Long and thin plot?

I was going to advise a kidney shaped plot. Like the L but rounded. Remeber, you need to make this plot with what your using. ATV's and tractors dont like sharp turns.

I like my plots brushy. I'd make about 10 yards of brush, with a few defined openings.

Also, dont like a plot with one spot to hunt it. PRevailing winds are west to east here in NY. I'd put the 90 of L on the north . Then the 2 legs would be facing south east and southwest. I'd mae the south east leg the longer one. Afternoon sun is better for plants than morning. Soil warms up. Maybe make the north more mature trees. But, the south would really benefit from brush, so the plot gets light.

This is all theorehtical. Without serious equipment to remove stumps and change the land alot, you dont make the spot, you make the best of the spot.

If I were to make a plot from scratch. I would make a big square box. Put a blind in the middle of the box, or on the side right ontop of one of those X's. Put different stiff in different plots, or use them for rotation. One year this one gets that.

For early bow, your idea is a great one though. Just add some edible brush around the edges.

Always wanted to play around with beets. They a good early season plot? I try t play with a new food source every time I redo a plot, usually every 3 years for me.

You could make this L or kidney shape out of a bigger plot. Plant taller stuff in the majority of the plot, then make a better sweet spot in a corner every year.

For rifle, a coworker had a star pattern. He mowed different lanes in his plot every year. Tried to keep a lane active for a year, then move the mower over net year, and then again for the third year over even more. Right infront of the hunting blind was a more formal food plot. His case, just maintained it with a mower, and basically maintained a hay field. clover and whatever horse pasture seed he bought. Usually some fertilizer too.

This is what I did at camp in one spot.

Screenshot 2023-12-09 8.29.47 AM.png


Green line is a 10 year old snowmobile trail the town put in. I do cereal and clover there. Green circle is a 20 year old log landing. Almost the best soil anywhere on camp. Red dots are apple trees planted. Where it says birch creek is too steep and rocky for the deer to cross around the swamp. Yellow line are where deer often travel. Tan dots are treestands.

The left side is not in yet. Finally figured out where the deer are honing in on for travel across the creek. Got 4 trees for that spot in the spring in my nursery.
 
Love long linear food plots. One of our most productive plots for daytime deer sightings on my place is a plot that is 30ft to 50ft wide and between 300 and 400 yds long. Took out 3 rows of planted pine to create an access rd and use it as both an interior road and food plot. Deer are only a couple of jumps away from cover and seem to feel very comfortable feeding here during day time.
View attachment 60327

Snapped this pic from a ladder stand located a few yds into the timber.
View attachment 60332

On thre south end of my property is another very long and linear food plot. Probably 15 yds wide at the narrowest point and 40 yds wide at the widest. Pushing 400 yds from top to bottom. Multiple stands set along the edge and just back into the timber. Often times we will have 3 bow hunters sitting this plot at the same time.
View attachment 60337

Elevated blind at the top end if gun hunting.
View attachment 60330

Multiple ladder stands along the edge. This is my favorite sit on the property. Ladder stand tucked in a cedar tree with excellent concealment when bow hunting.
View attachment 60328

From the south end looking north.
View attachment 60329
Over the years, I’ve observed multiple doe groups using these plots at the same time.

I know a lot of folks love hidey hole or micro plots. Even Dr. Grant Woods touts his hidey hole plots. I’ve got those as well. Perhaps it‘s something I’m doing wrong but I’ll take long and narrow all day long over a hidey hole plot on my property.
My man. That’s my kind of plot. Really try to make all my kill plots like this one
 
I have a strip that looks like that- it is kind of a ridge right in the middle of my timber and it is parallel to another strip I have planted. It leads out to a big square plot. I have been considering putting it into switch grass instead.

I’m afraid switch wont get enough sun.
 
Are you a golfer? They look like fairways 😊
Ha! That is too freaking funny! And after going back and looking at the pics I get it. That south end plot is the #1 handicap hole on my course.

Back in the day I was a 2 to 3 times a week golfer sporting a single digit handicap. Buying the farm in 2011 wrecked my golf game.
 
Triple C, what do you like in those plots? Looking like you have a seed drill. With all those pines you got to have sandy soil too.
 
These days, the local co-op fall mix with cereal grains, AWPs, brassicas n clover. I have an 8 ft Firminator one pass planter. Really like it.

As for soil, more red clay/loamy than sandy.
 
These days, the local co-op fall mix with cereal grains, AWPs, brassicas n clover. I have an 8 ft Firminator one pass planter. Really like it.

As for soil, more red clay/loamy than sandy.
Sounds alot like what I plant. Love planting turnips, they never make it, but the grouse go insane for it. They nibble every young shoot all day long during mid october muzzleloader season in NY.

Found hairy vetch to work good in limited light plots like those too.

Im a bit weary of adding fertilizer, thinking the trees will just get taller faster around it. Thought my trail was going to be toast last year. The trail was rerouted due to snowmobilers carshing into logging vehicles. But, they put the trail back in service. Any special considerations for herbicides in that plot, if any?
 
Top