Without soil testing wildlife food plots and applying lime to balance the acidity as necessary, then it is simply a waste of time planting anything as too many hunters and game managers have learned the hard way.
“We kept noticing year after year how dull and dingy green our freshly planted food plots were,” said Andy Dulaney of Spring Lake Farms in Holmes County. “It wasn’t until we finally had the soils tested that we found out we needed a massive dose of lime added to the soil.
“After six months to a year, the plots looked completely different. Now we are on a 3-5 year cycle of liming our plots.”
Balancing acid and alkaline
Most Mississippi soils are moderately acidic in the 4 or 5 pH range (on a scale of 1 to 14 a low number showing acidity and a high number indicating to much alkaline).
Ideally a wildlife food plot manager wants the soil pH balance at a value of 7. A value in the range of 6.7 to 7.0 will yield the maximum food plot planting productivity.
Obviously in order to determine the pH of your plot soils they have to be tested. Soil test kits are available from your local county extension agent via Mississippi State University.
Follow the directions on the kit, mail it in with the appropriate fee, and print out report will be sent back to you. Then proceed with their recommendations based on the report.
Liming plots
Putting lime on a food plot is relatively easy and inexpensive.
A local farm co-op may have a truck spreader service available to do this, but land managers can put out lime on their own with tractor or ATV spreaders via sacked lime pellets or powder material. Two to three tons per acre is a usual liming recommendation.
Lime takes a while to leech into the soil, so plan on putting lime out 6 to 12 months in advance of expecting observable results from new food plot plantings. Once the lime kicks in you should certainly recognize a vast difference in the success of your food plot seed plantings.
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