What food plots to plant in spring (species, timing, soil)

Last updated 2026-07-26

what is a food plot, exactly

A food plot is a planted patch of forage on hunting land, meant to feed deer (and other wildlife) and to concentrate animal activity somewhere you can hunt or observe it. Plots range from a quarter-acre kill plot tucked in timber to a 5-acre field planted in soybeans or clover. The idea isn't new. Cooperative extension programs have published wildlife food plot guidance for decades because the same agronomy that grows a soybean crop for market grows one that feeds deer. A plot only works if the soil supports it. That means a soil test, not a guess. Extension guidance on food plots is consistent on this point: soil testing is the starting point for any planting plan, because pH below about 6.0 locks up nutrients no matter how much fertilizer you dump on top ^[1]. If you already pulled a soil sample this spring, that report from your lab is the real authority on lime and fertilizer rates for your dirt. Nothing in this article overrides that. Plots generally fall into two buckets: annuals you replant seasonally, and perennials like clover that persist for two to five years with maintenance (mowing, spot-spraying, occasional fertilizer). Spring is when you plant most warm-season annuals and when you establish new clover stands. For a rundown of the different types of plots and how they fit your land, see food plot whitetail.

when to plant food plots for deer

Timing splits into two windows: spring plantings for warm-season forage, and late summer to early fall plantings for cool-season forage. Spring plots go in after your last frost date, when soil temps are warm enough for germination, typically April through early June depending on your zone. Fall plots (brassicas, cereal grains, winter wheat) go in 60 to 90 days before your first frost, usually August through September. The exact date depends entirely on where you hunt. A grower in southern Alabama can plant warm-season plots in early April. Someone in northern Minnesota is often waiting until late May or even early June for soil to warm and frost risk to pass. Check your local frost-free date through NOAA's Climate.gov data tools, since planting into cold, wet soil is one of the most common reasons spring plots fail to establish ^[2]. A simple rule: soybeans and forage sorghum want soil temps at or above 60°F for reliable germination. Clover germinates cooler, down near 50°F, which is why it's often the first thing planted in spring, sometimes even frost-seeded onto frozen ground in late winter so freeze-thaw cycles work the seed into the soil ^[3].

do deer like clover and is it worth planting

Yes. Clover is one of the most consistently preferred forages in food plot research and it's also one of the easiest perennial plots to establish and maintain. White clover (including ladino types) and red clover both show up repeatedly in university deer forage studies as high-preference, high-protein plants, often tested at 25 to 30 percent crude protein in vegetative growth stages ^[4]. Clover's real advantage over annuals is that it comes back. Plant it once in spring (or frost-seed it in late winter), maintain it with mowing three or four times a season and a maintenance fertilizer application per your soil test, and a good stand can produce for three to five years before you need to till and reseed. That's a much better cost-per-year number than replanting soybeans or sorghum annually, assuming your soil and drainage suit clover (it hates standing water and does poorly on heavy, compacted clay without amendment). The tradeoff: clover alone won't carry deer through the stress period late summer when it's hot and dry and clover growth stalls. Most experienced plot managers pair clover with a warm-season annual or a fall brassica/grain rotation elsewhere on the property, so there's always something green. For seed blend options built around clover and companion species, deer food plot seed breaks down what's in typical bags.

do deer eat sorghum, and should you plant it in spring

Deer do eat sorghum, particularly the leaves and, later in the season, the grain heads, but it's not usually their first choice compared to soybeans or clover. Forage sorghum and grain sorghum are planted more for structure and drought tolerance than for being a preferred browse. It grows tall (grain sorghum can hit 4 to 6 feet, forage types taller), tolerates heat and dry spells better than soybeans, and gives cover as well as food. Sorghum is a true warm-season crop. Plant it in spring once soil temps hit 60 to 65°F, generally the same window as corn planting in your region, per land-grant agronomy guidance for grain sorghum production ^[3]. It's often used as a nurse crop or structural component in a mixed plot with cowpeas or soybeans climbing through it, or as a standalone screening/food plot on marginal, drought-prone ground where beans would struggle. If your goal is maximum deer attraction, sorghum probably isn't the headline species. If your goal is a plot that survives a dry July on sandy or thin soil, or you want standing cover into winter, sorghum earns its spot.

