What to plant - low spot in plot, convert to cover

[j-bird]

I have a low spot in my largest food plot that always holds water and essentially nothing but weeds grow do to the amount of water. It currently an annual food plot with a small perennial plot with 3 apple trees (non-fruiting thus far) right next to it.

I am considering planting something in the low spot to break up the plots and maybe add a sense of security. I want something like a shrub. Deer browse is fine, lots of soil moisture and full sun - ideas........

 

[chummer]

Dogwood would be my pick but you would have to protect them for a couple years. Deer at my place love browsing them. They do grow fast and the ones from MDC have large roots

 

[j-bird]

Those willow cuttings that John sells might work nicely. I put in a few in a wetter area to see how they would do and they took right off

I thought about willow - I have some of my own (non-hybrids to try) but I think I want something that will be of interest to the deer from a browse standpoint.

I thought about plum, but I wasn't sure how it would do being occasionally under water. I may give John a hollar/visit and see what he has available in cuttings. I don't have most of what you guys listed so it will help with the diversity of the place as well. I may even put several different hings in just to see what happens.

thanks guys - feel free to add to the list if you come up with something else.

 

[wiscwhip]

Button bush, red osier or silky dogwoods, various serviceberries, highbush cranberry

http://www.indianawildlife.org/wildlife/native-plants/

This ^^^ Nailed it! BB in the very lowest spots and work your way out from there with the others stu mentioned. You could even plant the plum thicket you mention above on the very outermost edges, it will tolerate short(2 to 3 days) periods of flooding.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I have a low spot in my largest food plot that always holds water and essentially nothing but weeds grow do to the amount of water. It currently an annual food plot with a small perennial plot with 3 apple trees (non-fruiting thus far) right next to it.

I am considering planting something in the low spot to break up the plots and maybe add a sense of security. I want something like a shrub. Deer browse is fine, lots of soil moisture and full sun - ideas........

I agree that red osier dogwood would be tough to beat for the wet areas. I also like elderberries since they also form thickets and they can live in moist areas. American plums are great all around since they form thickets for bedding areas and also drop fruit. I'd probably put ROD in the wettest area, elderberries around the ROD and then a row of plums in the dryer area. Then scatter a bunch of other random shrubs in the area so you don't feel like you've missed anything.

 

[wiscwhip]

Mulberry will also do well on the outer edges of the low areas.

 

[SD51555]

Huh.

Didn't even have a chance on this one. You guys got this covered beyond my expertise already. Nice work team.

 

[bat man]

Dogwood would be my pick but you would have to protect them for a couple years. Deer at my place love browsing them.

That made me laugh a little. Went to a guys 60 where they shot zero does for 4 years and the osier was just so barely nipped. May even been a deer FLY that ate it.

I know what you are saying and it is preferred browse and thats why I was laughing.

 

[dipper]

This is in the middle of a food plot? I would do everything to make it thick and nasty with spruce type of cover. The 189"er I shot in Iowa was working an acre island for does when I met him. The doe family group was using that oasis in the corn field as their bedding area, and he wanted it. Worked out great.
Just planting woody growth won't give u that as well as some nasty thermal type cover mixed in.

 

[SD51555]

I've got ROD popping up all over my place. Pretty sure the cattle that were grazed here kept it controlled...removal of the cattle for a few years = much greater diversity.

I'd eat my hat if anyone could find one on our place that hasn't been browsed come spring. It's a favorite for sure. I wish ours would get to the point where we needed to mow them down to restart them. I would think that could play a part in a good late season hunting spot if connected to cover and a late season food plot. And maybe I'm already working on that...

 

[SD51555]

Even on my old place with 300% more deer than here I had ROD reach maturity and require brushhogging/cutting to get it to regenerate. Its all about quantity SD ;)

Yep. After everything browns down this fall, I want to go out and do a stem count and see how my 2014 ROD plantings did. I really want to do one more Itasca order next year, but we just don't have room for 500 more trees. I do have another area back home I want to plant some, but I haven't decided if I want to try black spruce into canary grass yet. I've also got another area that could take about a 100 BH spruce as well. I mention all that because it could all add up to being able to get another 250 more ROD for the land up north. If I can find a home for a few extra trees I'll get it done.

