NY'ers - Your BEST attractant

[Swamphunter]

I was wondering what fellow NY'ers consider the absolute BEST low maintenance, food plot growth they have used and have had deer come in to most. My son will be 7 and I would like to bring him out next year and get him seeing some deer.

[LETMGROW]

Best low maintenance would be a toss up between Shot-Plot [ fall attracctant ] and Secret Spot [ earlier attractant ]
Our best luck has been with Imperial Clover. NOT low maintenance though.
We also planted corn and soybean this year. Both were Roundup ready seed. We sprayed three times for weed control. We expected to have the soybean consumed while the corn was getting a good start. This worked well but we had enough of each so there is still a good amount of both still left. The RR is more expensive to buy, but I have an ATV sprayer which makes easy work of the spraying.

[luckyman4]

Keeping in mind that "best attractant" is VERY site specific, I gotta go with Imperial Whitetail Clover. Without a doubt, I have had the BEST luck with that, but I don't plant corn or soybean b/c the neighbor farmer does . I consider it fairly low maintainance because you can get 3-5 years off of one planting, and it keeps growing after the deer eat it. In my experience, you can control the annual weeds with mowing as long as you are content with a plot that isn't 100% clover.

Before you plant, you NEED to know the pH of your soil, and add lime to bring it up to at least 6.0 (6.5 is better). Your local Cornell Cooperative Extension Office should be able to do a pH test for a couple bucks if you bring in the sample. Clover wants a good amount of sunlight, but that's no different than most food plot species. One drawback I have found is that clover is not drought tolerant, and will go dormant in the summer on droughty soils; I think you should be fine in your neck of the woods.

My biggest worry would be getting it planted if you can't at least get a rototiller back there. Round-up to kill weeds, then a garden rake to loosen the soil could get it ready to plant. Then you could drag something like a heavy wooden pallet over it to get seed-soil contact after planting. I actually planted a plot this way and it worked fine, except I had a rototiller instead of round-up.

Once established, the clover will provide high protein spring, summer, and fall nutrition and attraction provided there is adequate rainfall in the summer. Turkeys also like Imperial Clover alot, if you hunt them in the Spring.

[RangerClay]

Sent you a PM

[Swamphunter]

Thanks guys...now who wants to come do it for me??

[LETMGROW]

Can I hunt there if I do?