Weeds can be difficult to deal with in food plots!
For those who want to food plot and do not want to use Roundup or its cousins for weed control due to cost or environmental considerations here is a planting plan you can implement:
If You Only Have a Few Food Plot Weeds (Option 1)
- Right now (early June), till and disc your field and plant buckwheat seeded at a 2x rate.
- Late July, till/disc the buckwheat in and plant a mix of Big & Beasty and clover at 2 a 2:1 ratio.
- Early Spring, plant Winter Wheat and then plant soybeans early June.
- The following spring plant spring oats and in July plant Big & Beasty
If You Have Lots of Food Plot Weeds (Option 2)
- Right now, till and disc your field and plant buckwheat seeded at a 2x rate.
- Mid to late July, Till/disc buckwheat in and plant another round of Buckwheat at a 2x rate.
- Late August, plant winter oats, cereal rye or winter wheat. You can even mix all three.
Frigid Forage’s Big & Beasty is a great annual food plot brassica.
- Next Spring Plant plow down clover and then in late July you can plant Big & Beasty.
- Now that the weeds are under control you can plant winter wheat or spring oats and begin to plant beans or corn in this field. If the weeds start to come back, repeat the process.
Double Till
This is very important: with non-chemical weed control, it helps to double till each time and leave a few days between tilling.
Solarizing Food Plots
For small plots 1/4 acre an under you can also solarize the plot. I will detail that in future post for those who do not know what that is.
*Note, in option # 2 you can plant winter wheat and oats regardless of weeds being ” in control”. I meant to say you can continue to do that and then plant beans or corn.
Another option is to also mix in some clover with the cereal grains so it has a head start on the next spring. Once you get going it is easy to do a rotation of the cereal grain and brassica blend every other year if that is all you want to do.