 

[wiscwhip]

I would concur that some small(3 to 5 trees) clusters of black spruce wouldn't hurt a thing, with the huge caveat that having deer bedding in that area wouldn't get you busted accessing your best stands. If it increased the chances of getting caught, no way do you want to encourage bedding, browse only on that area.

 

[j-bird]

I actually think encouraging bedding would be a big mistake in this location. Spruce are going in another nearby location at some point in time for bedding. This area is a food plot and will remain as such - just trying to use the soil conditions more to my advantage. My corn and beans don't do well in this long and narrow 1/4 acre area so I figured maybe some shrubs would increase security and provide some diversity. Trying to work WITH what I have and not against it.

 

[dipper]

I have plots that would be a pain to plant corn or beans in due to water. I've got no problem with the lc forage. If the spot isn't holding water all summer and fall. The ole fashion go tos shouldn't have a problem growing. Rye oats peas brassicas clover.....

 

[wiscwhip]

I actually think encouraging bedding would be a big mistake in this location. Spruce are going in another nearby location at some point in time for bedding. This area is a food plot and will remain as such - just trying to use the soil conditions more to my advantage. My corn and beans don't do well in this long and narrow 1/4 acre area so I figured maybe some shrubs would increase security and provide some diversity. Trying to work WITH what I have and not against it.

Yup, no way I would put anything resembling cover in that area then. Make sure you can hunt the trails between your soon to be new browse source and your future spruce bedding area.;)

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

If you plant 1/4 acre of shrubs in farm country I'm pretty sure you'll end up with a great bedding area. If that isn't desired then I'd go with Dipper's recommendation of a food plot mix that can stand wet feet.

 

[dipper]

They might not necessarily use nasty cover as bedding in an open field. With my Iowa buck they did because the field was standing corn. The woody island was edge in a sea of marginal cover.
Deer will also relate to that oasis when their out in the field feeding. Will it bring them out during daylight, not necessarily. It might make them more comfortable feeding.
U won't really know till u try it

 

[wiscwhip]

As the other guys stated, you could always plant jap millet in that area? Birds and other critters would benefit for sure and the deer will eat the seedheads, although they are not a highly preferred food source. Jap millet would give you something tall enough to give them some feeling of security as well.

 

[j-bird]

The area in question is in purple - there is just a natural low spot in the plot where rain collects and holds water. You can see how the plot typically is and I have a small triangle of clover and 3 apple trees (yellow) right next to it. The wooded tree line is a ridge with the plot being a good 30' lower in elevation. The surrounding green is natural weeds, the red line is the property line I own to the left of it. The red dots are stands and you can see the creek as well. It has steep banks so the deer tend to follow it in the limited cover which works well for me. The black circle is the area I will plant the spruce. It is all grown up currently and is already a "sanctuary area". The deer like my plot as they then wait until darkness falls before they enter the larger more open ag fields of corn and beans. The stand closest to the plot is responsible for (2) 130" bucks and the point of the tree line has claimed an additional 140" buck as well all since 2008 - the area is a nice funnel and the food brings the does and they bring the bucks. I enter the stand by coming down the point and head to the creek and then use the creek bed to access the stands. I just thought a winding row or two of shrubs may increase the sense of security without inducing bedding and increase my diversity. The deer use the point of the "ridge" as a ramp so to speak to change elevation in this area and has been a hub of what little deer activity I have for over a decade now.

 

[dipper]

From that, and what I've seen before, u lack bedding cover. The more cover u have in an area that lacks it, the more deer u will hold, which will include mature bucks.
Cover cover cover is king, especially in your situation when it is limiting. Don't get caught up in the ocd crap the experts try to confuse u on. That info is ok to a fine point. The picture is u need cover.
Did I say cover?