Soil Ph And Plant Growth | Whitetail Obsession Outdoors
Ever wonder why you plant a food plot for deer or pretty much anything for that matter and it ends up failing and wonder why? People do this all the time when it can be simply avoided for $12. You say how? follow below as we detail this!
Good Food plots are dark green lush tender and attractive. Most do not end up this way because we don’t follow the steps to get the results we have in our mind. Can we get lucky? sure we can but not always. Sometimes the soil is great to begin with but you do not know unless we test. Most soil samples are cheap and can be done for about $12-$14.
Picking a location for a food plot is another topic and blog and or video which we have ton of on our youtube channel . Todays blog is about the importance of soil testing.
planting of buck wheat that is only 7 days old after adding lime and fertilizer.
When we look at SOIL TESTING Its easy to get confused on why and how but its actually pretty easy. When you are wanting to plant a food plot and the soil is very acidic plants cant get the nutrients from the soil because its locked up from the acid nature of the soil. No matter how much fertilizer you add in acid soil the plants still cant extract it. So you are wasting time and money by adding it. You are 100 percent better off adding lime instead of fertilizer.
Ever wonder how deer get nutrients? well they get them from plants. How do the plants get nutrients? well they get them from the soil and sunlight. photosynthesis happens when plants have direct sunlight. This produces different vitamins and bio chemical reactions to take place. Without sun plants die just like us we get vitamin D from sunlight. Plants are no different..
Keys to look out for when you have a food plot fail!
Plants grow rapidly then fall over (cause) - this happens because nutrients are locked up plants develop heavy tops and a weak root system.
Plants Turn purple or yellow (cause) - This happens because of lack of nitrogen and phosphorus due to acid soil the plants can extract the nutrients
Low tonnage volume (cause) - lack of nutrients in the soil to provide plants with enough to mature. LOW ph or no NPK levels.
The food plot soil challenge
I challenge everyone to take the time to get a soil sample before you plant and let me know how the results are in the comments on this blog or on our youtube channel. Soil test can be done any time of the year. So do it now and have great food plots in 2021! The one i recommend I have zero connections with the company but they are easy to read and they produce quick results. click below to order!
I have used whitetail institute soil samples for a few years now and they are super simple to use and read. Results are back usually in about 2-3 business days.
buck wheat food plots 7 days old.