# How Small Is Your Smallest Foodplot?



## johnhunter (Jun 17, 2000)

I've got a two tiny microsites that I'm considering for little micro-foodplots. These would be strictly "harvest plot" locations, that I'd likely only hunt once or twice all season. They're both surrounded by about 270 degrees of good cover. On both spots, I've selected a stand tree, and felled several trees to create shooting lanes. 

These plots would be no larger than 1/30th to 1/20th of an acre. Due to the terrain, that's really all the larger they could be. I'm not concerned about them getting "wiped out" by the deer, due to abundant other foodstuffs and deer density which is no more than moderate.

To give some perspective, a plot 8 yards wide by 20 yards long would be approximately 1/30th of an acre.


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## wecker20 (Mar 10, 2004)

My smallest is 1/4 acre and was located for a kill plot but the deer changed patterns and come in down wind. I'm letting that plot grow over and am focusing on 1/2 acre or larger plots. After the second year, the deer kept the 1/4 acre clover mowed down pretty good but it wasn't enough to kill it.


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## Jeff Sturgis (Mar 28, 2002)

I have 2 harvest plots that are a 1/4 acre and I find them to actually be a little too large. Sometimes deer will feed for 3 hours at a time before moving off to a large plot or another area. On the otherhand, I have 3 plots in the 2000 to 5000 sq.ft. range, that are within a 100-150 yards from a large plot of 3/4 of an acre or more and they definately work out great. The deer will sometimes feed for up to an hour, but I never see them any longer. The small plots can be accessed and exited without ever distrupting the feeding deer on the large plots so really you are just taking a look through a tiny window of the daily activities of the deer. My best harvest plot is about an 1/8 of an acre and has a open area block on the downwind and approach side so the deer never wind me or are spooked. Much of the time the deer feed within 10-15 yards, sometimes for an hour and they never know I am there. 

I feel it is extremely important on these areas to have a forage that experiences the best growth throughout the entire season and can withstand some pretty intense grazing pressure, so the only seeds I use in these areas are grain, such as rye and oats. I may start adding some clover to the fall planting to help out with the spring and summer months and further establish feeding and travel patterns, but have not yet in 2 out of 3 of these small areas.

I also have a couple 1/4 acre trail area food plots that I do not use or hunt on during hunting season and they attract great fall deer activity. The trails are 8-10' wide and several hundred yards long. The more remote stretches of the trails have overhanging jack pine branches and become focal points for numerous scrapes.

While constantly re-shaping the property I'm beginning to lean much more to much smaller harvest plots, or at least only portions of the 1/4 acre harvest plots that are geared towards good fall attraction, combined with just a few large plots. I've found bigger isn't necessarily better where harvest plots are concerned.

The best set-ups on the whole property though are small harvest plots that have a perfect downwind blocker(I personally only want the deer to come in where I can count on them and predict), adjacent to a large plot but far enough away to enter and exit without ever disturbing deer on the large plot. A harvest plot like this you can literally hunt very many times because the deer never know you were there. Brush off the stand site and close access to the stand and you never have left-over scent as well.

Downwind blockers can be ponds, river systems, open pasture land, large brush piles, mature timber, or other areas that typically do not hold or attract deer.


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## 4x4_Hunter (Jan 2, 2002)

Actually FL,

We have 2 food plots that are each about the size you describe. Maybe a bit larger. Between the two, I would say they add up to less than 1/4 acre (although I never really measured them). We are in swamp land and not really drawing a huge deer herd into them. However, we continue to consistantly see deer in the plots and more and more each year. I don't do the food plot thing just to see more deer but to give the deer the nutrition they need and to keep them around when the "going-gets-tough". When we first got our property, we saw a lot of deer but then they would leave the area and we wouldn't see hardly anything for months (late fall - early spring). Now that we have our "mini" food plots established, we see deer year-round. Coincidence??? Maybe, but I like to believe that the food plots have something to do with it.


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

20' x 30', how about that?


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## Letmgro (Mar 17, 2002)

After I have some logging finished later this summer, I'm establishing/re-establishing a new foodplot configuration.

I'll be establishing a long (220 yards), narrow (10 to 20 yds), winding (snowman shaped) foodplot along the top of a short ridge. An old tote road is going to get widened and reconfigured. This will mainly be for rifle hunting.

At one end of this configuration, I am re-establishing an old foodplot (less than 1/8 acre), kind of like an appendage off the bigger plot. This will become my bow death plot planted with the really good stuff (tight area surrounded by pines). My rifle hunting stand will cover both plots.

I dream about breaking ground on this project every night!


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## brokenarrow (Oct 6, 2003)

one 8 acre and (2) 1 acre plots. In the process of creating a 1/8 acre and a garden type plot but I don't belive I will ever see anything on the table from the veggies grown here, not in the form of vegitables at least. Oh yeah, Also have a 30' x 90' enclosure that houses apple trees.


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## safetreehunt (Oct 1, 2003)

Dude,

I know this guy, that knows this guy who's food plots are so small the DNR can't even see them from the sky. He has about a dozen of them. They grow in an area about 12" square, but sometimes the leaves get bigger at the top. He says they work real good too. Every fall when he goes back to check them out he says the deer are just laying around after eating them. He has to give them a push to get them to run away, but they just keep coming back for more. He's learned that if you throw some cookies out for the deer they'll stop eating the food plots, but then they come up to his car for more cookies. He said he was gonna start shooting the deer next year.


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## QDMAMAN (Dec 8, 2004)

safe,

Funny!:lol: :lol: 

I know a guy like this as well but he gives the deer Doritos and Slurpees.

Big T


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## Ferg (Dec 17, 2002)

safetreehunt said:


> Dude,
> 
> He said he was gonna start shooting the deer next year.



Sure he is LOL - 

Too funny - 


ferg....


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