what are deer's favorite foods, and how does that change what you plant

There's no single universal answer, deer preference shifts by region, season, and what's already available naturally. But research and long-term plot studies point to a consistent short list: soybeans and cowpeas (high protein, heavily browsed especially in the growing season), clover (both white and red, grazed nearly year-round where it's available), and, in fall, brassicas like turnips and radishes plus cereal grains like wheat and oats ^{[4] [5]}. Acorns deserve a mention too. In years with a good mast crop, deer will often bypass planted plots for oak acorns, which state wildlife agency deer research notes as a major natural food source that can suppress plot use in fall ^[6]. That's not a food plot problem, it's just deer being efficient. It's one reason plot managers say fall attraction is less predictable than spring/summer, when plots are often the best green forage around regardless of mast. For spring specifically, soybeans, cowpeas, and clover are the three species most consistently ranked as high-preference by state and university forage trials. If you're planning a spring plot and want one thing deer will hit hard through summer, a soybean or cowpea plot (or a blend of both) is the safer bet over sorghum or corn.

do deer like honey, and does it belong in a food plot

This one needs a direct answer: deer are not drawn to honey the way they're drawn to soybeans or clover, and "honey" isn't a food plot species or a legitimate additive in any state wildlife agency's forage guidance. Deer are herbivores built around browsing plants, forbs, and mast, not nectar or honey. If you've heard about pouring honey or using scent-based sugar attractants near a plot, that's a bait or attractant question, not a planting question, and it runs into a separate legal issue. Many states classify any placed food, including sugar-based attractants, syrup, or minerals used to draw deer for hunting, under baiting regulations, and rules vary sharply by state and even by county in some cases (chronic wasting disease zones often have stricter rules). Michigan, for example, restricts baiting and feeding of deer, a rule tied directly to disease transmission concerns under its Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act baiting provisions ^[7]. Before you use anything besides a planted crop to attract deer, check your state wildlife agency's current baiting and feeding regulations. They change, and CWD-driven restrictions have gotten stricter in a lot of states over the past decade.

when to plant turnips for deer (and why that's not a spring answer)

Turnips are a fall plot, not a spring one. They're a brassica, a cool-season crop, and they're planted in mid to late summer so they mature into fall and early winter, when a hard frost sweetens the leaves and bulbs by converting starches to sugars, which is exactly when deer start hammering them. Most extension guidance puts turnip planting windows around late July through August in northern zones, and into early September in the South, roughly 80 to 90 days before your first expected frost, since turnips need that runway to bulb out before growth slows ^[8]. Plant them in spring and you'll get leafy growth that bolts and goes to seed in the summer heat, with none of the frost-sweetened tuber that makes turnips a deer magnet in November. If turnips are part of your plan, spring is the season to prep the ground (soil test, lime if your report calls for it, maybe a spring cover crop to build organic matter) not the season to plant the turnip seed itself. Mark your calendar for late summer instead.

when to plant oats for deer (spring seeding vs. fall seeding)

Oats can go in either season, and that surprises a lot of people. Spring oats are planted early, as soon as soil can be worked, often March through April in northern climates, and they grow fast in cool weather but die out with summer heat. Fall oats (planted August through September) are the more common food plot choice, because oats planted in late summer produce tender, highly palatable forage right through fall and into early winter until hard frost or snow cover shuts them down. Oats are among the fastest-germinating cereal grains, often up in 5 to 7 days under good soil moisture and temperature, per USDA plant guidance, which is part of why they're popular in fall food plot blends alongside wheat and brassicas. If you're asking about spring specifically: yes, you can plant spring oats as a quick-growing green plot or as a nurse crop for a clover seeding, but don't expect them to hold up once temperatures climb into summer. They're not a season-long spring solution the way soybeans or sorghum are. A lot of plot managers use spring oats as a short-term cover crop, planted early to hold soil and suppress weeds ahead of a summer soybean or sorghum planting, then terminated before the main crop goes in.

