Introduction:

Once the clover seed has been planted and the food plot has germinated it’s time to sit back and watch the parade of critters continue to come to your food plot year after year, right? Wrong! Nothing in nature stays the same without a little maintenance and food plots are no different. But with a little effort every year, a well maintained food plot of a perennial like clover, should last several years before it needs to be replanted.

Watch the Numbers:

If you followed my advice in the preparation phase you took a soil sample and amended the soil with the proper amount of lime and fertilizer prior to planting. If you haven’t taken a soil sample then it’s high time you did. A soil sample every couple of years will tell you how much lime and fertilizer to apply to your food plot to continue providing nutrition to the plants. In the absence of a soil sample a good rule of thumb for lime is about 2 tons per acre every three years. Also spread a low nitrogen content fertilizer at least once a year to keep the clover nourished. By using a low nitrogen content fertilizer you’ll discourage other weed development. Something like a 0-26-26 is a good fertilizer for maintaining clover plantings.

Controlling the Weeds:

Even with the best efforts at preparation of the seed bed using herbicides like Round-Up, over time, you may still find weeds in your food plot. Weed seed remains dormant in the soil waiting for a disturbance or the proper conditions to occur for germination. By tilling the soil you have created that disturbance and provided those prime conditions for that weed seed to germinate. This is just a fact of life when planting food plots and the best you can do after careful preparation is weed control.

The weeds you notice in your clover planting will be of two types, grasses and broadleaf. You must be able to distinguish the different types of weeds present before you can select the proper herbicide for control. If grass is your problem then products like Poast or Vantage can be used effectively. I have used Poast to control grasses in clover plantings and have found it effective.

Broadleaf weeds are a bit more of a problem because clover is actually a broadleaf plant and many of the herbicides for controlling broadleaf weeds also kill clover. One product that I have used and found effective is Slay. It is marketed by Whitetail Institute and although expensive it does work. The use of herbicides to control weeds may seem expensive but when you factor in the cost of fuel, seed, and fertilizer, not to mention your time required replanting every two or three years, you’ll soon agree that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Insect Control:

Usually when discussing food plots for turkeys, insect control is left up to the birds. However I have had a grasshopper infestation that my local turkey population couldn’t control. This population of grasshoppers reached biblical proportions and clouds of them would be present in the grass around our fruit trees. The grasshoppers totally denuded the fruit trees. At first we tried chemical warfare but the grasshoppers prevailed. Upon the suggestion of a friend from Penn State Cooperative Extension we began mowing the area around the trees. This trick worked like a charm as the local bird population had no problem finding and eating the grasshoppers in the short grass around the fruit trees.

Frost Seeding:

Often at the end of the winter you will notice bare spots in your clover planting. This can occur from an over utilization by deer or some of the annual plants dying back during the winter. Late winter and early spring is a perfect time to “fill in” these bare spots with a fresh batch of clover seed. The technique is called frost seeding and it is accomplished by broadcast spreading clover seed prior to the last frost of the season. The freezing and thawing action on the soil traps the seed in the little crevices that are produced and achieves a good seed to soil contact. Seeding rates for frost seeding are typically less than on the initial planting. A seeding rate of about 50% of the recommended planting rate is a good rule of thumb.

Conclusion:

The time, effort, and cost of planting and replanting clover plots can be substantial. But with a little care and effort each year a clover plot can be maintained for 5 to 7 years before it will need to be replanted. Eventually weeds or your desire to try another type of planting will make you turn the soil again and replant but every year you can nurse along that original planting is another year you can avoid the inevitable. Lime, fertilizer, weed control and frost seeding are all techniques to squeeze a little more time out of your clover planting.