Fruit trees, the overlooked food plot
Like many people, you have probably either planted food plots, tried to, or at least thought about it. Unfortunatley, many people are stuck in the mindset that you need a large tract of land with many acres in order to have a successful food plot. That couldn't be any further from the truth. Some of the most successful food plots are only an acre or even less. But for those of you that either can't plant a food plot because of landowner restrictions or because their is simply no where to put one, let me tell you about a different tatic that can be just as effective. Fruit trees. Like many people, I initially started planting food plots wherever I had enough room to put them. A couple were successful but more often then not they became an overgrown mess. (Nobody's fault but my own) Until this past season, I had heard of planting fruit trees for deer but never gave it a serious thought. Until one October morning I was sitting on stand near an old apple tree. That morning I witnessed about ten deer file past my stand, every one of them stopping to eat the apples. That got me thinking, if one apple tree can be so effective why not plant more? I did some research and like anything, people have been doing this for some time now. Fruit trees produce up to a ton of fruit when fully mature and after initial planting, take very little upkeep. The only initial upkeep needed necessarily is planting and daily watering the first couple weeks depending on the weather. When you plant I recommend putting some sort of protetion around the tree to keep deer from eating the new buds and from scraping the base of the tree. Another good idea to help survival rates of your trees is to put mulch in a 3 foot radius from the base of the tree. This helps to keep moisture in the soil as eliminate competing weed growth. After you have your trees properly planted, the next step is to monitor them and water them as needed. I recommend watering every day to every-other day depending on the weather, for at least the first two weeks. After the initital upkeep, you are basically set. Yearly trimmings will help to establish a solid tree base, and help to produce more tonage later on in the tree's life. As I stated earlier, fruit trees are very underated in the food plot game. They help to attract and hold deer on your property, no matter how big, from August though December. I strongly suggest you look in to planting some type of fruit trees, whether it be apples or pears. Oh yeah, and did I meantion deer absolutely love them?
