How To Grow and Maintain Great Clover Food Plots

JEREMY FLINN

05/06/2016

Part 3 of our small food plot series. This video covers how to control weeds, maintain, and grow the best clover food plots on your property. In this third installment of the “Small Food Plot” series, The Buck Advisors’ Weston Schrank discusses how to control weeds in small clover food plots to maximize nutrition and biomass.

Finally part 3 of our small food plot series is here. I know a lot of you food plotters have been waiting for this video as your clover is most likely sprouting and already getting some attention from deer and turkeys. As spring and summer progresses your small clover food plots will begin to get weedier and weedier and it will be time to control these weeds. This video will cover how to control weeds in clover plots and more importantly grow the best small food plots before fall arrives.

If you are just joining the series watch Part 1 and Part 2 of the series to catch up.

Part 1: How To Plant Successful Small Food Plots for Deer

Part 2: What To Plant for Small Food Plot Success

Controlling weeds in clover plots

Now the most common method to controlling weeds in small clover food plots is mowing. I highly advise against this option. To find out more on the subject watch this video on mowing clover food plots. To really maintain and grow the best small clover food plots, 2 simple herbicides can be used. If you are looking for which herbicides to use on clover or other legumes these are your two go to food plots. One herbicide is a grass selective herbicide (Clethodim 2EC mixed with a crop oil)  and the other is a broadleaf selective herbicide (Butyrac 200). Together these two herbicides can wipe out every weed commonly experienced in your clover plot but not harm legumes such as clover. Once applied everything in the plot except the clover will die. Be careful these herbicides will kill chicory, wheat, oats or some other species that you might mix into your plots.

Other than these two herbicides you might also be interested in the PlotBoost from DeerGro I mixed into the tank along with the herbicides. PlotBoost fights off any herbicide yield drag. We see this mostly on roundup ready crops like soybeans or corn, the “yellow flash” that can set in after application of glyphosate. This will boost this clover plot and increase the health of the clover, and help extract the nutrients made available from the PlotStart application and resulting ph.

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