Be one with the Weeds...........

[bigboreblr]

Has anyone been comfortable with certain weeds in your areas / plots? OR even embraced or added them?

I have a spot with goldenrod, but goldenrod is in the aster family. I know grouse and pheasant like it and have seen deer eat it. Plot in mention is newly added this past spring, no spraying before establishment though. Maybe 10% is goldenrod. I planted oats, turnips, and clover there and did not mow due to the turnips kept growing there in the summer. Thinking of mowing as control. Might gly and maybe keep it a clover spot for another year, wait till spring comes to see what it looks like.

I have planted plantain and collected crabgrass seed to put in the parking area / cabin lawn. The snowshoe hares love it.

Hate to call it a weed, but blueberries can be a problem for me too. Don't want to mow them down for a food plot. to go there...........Easy to eliminate if needed, open space is limited where my lease is as is what is allowed for me to do on there, aka no clearing of trees. open spots are open territory, but can be used by loggers for a convenient log landing. A real joy to see on your usta food plot after a 200 mile trip.......

 

[jsasker007]

I always wind up having some weeds and I can live with that. I don't tolerate some of the weeds and try to control them with timely mowing. If you want it growing it is no longer considered a weed. Clover is a weed if you don't want it in your lawn. Agree that some weeds are loved by the deer and I just see it as free food as long as it doesn't take over and dominate my plots. I had plenty of deer on my property before I started food plots, but the plots give me something to do and might be one of the last things I can do where I have control of what gets to grow there.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have a nice 20x20 area of rag weed that I leave, and plant around. I dont let it spread beyond that spot, I have allergies against it, but the deer visit that spot before entering my food plot for a few bites. No sense spending money, or my energy to kill something the deer prefer over my food plot.

 

[CarolinaDawg]

Has anyone been comfortable with certain weeds in your areas / plots? OR even embraced or added them?

I have a spot with goldenrod, but goldenrod is in the aster family. I know grouse and pheasant like it and have seen deer eat it. Plot in mention is newly added this past spring, no spraying before establishment though. Maybe 10% is goldenrod. I planted oats, turnips, and clover there and did not mow due to the turnips kept growing there in the summer. Thinking of mowing as control. Might gly and maybe keep it a clover spot for another year, wait till spring comes to see what it looks like.

I have planted plantain and collected crabgrass seed to put in the parking area / cabin lawn. The snowshoe hares love it.

Hate to call it a weed, but blueberries can be a problem for me too. Don't want to mow them down for a food plot. to go there...........Easy to eliminate if needed, open space is limited where my lease is as is what is allowed for me to do on there, aka no clearing of trees. open spots are open territory, but can be used by loggers for a convenient log landing. A real joy to see on your usta food plot after a 200 mile trip.......

Personally, I go through the time and expense of planting food plots to feed my deer. I view plot plants as the mechanism to transfer nutrients from the soil to the deer, so any plant that does that is fine by me. To me a weed is any plant in my plot that pulls nutrients from my soil but doesn’t get eaten by the deer.

 

[SD51555]

I don’t use the W word very often anymore. Since I started trying to to understand why things were happening, the ‘unintended plant’ was never the problem. Frankly, their presence is a gift, and can save you a ton of money if you get down and talk to that plant and listen to what it has to tell you.

I just learned this week that sedge does not support or need mycorhizal fungi to thrive. If you have wet soil and kill the MF, it’s almost a certainty sedge will show up and take your lunch money. Plants that thrive without mycorhizal fungi (MF) will dominate any plants that do need MF, in an environment where there is none. So, I got to wondering why sedge is so prolific where I have it, cause I haven’t killed anything.

It’s not that sedge is tough, it’s that my plots were (were) seasonal basins that held enough inches of water long enough that the soil couldn’t support plants the could survive the flood to be a support for MF. The sedge rolled in and sealed up the gap and became the tenants.

Where I fixed the ponding issue, I’ve had sedge try to pop back up, but it so far hasn’t been able to compete in a balanced fair fight soil.


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[Native Hunter]

I have a synergistic relationship with weeds. You might enjoy the following thread: https://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/take-a-walk-with-me-through-the-prairie.12349/

 

[yoderjac]

Has anyone been comfortable with certain weeds in your areas / plots? OR even embraced or added them?

I have a spot with goldenrod, but goldenrod is in the aster family. I know grouse and pheasant like it and have seen deer eat it. Plot in mention is newly added this past spring, no spraying before establishment though. Maybe 10% is goldenrod. I planted oats, turnips, and clover there and did not mow due to the turnips kept growing there in the summer. Thinking of mowing as control. Might gly and maybe keep it a clover spot for another year, wait till spring comes to see what it looks like.

I have planted plantain and collected crabgrass seed to put in the parking area / cabin lawn. The snowshoe hares love it.

Hate to call it a weed, but blueberries can be a problem for me too. Don't want to mow them down for a food plot. to go there...........Easy to eliminate if needed, open space is limited where my lease is as is what is allowed for me to do on there, aka no clearing of trees. open spots are open territory, but can be used by loggers for a convenient log landing. A real joy to see on your usta food plot after a 200 mile trip.......

I call it weed tolerance. There are some noxious weeds like Marestail and a number of others that can take over a field and need to be dealt with. When I started I wanted pretty weed free farm quality plots. It didn't take me too long to learn many plants that are "weeds" for farmers are great deer food. I find I get more buck use of my planted fields that are weedy than those that are clean. I think weeds provide vertical cover making deer more comfortable rather than standing in an open clover plot. You won't even know some of my plots were clover plots in the summer because of the weeds unless you get down in them on your hands and knees. The deer still use them just fine. The weeds help protect the clover from summer sun. I do mow them in the fall when evenings get cool and favor the clover. The clover takes over the field once again.