what's the best spring food plot mix by zone

Deep South (zones 8-9)	Late March to April	Cowpeas, soybeans, forage sorghum, clover
Mid-South / Transition (zones 6-7)	Mid-April to mid-May	Soybeans, clover, cowpeas, sorghum
Upper Midwest / Northeast (zones 4-5)	Mid-May to early June	Clover (frost-seed earlier), soybeans (shorter-season varieties)
Northern tier / short-season zones (zone 3-4)	Late May to mid-June	Clover, short-season soybeans, oats as cover crop	These windows shift year to year with weather, and your local extension office's planting guide (most land-grant universities publish one specific to their state) is a better source than any national chart for your exact county. If you want a plan built around your zone, soil report, and acreage instead of a generic table, that's the whole idea behind our $99 one-time Custom Food Plot Plan. It takes your inputs and your soil test and turns them into a species list and timeline instead of a guess.

Zone matters more than any single species choice. Here's a rough breakdown, understanding that "zone" for food plots usually tracks USDA Plant Hardiness Zones loosely combined with your local frost dates, not a strict boundary . | Region (rough USDA zone) | Typical spring planting window | Good spring species |

how do you decide between annuals and perennials for a spring plot

Budget, equipment, and how much upkeep you want to do this summer should drive the decision, more than what looks good in a seed catalog. Annuals (soybeans, cowpeas, sorghum, spring oats) cost less per bag but need replanting every year, which means fuel, seed cost, and labor annually. They also let you rotate species and manage weeds more aggressively through tillage or herbicide between plantings. Perennials (clover, chicory, alfalfa) cost more upfront in prep (often needing better soil pH and a firmer seedbed) but spread that cost over three to five years, with just mowing and maintenance fertility in between. A lot of experienced plot managers run both: perennial clover in the plots closest to stand sites for reliable, low-labor spring-through-fall forage, and rotating annuals like soybeans or sorghum on larger acreage where they want tonnage and don't mind replanting. If you're deciding what to put where, deer food plots covers layout and plot-type tradeoffs in more depth, and food plot seed is a good next stop for comparing specific product blends.

what soil prep matters most before spring planting

Soil pH is the single biggest lever most people ignore. Extension guidance on food plots puts it directly: most food plot species do best in a pH range around 6.0 to 7.0, and below that range, phosphorus and other nutrients become chemically unavailable to the plant even if your fertilizer bag says otherwise ^[1]. Lime takes months to fully react in soil, which is why fall liming ahead of a spring planting works better than trying to fix pH the same week you plant. If you've got a soil test in hand already, follow its lime and fertilizer recommendations over anything generic here or on a seed bag. Labs calibrate recommendations to your specific soil's cation exchange capacity and existing nutrient levels, something no national article can know about your dirt. Beyond pH: a firm, weed-free seedbed matters more for small-seeded species like clover than for large-seeded species like soybeans or sorghum, which can push through some competition. If you're broadcasting clover, cultipacking before and after seeding to get good seed-to-soil contact will do more for germination than anything else short of correcting pH.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes, deer browse sorghum leaves and later the grain heads, though it's typically a lower preference forage compared to soybeans or clover. Sorghum's real value in a food plot is drought tolerance and structure/cover, not being the top attractant. It's often planted alongside cowpeas or soybeans rather than as a standalone attraction plot.

Do deer like clover?

Yes, clover ranks among the most consistently preferred food plot forages in university and state agency research, often testing at 25 to 30 percent crude protein during vegetative growth. White and red clover are grazed heavily where available. Its main limits are poor drainage tolerance and a summer growth slowdown during hot, dry stretches.

When to plant deer food plots?

Spring warm-season plots (soybeans, cowpeas, sorghum, clover) go in after your last frost, typically April through early June depending on your zone. Fall plots (brassicas, cereal grains) go in 60 to 90 days before first frost, usually August through September. Your exact date depends on local frost dates from NOAA or your state extension office.

When to plant oats for deer?

