Evaluating your food plots

[E J]

If your planting apples for deer it's hard to beat liberty , enterprise and gold rush.  All are somewhat disease resistant and hold apples into deer season.

[Otto]

How high up do you fence off the tree?  I have been using 4' high most of the time.  I have some 6' fencing but am running short.

Also, what are your opinions on using grow tubes?

[Bucksnbows]

21 minutes ago, Otto said:

How high up do you fence off the tree?  I have been using 4' high most of the time.  I have some 6' fencing but am running short.

Also, what are your opinions on using grow tubes?

Not sure who you are directing that to, but professionally, we use 5’ grow tubes for moderate to low deer density areas and 6’ for high deer areas. If you do a wire cage and large enough, 5’ will do fine regardless. Cages capture debris if in floodplains. Grow tubes do better there. 

[cervidchasers]

5 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Not sure who you are directing that to, but professionally, we use 5’ grow tubes for moderate to low deer density areas and 6’ for high deer areas. If you do a wire cage and large enough, 5’ will do fine regardless. Cages capture debris if in floodplains. Grow tubes do better there. 

in my experience, apples , chestnuts or persimmons don't grow well in a flood plain. But a 5 ft cage is optimum for their survival.

[Bucksnbows]

1 minute ago, cervidchasers said:

in my experience, apples , chestnuts or persimmons don't grow well in a flood plain. But a 5 ft cage is optimum for their survival.

Agreed. In my professional life I do river restoration, and we oversee native plantings in the floodplain after our heavy construction component. Different than food plots above the floodplain. But I keep the same plan for cages or grow tubes regardless of plant species and/or location. If I were to plant fruit trees above the floodplain, I’d use large wire hoops around each plant at 5’ high and secure with a couple of rebar, length depending on how hard or easy it is to drive in the rebar support stakes.  I like the wire cages for fruit trees because they only really need to be protected from deer antler rubbing and sometimes bears. The cages do well and allow great growth. They also allow for good horizontal branch growth as is typical with many fruit trees. 

[Otto]

5 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Not sure who you are directing that to, but professionally, we use 5’ grow tubes for moderate to low deer density areas and 6’ for high deer areas. If you do a wire cage and large enough, 5’ will do fine regardless. Cages capture debris if in floodplains. Grow tubes do better there. 

No one in particular, and thanks for responding.  I am not in a floodplain.  I have both grow tubes and fencing available, so I will use both.    I have some Gold Rush coming in the spring, as well as some crab apples, not sure what variety I ended up with.  

I have a lot of “wild” apples.  I think it was an old orchard that got overgrown. I have been cleaning as much brush as I can around them and trimmed them up a bit.  This year was a good crop of them, but they all dropped by mid September.  Still lots of rotting apples around.  

[Robhuntandfish]

13 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Not sure who you are directing that to, but professionally, we use 5’ grow tubes for moderate to low deer density areas and 6’ for high deer areas. If you do a wire cage and large enough, 5’ will do fine regardless. Cages capture debris if in floodplains. Grow tubes do better there. 

We put in 3 apple trees last year and they are doing well. Also used grow tubes.  We put them in a somewhat thick area to grow a bit and not be in the wide open.  Prob year 3 we will clean out the area and open it up more. They get plenty of sunlight there though. 

[Belo]

17 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Not sure who you are directing that to, but professionally, we use 5’ grow tubes for moderate to low deer density areas and 6’ for high deer areas. If you do a wire cage and large enough, 5’ will do fine regardless. Cages capture debris if in floodplains. Grow tubes do better there. 

cages are also a pain to mow around. spray works, but not everyone loves spraying an orchard depending on your volume. 

[Cabin Fever]

Every time I used grow tubes, the damned yellow jackets built nests in them. Made mowing and trimming more exciting....

[The Back 40]

I typically use a 4'  heavy construction style "snow fence" to cage my trees. Mainly because I had a bunch of it. I've always secured it with T-posts, but I have been looking at getting the metal square fence from one of the orchard supply stores around here and secure them with rebar. I built one large cage around the 3 trees I planted last week with a gate so I can get in there to mow next summer. The guy that I bought the trees from told me not to mulch around fruit trees because it can attract rodents to nest, and they will girdle the trees. These trees came with a plastic spiral wrap on the trunks that I assume is a type of grow tube to prevent animals from chewing on the bark. 

[Teamhoyt]

Just got permission to plant a food plot on a gas line. Probably 20yds by a couple hundred yards long. Pretty stoked. I been watching deer every night cross farther down on the neighbors that I can't hunt. With the plot now I'll be able to draw them over 

[G-man]

6 hours ago, Belo said:

cages are also a pain to mow around. spray works, but not everyone loves spraying an orchard depending on your volume. 

I do small diameter cages 8 in or less 5 or 6 ft tall. The trees  i plant are big enough so i dont stake them i simply.lift up  couple times a year and rip the grass out especially come.fall to keep mice from nestingnad girdling them i leave the 2x4 welded fence  on untill trees are over 4in in diameter amd will still get a few rubbed.  Seem to last longer than tree tubes and keep the borers open to birds to get before they get into tree trunk

[Stubborn1vt]

Didn't want to start a whole new thread, but I stopped at my local Tractor Supply and saw good deals on plot seed.  They were sold out of some stuff, but the remaining seed was 40-50% off.  Might be worth a look.  I was doing a bit of Christmas shopping and picked up some seed from Domain Outdoors.  At a little over $3/lb, I think it's worth it.

[Robhuntandfish]

4 hours ago, Stubborn1vt said:

Didn't want to start a whole new thread, but I stopped at my local Tractor Supply and saw good deals on plot seed.  They were sold out of some stuff, but the remaining seed was 40-50% off.  Might be worth a look.  I was doing a bit of Christmas shopping and picked up some seed from Domain Outdoors.  At a little over $3/lb, I think it's worth it.

i bought a few Domain products to try myself this year for some frost seeding in the spring 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Robhuntandfish

[Robhuntandfish]

  

just had a pic of a trail pop up on my computer and the difference from cutting and frost seeding is amazing.  First pic is from this year and one with the buck from a few years ago. We just started frost seeding a little in 2021, more in 2022.  Wont do this area this year but will in other spots. Although the cut grass is still on the menu its just amazing how the clover takes. The above pic was taken right where this buck is standing. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Robhuntandfish