I'm far from an expert at identifying weeds, but as long as I see a healthy mix of weeds I'm very weed tolerant. When I see a single weed type take over a field, I become concerned.

 

[BrushyPines]

I have a nice 20x20 area of rag weed that I leave, and plant around. I dont let it spread beyond that spot, I have allergies against it, but the deer visit that spot before entering my food plot for a few bites. No sense spending money, or my energy to kill something the deer prefer over my food plot.

I also had ragweed come up in spots in my clover plot. Deer hammered it, so I left it all summer and didn't mow until closer to fall. Another "weed" that deer hammer at my place is poke salad.

 

[BrushyPines]

I call it weed tolerance. There are some noxious weeds like Marestail and a number of others that can take over a field and need to be dealt with. When I started I wanted pretty weed free farm quality plots. It didn't take me too long to learn many plants that are "weeds" for farmers are great deer food. I find I get more buck use of my planted fields that are weedy than those that are clean. I think weeds provide vertical cover making deer more comfortable rather than standing in an open clover plot. You won't even know some of my plots were clover plots in the summer because of the weeds unless you get down in them on your hands and knees. The deer still use them just fine. The weeds help protect the clover from summer sun. I do mow them in the fall when evenings get cool and favor the clover. The clover takes over the field once again.

I'm far from an expert at identifying weeds, but as long as I see a healthy mix of weeds I'm very weed tolerant. When I see a single weed type take over a field, I become concerned.

I noticed that this year by accident. I was using a cultipacker as a crimper. Sprayed one plot and not the other to see what would happen. In the plot I didn't spray, I had milo grow back that the cultipacker didn't kill. I had a lot more buck activity in that plot and I'm thinking it had to do with the vertical growth the milo gave like Jack mentioned. My crimper finally came in, so I might add a little milo to my fall plots just to give it that "trash" look.



And unfortunately I was not hunting this plot that morning. These 2 were fighting over a hot doe that morning.

 

[Bassattackr]

Personally, I go through the time and expense of planting food plots to feed my deer. I view plot plants as the mechanism to transfer nutrients from the soil to the deer, so any plant that does that is fine by me. To me a weed is any plant in my plot that pulls nutrients from my soil but doesn’t get eaten by the deer.

This, within reason.

I view it more as food vs cover. Anything that creates cover in a food source that I'm trying to hunt over would get nixed as it potentially gets in the way of my shot. By contrast, I don't like food in areas of cover I've created as I want the deer out toward me into my plots, not spending the entire morning or evening in cover. (You'll never find me spreading clover into NWSG fields!)

This specifically applies to hunting season. For example - In summer, many will be in the areas of cover that are large ragweed patches (great browse) that in turn quit growing after late summer and turn brown. So my food plots are the tender palatable browse come bow season. The standing 5'-6' ragweed creates great cover and transitional edge come bow season. Win-Win.

The timing, rate and method of planting and management all play into account that allow my food plots to be generally weed free, and my cover to be generally food free by hunting season. All without herbicide use.

 

[yoderjac]

This, within reason.

I view it more as food vs cover. Anything that creates cover in a food source that I'm trying to hunt over would get nixed as it potentially gets in the way of my shot. By contrast, I don't like food in areas of cover I've created as I want the deer out toward me into my plots, not spending the entire morning or evening in cover. (You'll never find me spreading clover into NWSG fields!)

This specifically applies to hunting season. For example - In summer, many will be in the areas of cover that are large ragweed patches (great browse) that in turn quit growing after late summer and turn brown. So my food plots are the tender palatable browse come bow season. The standing 5'-6' ragweed creates great cover and transitional edge come bow season. Win-Win.

The timing, rate and method of planting and management all play into account that allow my food plots to be generally weed free, and my cover to be generally food free by hunting season. All without herbicide use.

From a huntability standpoint, I completely agree when it comes to food in cover. A clear-cut and keep it in early succession is an example and so is burning thinned timber. It creates food in thick cover. This is GREAT from a QDM standpoint for the deer herd at scale, but I find deer respond to much less hunting pressure by staying in this cover with reasonable quality food rather than exposing themselves by moving distances to get even higher quality food. If you can keep hunting pressure low enough this is great habitat improvement.

When it comes to weeds in food plots, if the cover is too thick it could obscure deer and shot opportunities, but in general this is not the case for us. Plots are either planted or mowed annually, so it is not like you have tall woody stems. The vertical cover in plots increases use during shooting hours. This is especially important if you've created food in cover like a clear-cut. Once again it boils down to pressure and food availability. I found that when I was planting soybeans, adding a light mix of corn was perfect. I'd use a 7:1 ratio by weight of beans to corn. There was enough corn stalks for deer to feel more comfortable sneaking in during shooting hours yet it was not so thick you could not eventually get a shot.

I will admit that we hunt primarily from elevated stands which helps. Cover that can be quite thick at ground level can be much more open from a a treestand.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[bigboreblr]

I used to hunt a coworkers property before he sold the 110 acre spot.

He had a very overgrown field. I'd use his old 9N and mowed 10ft strips every 20ft. Throw some rye in there late summer. Mowed the same spot 2 years in a row. On year 3, I move the strip over by 5ft and let the existing 5ft edge go fallow. He got gumpy with the boss, sold the property, and left the area and company. Seemed like a great simple plan. Areas a bit more mowed / used were clover spots.

I'd hunt ruffed grouse in there too with my griffon, tons of bunnies in those strips...