i have an area i need to utilize with a food plot

about 2 acres ....I want more deer there so I can hunt close to home with my Dad. who's 84 and also Grandkids

I do 330.
Every year for 15 or so.


They trump everything else for late season imo.
2 acres, holy crap, that would provide a large amount of tonnage
2 days ago, I was getting ready to get in a stand but the deer were already up moving hard at about 2:30 when I was getting dressed so I decided to just stay in the cabin.

Roughly 30 deer came into the plot before dark. (13 or 14) bucks.

I grow some every year for miss Daisy as she loves pumpkins and fall, the deer come over the front yard fence and onto the front deck to eat those pumpkins... So yeah, they like em, lol

Any particular variety? I'd imagine you'd want one that would store better so it would last longer in the field.

When is the optimal time to plant pumpkins to maximize their value to the deer?

Never seen this. Do the deer smash the pumpkin with a hoof, then eat the inside? Do the eat everything?

I plant the smaller sugar pie varieties and June 10th is my go date.

I'd say Memorial Day

Thanks for the answers. I think I can find a way to probably seed some down into terminated rye about that time. Use the mat of rye to help with weed control until the pumpkins canopy. Then come back and seed some rye over the top in the fall to give them some greens in with the pumpkins.

I plan on Strips of Green

Wide rows for pumpkins

My Apple trees started producing last year 4 trees so my plan is coming together...I hope

just , tell them you re---cycle to take all the un-sold ones from Wally-world

15 minutes per pumpkin for them to break and consume basket ball size

Do you need to break some apart or do they figure it out themselves? When do they start eating them?

Our local Walmart has a bunch of pumpkin's left over. They can't get rid of them now. At near $9.00 each not many sold I guess, then to 1/2 price now no one wants them. Most were basketball size.

They know how to open them.

Only thing I have had get mine were groundhogs. Out if a 1/16 acre I got about 6 good ones. The groundhogs only wanted to sample each one. Just a nice single gouge 2.5 to 3 inches long in almost every one.

A 220 and 8" rgb took 3 of them and one skunk. Now I think I want to try a strip or two about 6' wide and 100 yards long beside other food plots. Or should I go bigger. Does it take them a year or two to get it figured out or will they take right to them?

I must have weird deer because mine won't touch them. I worked a few years ago at a farm stand and got a bunch of pumpkins that I threw out for the deer with cameras on them. They rotted into the ground and nothing ate them except a few mice.

Yours were Southern pumpkins.......so they probably had gravy poured on them.

What keeps the deer from destroying the patch early in the year, long before season?

Wonder if lack of frost down there is the difference. Everything seems to sweeten up after a couple hard frosts... sugar beets, turnips, radishes and I assume pumpkins too.

Nah, nothing can turn down gravy. We do sweet taters down here. Don't believe me, just try bringing pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving dinner. You'll get a bless your heart for it. Sweet potato pie is where it's at.