Oats can be spring-planted (March-April) as a fast, short-lived cover crop, or fall-planted (August-September) as the more common food plot choice, since fall oats stay palatable through autumn into early winter. Spring oats die out once summer heat arrives, so they're not a season-long solution the way fall oats or soybeans can be.

When to plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips in mid to late summer, roughly late July through August in northern areas and into early September in the South, about 80 to 90 days before first frost. Turnips are a fall crop; a hard frost converts starches to sugars in the bulb and leaves, which is when deer preference for them spikes.

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted area, often a quarter-acre to several acres, established specifically to feed deer or other wildlife and to concentrate their activity for hunting or observation. Plots use annual crops (soybeans, sorghum, brassicas) or perennials (clover, chicory) chosen based on soil, zone, and season.

What are deer's favorite foods?

Preference varies by region and season, but soybeans, cowpeas, and clover consistently rank as high-preference planted forages in university and state wildlife studies. In fall, acorns and other mast often outcompete planted plots when a good mast crop is available, which is a natural pattern, not a plot failure.

Do deer like honey?

No, honey isn't a natural deer food or a recognized food plot input in any state wildlife agency's forage guidance. Deer preference research focuses on browse, forbs, and mast, not nectar-based products. Sugar or syrup-based attractants also often fall under state baiting regulations, so check local rules before using anything besides planted forage.

What's the best food plot to plant in spring for beginners?

Soybeans or a soybean/cowpea blend is a solid beginner choice: high deer preference, straightforward planting with a drill or cultipacker, and forgiving of moderate soil issues if pH is reasonably corrected. Clover is the best low-maintenance perennial option if you want something that lasts multiple years with just mowing.

Can you plant a spring food plot without a soil test?

You can, but you're guessing on lime and fertilizer rates, which wastes money either way, underapplying limits growth, overapplying wastes product. A basic soil test through your state land-grant extension office usually costs somewhere in the $10 to $20 range and takes one to two weeks, and it's the single best dollar you can spend before planting.

How much does it cost to plant a spring food plot per acre?

Costs vary widely by species and whether you're renting or owning equipment, but seed alone typically runs somewhere between $20 and $80 per acre for annuals like soybeans or sorghum, more for premium clover blends. Add lime, fertilizer, and fuel, and total per-acre costs commonly land in the $75 to $200 range depending on soil needs.

Should I plant corn as a spring food plot?

Corn works as a food plot but needs more fertility, more acreage, and more equipment than most beginner setups have (a dedicated planter, in most cases). For smaller plots or first-time growers, soybeans, cowpeas, or sorghum usually give a better return on effort. Corn shines more as a large-acreage, standing-cover-through-winter strategy.

Sources

1. University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Extension, Establishing Wildlife Food Plots (PB1769): Soil testing and correcting pH (target range roughly 6.0-7.0) is the necessary first step for food plot success
2. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals: Local last-frost dates determine safe spring planting windows and vary widely by region
3. University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Frost Seeding (A3517): Clover can be frost-seeded onto frozen ground in late winter using freeze-thaw cycles to work seed into soil
4. Mississippi State University Extension, Publication 2111: Establishing and Managing Wildlife Food Plots: Clover, soybeans, and cowpeas are consistently high-preference, high-protein forages for whitetail deer
5. Kansas State University Research and Extension, Grain Sorghum Production Handbook (C-687): Grain sorghum is planted in spring once soil temperatures reach roughly 60-65°F
6. Pennsylvania Game Commission, 2022-23 Deer Management Report: Good acorn mast crops can reduce deer use of planted food plots in fall
7. Michigan Legislature, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act 451 of 1994, MCL 324.40111a: Michigan restricts baiting and feeding of deer, a rule tied directly to disease transmission concerns
8. Clemson Cooperative Extension Home & Garden Information Center, HGIC 3025, Brassicas for Deer Food Plots: Turnips are planted roughly 80-90 days before first frost, generally late July through August in northern areas
9. USDA NRCS Plant Guide, Oat (Avena sativa L.): Oats germinate quickly, typically within 5-7 days under good soil moisture and temperature