a great staggering drop for you. Another option would be to plant the sunny side of the plot with a row of trees and use the rest for food plot. I have done this on a couple. You mentioned clover which is an awesome food plot. How’s your late season food? That’s always my biggest weakness. I am putting in allot more turnips this yr

 

[Barndog56]

No reason your orchard can't remain a food plot as well. All of those food plot varieties that improve soil help your orchard. I've got tons of red clover in my orchard, and will overseed with buckwheat the first time I need to mow the clover. Then I overseed with winter rye again for the final mowing. I'm planting a lot of perennial wildflowers this year to make bees happier and increase diversity. I find the more diverse my orchard is, the less I have to worry about insects.

 

[chummer]

I would go a little different route with all the apples you have. I would select one apple tree that drops at the time you want to hunt that specific plot. Plant as many as the area holds. That will ensure that spot has more apples than the surrounding areas at the time you will be sitting there. I have tried this with dolgo and chestnut for an early season bow stand. Unfortunately all the chestnuts died but I will hopefully end up with an ambush spot for the September opening of bow season.

 

[H20fwler]

I do the diversity thing with my plots and orchards too. Clover mixes, chicory, buckwheat, brassicas, partridge pea, might as well have the ground doing double duty.
If your in a low ag area planting soybeans and similar is a plus in the plots.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Keep planting apple trees. I enjoy planting food plots, but a clover filled apple orchard is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. And unlike food plots, if one year something comes up and you don't have time to plant food plots your apple trees will always be there.

 

[Rit]

If I already had 120 apple trees planted I wouldn’t be planting another one. I would be looking at plums, pears, persimmons, chestnuts, etc. I also wouldn’t stop planting the food plots around my apple trees. I am only 14 fruit trees into my destination field but even once I have it fully planted it will still get clover, WR etc. I have it spaced out so I can still get the tractor between rows.

 

[CedarSwamp]

120 apple trees currently! That’s impressive!
How close is the nearest apple orchard to this plot? Established orchards? Meaning your apple trees producing?
I know what you mean about pressure. Sometimes I think food plots are over rated. My ground was just as productive the first yr I hunted it with no food plots! Not sure what zone your in but have you considered a pear plot? Olympic, Kiefer, moon glow and Aryes be a great staggering drop for you. Another option would be to plant the sunny side of the plot with a row of trees and use the rest for food plot. I have done this on a couple. You mentioned clover which is an awesome food plot. How’s your late season food? That’s always my biggest weakness. I am putting in allot more turnips this yr

We’ve got three apple orchards that are producing pretty well right now. The oldest trees are about 15 to 20 years old and most of our apple trees are probably 3 - 9 years old.

We have a food plot/apple tree orchard 300 yards from this one but both border a large swamp that is well managed for bucks getting to maturity so this would be one of two apple tree/food plot destinations next to this swamp.

I haven’t done much with pears. We have some in a couple plots, but have stuck to apples for whatever reason.

We don’t have high deer numbers so i think our winter food is pretty decent with crop fields, native browse, late hanging apples, and food plots. We have some of the best winter cover around too with thick cedar swamps.

 

[CedarSwamp]

We have planted a lot of oaks (white, SWO, red, burr, etc), dogwoods, and native plums.

I’d love to do more nut trees, but we are far enough North that I don’t think chestnuts would work for us. We’ve instead just been patient with oaks knowing we’ll be waiting a long time for results.

 

[CedarSwamp]

I would go a little different route with all the apples you have. I would select one apple tree that drops at the time you want to hunt that specific plot. Plant as many as the area holds. That will ensure that spot has more apples than the surrounding areas at the time you will be sitting there. I have tried this with dolgo and chestnut for an early season bow stand. Unfortunately all the chestnuts died but I will hopefully end up with an ambush spot for the September opening of bow season.

We did do this in one of our recent orchards for a rut stand where of the 16 trees planted, 12 are late season trees and good hangers as we gun hunt that area too. We don’t have a spot specifically planted for early Bow season, but one of our orchards has a lot of timid season trees and a perfect funnel to hunt them on the way there which will be a great early season set up.

