This will be my first year planting food plots. I have the equipment I just wondered what most of you put in for spring/summer plots? I was told about switching some plots in the fall.

HI BigJoe,
I plant about 7ac of combined plots on our 93 acres, most is for fall and winter feeding as we are surrounded by alfalfa, beans and corn. So maybe describe the area you are in with regards to surrounding agriculture or other food selections. On property I gun hunt in northern Wisconsin it is surrounded by big timber and tag adler swamps. There we plant a mix of clover for summer, turnips and sugar beets for fall / winter. Depending on how the clover is coming thru late fall we will over-seed in spring and leave the plot grow for another year. In both locations a good weed kill occurs, soil samples pulled and fertilizer applied according to soil and plant needs.

Hope this helps.

Dave

BigJoe,
Dave said it well, depending on your area that is true. We plant about 33 acres of plots on our 710 acres. Need more should try to have 10 % in plots is out belief. We have had real good luck with Grandpa Rays products, love the grains and greens. I am not a dealer. Plant a lot more clovers these days. Also have lot of cash crops around but most are off for seasons here.
Dave I don't want to hijack this thread. Have you had much success with the bulb crops? We are scaling back on those this year due to lack of consumption. They eat the tops but not the bulbs. Your thoughts?

Clovers in the spring, brassicas about the first of August.

This works for me in northern PA. Like to keep it simple and i dont have large expanses of land or good equipment. Then i replant last year's brassica with new clover and move the current year brassica to a new patch. Lather, rinse, repeat until the first clover patch needs to be redone.

Bear Tracker,
I somewhat see the same thing; tops are cleaned off with whatever bulbs are above ground get knawed on. Since the tops stay green well into winter I keep planting a mix of brassica's that I mix from select seeds: purple top turnip, dwarft essex rape, graza radish, sugar beets, kale, new york turnips. Pulaski Warehouse is where I go to buy it at the best price and do it every 2 or 3 years. Usually get 5-10# of each variety and then mix so cumulative seed doesn't exceed 9#/ac. Don't like to keep seed past 3 years so usually one plot is just all the left-over stuff. For me the plots are the attractant and I typically hunt runs coming to them vs. over them during archery. Gun and post gun is typically to fill anterless tags so will hunt in closer proximity. 2 plots plus the ag fields are viewable from home so nice to watch the deer all winter.

Dave

Thanks for the tips everyone. I should have given a little more information about our land. We only have 36 acres, mostly wooded. I have one opening that will be the "central" food plot. It is about 3/4 of an acre. The other two food plots are in the woods and would be about 60 feet by 200 feet.
The main ingredient in this deer woods is the surrounding land. It is owned by a big potato farm on the east side and west side of our property. Last year they planted corn. Great deer hunting because the deer were going from corn field to corn field with us in the middle. This year will be potatoes. Not much the deer like to eat in a potato field. That's why we want to have something tasty for them.