Leveraging Perennial Food On Your Land

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Leveraging Perennial Food On Your Land

By Jessica Graham

When we begin planning our food plots, often we focus solely on annuals. We focus on turnips, brassicas, radishes, and maybe some soybeans, sorghum, and corn. For the most part those are fantastic because they yield results right away, within a couple months. However, when it comes to long-term planning and investing into your hunting property, consider planting perennials for a long-term benefit.

Habitat
Unlike the ever-popular brassicas that are planted every fall, planting perennials will create structure and habitat for a wildlife that is next to none. For instance, hazelnut bushes provide both food as well as structure and/or screening for wildlife. Planting a few hazelnut bushes on the edge of a food plot will create a screen. The screen will add a false sense of security. Deer will walk along the added structure. The screen helps them feel secure and hidden. In addition to planting a scree, you will be planting a food source. Deer will consume the nuts, and this adds another food source and option to your annual food plot. The added food from the hazelnuts will also give your food plot an advantage over the neighboring food plots. This might give you the benefit you need to harvest your target buck. Planting hazelnuts will attract deer, turkey, game birds, as well as other native birds and small game to your hunting property.

While we are on the subject of improved habitat, deer thrive in brushy areas. Perhaps you have an old timber that’s full of beautiful oaks and walnuts. These timbers are gorgeous, but can lack cover for deer to make them feel comfortable. You can plant wild plums along the edge of the timber. The plum trees will drop fruit around September. Deer love to ravish plumb thickets. Using plumbs to attract deer will help deer to get used to coming to your area. Wild plumb trees also will add some understory that your timber may be missing. Again, it makes deer feel safe believing that they can hide from humans and predators by making your timber brushy.

Fruit
Besides the mentioned plum trees there’s a few fruit options you can plant it to attract deer. You want to consider varieties that will ripen later in the fall closer to the time that you will be hunting. Having some fruit ripen early is not a bad thing; it gets deer coming to your place and it gets them used to creating and using bedding areas. Persimmon fruit can add value to your property for wildlife. Persimmons will ripen in the late fall and drop throughout the fall. Most people forego the persimmon trees and go for the more popular fall fruit, apples. Apples can begin to drop anywhere from early August to mid-October. You want to look for varieties that are going to hold their fruit closer to the October timeframe to maximize the attraction during the hunting season.

One less popular and often overlooked fruit source are crab apples. To be honest, I hadn’t put much thought into crab apples until an avid hunter shared about all the activity he viewed in late fall through late winter. The crab apples will stay on the tree well into the fall and during the harsh winter. When food sources are scarce, incorporating fruit trees into your property can be an attractant to deer, turkey and other wildlife.

Mast Crops
There is no doubt, once the acorns start to fall, deer will shift their patterns and rush to the timber to get the first acorns. Turkey also will scratch and rummage through leaf litter searching for acorns to eat. If you don’t have many mast crops on your place, you can be sure deer and turkey will leave your property and search for these. However, there is something you can do right now to rectify this and keep wildlife on your place. You can plant some mast producing crops to make your property a prime wildlife habitat through the whole fall. Typically, if you were to plant a traditional oak tree it would take 20 to 40 years for you to see your acorns fall. I don’t know about you but I don’t have that kind of time to wait. I want results quicker and I want to be able to enjoy the benefits quickly. There are some oak trees that produce mast crops in a shorter amount of time. For example, sawtooth oaks will produce acorns in about 15 years. With most oak trees alternate years for a heavy mast crops sawtooth oaks will actually produce a decent mass crop year after year. This may be one treat to consider planting on your property.

Another tree that will produce a mast crop is the chestnut tree. Chestnuts are a lot harder to grow. Part of the reason is they have a crown at the base of their trunk. If the crown is buried too deeply, then it will rot and your whole tree will die. You can buy chestnuts, plant them, and actually have a 0% success rate just by burying the crown too deep. You want to make sure the crown is above the Earth’s surface to prevent it from rotting. Another reason chestnuts can be tough to grow is they need some attention and care the first few years. You also may have to supplementally water the seedlings to get them established. Chestnuts are really attractive to dear and rabbits. Both deer and rabbits will strip the bark in the winter. If left unguarded, you can bet your chestnuts will die within the first year. You need to put shelters around them and possibly consider fencing off the area. Deer eat the tops the trees and leaves too. Chestnuts are irresistible to deer, it is just difficult to get in them established.

Planting perennials on your property is sure to improve the wildlife attractiveness and usage during the whole year. Consider planting a few trees and brushes this year along with you are a usual animal good plot. A few years you will see a difference and improved quality of wildlife moving throughout your area. The best time to begin is now.

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