We have had a lot of early season success so your point of designing a plot for a specific time of year is good!

 

[CedarSwamp]

If I already had 120 apple trees planted I wouldn’t be planting another one. I would be looking at plums, pears, persimmons, chestnuts, etc. I also wouldn’t stop planting the food plots around my apple trees. I am only 14 fruit trees into my destination field but even once I have it fully planted it will still get clover, WR etc. I have it spaced out so I can still get the tractor between rows.

I would LOVE to plant persimmons, but I’m pretty confident they won’t grow in our area in NE Wisconsin on the border of zone 5 and zone 4. I think chestnuts are viable about an hour South of us but not where we are. We do a lot of Native Plums, but very limited on what we’ve done with pears and other plums. We are getting good growth with our oaks and last year had our first acorns on one of our very first swamp white oaks that we planted.

I think spacing is a good idea so we can still maintain a perennial food plot that we can mow during the summer and keep the trees spaced out well.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Keep planting apple trees. I enjoy planting food plots, but a clover filled apple orchard is pretty hard to beat in my opinion. And unlike food plots, if one year something comes up and you don't have time to plant food plots your apple trees will always be there.

Keep planting......PERIOD

the first rule of habitat addiction

bill

 

[H20fwler]

We have planted a lot of oaks (white, SWO, red, burr, etc), dogwoods, and native plums.

I’d love to do more nut trees, but we are far enough North that I don’t think chestnuts would work for us. We’ve instead just been patient with oaks knowing we’ll be waiting a long time for results.

You might check out hazelnuts if you don't have any, they are an excellent wildlife tree/shrub that is almost bullet proof.. easy to grow and start producing nuts within 3-4 years. It is probably my favorite shrub, I only have the American Filbert variety out and the deer don't bother them much browsing and they are pretty DR and spread on their own after established.
Shrub strips overall are fun to experiment with and can ad a lot of diversity to a property and benefit a very broad spectrum of wildlife, lots of different varieties of berry/fruit shrubs can be planted in them that are available to wildlife at different times of the year.

 

[TreeDaddy]

MDC website is triple XXX habitat porn.....

Pretty much every shrub/tree a fella would want

bill

 

[CedarSwamp]

Anyone know of any chestnut varieties that grow well in Zone 4b?

Also, are hazelnuts an attractive food source for deer? Does it rank up there with acorns and chestnuts or is it a step below those?

 

[Barndog56]

I've got chinese chestnuts and Dunstons growing in 4b. Might get my first Dunston nuts this year. I've got hazelnuts planted too but still to young for nuts.

If you are looking fo a source, check https://www.forestag.com/collections/nut-trees.
You can find the owner on youtube by searching for Mark Shepard. His seedlings come from nuts off of trees that survive with the smallest amount of care possible.

 

[chummer]

Anyone know of any chestnut varieties that grow well in Zone 4b?

Also, are hazelnuts an attractive food source for deer? Does it rank up there with acorns and chestnuts or is it a step below those?

I got some from SNL a few years ago. They are doing great but I don’t remember the name. Not sure if they still sell them under the new owner but I am sure he could get you the name.

 

[H20fwler]

Anyone know of any chestnut varieties that grow well in Zone 4b?

Also, are hazelnuts an attractive food source for deer? Does it rank up there with acorns and chestnuts or is it a step below those?

Deer eat them up, but I don't think there is much on par with fresh acorns or chestnuts not even shelled corn. Everything must eat hazelnuts because they don't even last minutes here once they drop.

MDC website is triple XXX habitat porn.....

Pretty much every shrub/tree a fella would want

bill

What is MDC?

 

[chummer]

Deer eat them up, but I don't think there is much on par with fresh acorns or chestnuts not even shelled corn. Everything must eat hazelnuts because they don't even last minutes here once they drop.



What is MDC?

Missouri Department of Conservation