Clover plus chicory food plot mix: the complete guide

Last updated 2026-07-24

what is a food plot, exactly, and why mix clover with chicory

A food plot is a planted area on hunting land meant to draw and hold deer, and to supplement whatever native browse is already out there. Most plots run somewhere between a quarter acre and a few acres, though plenty of guys plant smaller kill plots tucked into timber and bigger destination fields out in the open. The point isn't just to attract deer for a hunt. A good perennial plot also feeds does through lactation in early summer and helps bucks build antler mass when they need protein most. Clover and chicory get paired constantly because they solve different problems. Clover is the workhorse: it's palatable, it fixes nitrogen in the soil, and deer hit it hard from green-up through frost. Chicory is the specialist. It sends a taproot down several feet, which means it keeps pulling moisture and nutrients during the exact stretch of July and August when shallow-rooted clover stalls out from heat and drought stress. Purdue University Extension notes that chicory's deep taproot system makes it notably more drought-tolerant than most clovers, which is the entire reason it earns a spot in the mix ^[1]. The combination isn't complicated. You're not reinventing agronomy here. You're just stacking a nitrogen-fixing legume with a deep-rooted forb so the plot keeps producing when one component would otherwise struggle.

do deer actually like clover, and how much do they eat

Yes, and it's not close. Clover consistently ranks as one of the most preferred forages in whitetail research, and it shows up as a dominant food plot choice across extension literature nationwide. Mississippi State University Extension publication P2617, "Establishing and Managing Wildlife Food Plots," lists clovers among the top perennial forage legumes for deer food plots because of their combination of palatability, protein content, and regrowth after grazing ^[2]. Crude protein in good clover stands typically runs 25 to 30 percent, which stacks up well against native browse that often sits in the mid-teens depending on species and season. That protein matters most in late spring and summer, when does are lactating and bucks are growing antlers. Deer will graze clover down hard, sometimes to the point where you'd swear it's dead, and then it bounces back within a couple weeks if the roots are healthy and it gets rain. White clover (including ladino types) tends to be the most planted variety in mixes because it's cheaper, spreads by stolons, and tolerates mowing and grazing pressure better than red clover. Red clover grows taller and can handle a bit more shade and drier soil, but it doesn't recover from heavy grazing quite as fast. Most commercial mixes blend both, plus chicory, for exactly that reason: cover the weaknesses of each component with the strengths of another.

when should you plant food plots for deer

Deep South (zone 8-9)	Feb 15 - Apr 15	Sept 1 - Oct 15
Mid-South / transition (zone 6-7)	Mar 15 - May 15	Aug 15 - Sept 15
Upper Midwest / Northeast (zone 3-5)	Apr 15 - Jun 1	Aug 1 - Sept 1	If you want a planting calendar built around your actual coordinates instead of a generic map zone, that's the whole reason a Custom Food Plot Plan exists: you feed it your location and soil test, and it spits out planting windows and species ratios instead of you guessing off a national chart.

Timing depends entirely on what you're planting and where you live, but for perennial clover-chicory blends, you've got two real windows: early spring (March through May depending on latitude) or late summer (mid-August through mid-September). Spring planting gives the stand a full season to establish roots before winter. Late summer planting works because cooler nights and (usually) more consistent rain help seedlings establish without getting cooked by July heat, and it lines up the plot to be attractive right as bow season opens. Soil temperature matters more than the calendar date. Clover and chicory germinate best once soil temps hit the mid-50s Fahrenheit and are climbing, not falling. Frost seeding, where you broadcast clover seed onto frozen or thawing ground in late winter so freeze-thaw cycles work the seed into the soil, is a legitimate low-cost method extension agronomists have documented for decades, and it works well for pure clover stands, though chicory establishes better with a proper seedbed ^[3]. Here's a rough regional guide, though your local extension office and a soil test still beat any generic calendar: | Region | Spring window | Late-summer window |

how do you plant and manage a clover chicory mix step by step

Start with a soil test. This is non-negotiable and every extension publication on food plots says the same thing: clover is sensitive to soil pH, and it performs poorly below 6.0. Mississippi State University Extension P2617 recommends targeting a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 for clover and chicory stands ^[2]. Your soil test lab is the authority here, not a blog post, because lime and fertilizer recommendations depend on your specific soil's buffer capacity and existing nutrient levels. Once you know your lime and fertilizer needs, here's the general sequence: 1. Kill existing vegetation with glyphosate 2-3 weeks before planting, or till if you're working ground that's never been worked. 2. Apply lime according to your soil test. If you need more than a ton per acre, split it or plan to apply half now and the rest after establishment, since lime takes months to fully react into the soil. 3. Broadcast or drill seed at roughly 6-8 lbs per acre for a clover-chicory blend (check your specific mix's bag rate, since ratios vary between brands). 4. Cultipack or drag to ensure seed-to-soil contact. Clover and chicory seed is tiny; planting too deep is the single most common failure mode. 5. Fertilize per your soil test, typically light nitrogen (clover fixes its own once nodulated) with attention to phosphorus and potassium. 6. Mow at 4-6 inches every 4-6 weeks during the growing season to knock back weeds and encourage tender new growth, which deer prefer over rank, mature stems. Expect a full perennial stand to last 3 to 5 years before you need to renovate it with fresh seed or start over, depending on weed pressure, drought, and how hard your local herd hammers it.

what other species pair well with clover and chicory

Clover and chicory are the perennial backbone, but plenty of hunters add annuals to extend the plot's window or diversify what's on the ground. The two most common questions here are about turnips and oats, plus sorghum and even sugar sources like honey, so let's run through them. Do deer eat turnips? Yes, though it's a two-stage relationship. Deer often ignore turnip tops early in the season and focus on other forage, then switch hard to turnips (both the greens and the bulbs) after a couple of frosts convert starches to sugars, making them noticeably sweeter. This is why turnips are typically planted as a fall annual, not mixed into a spring perennial clover stand. Purdue Extension timing guidance for brassicas like turnips generally points to a planting window of late July through August in the Midwest, so the plants mature right as cold weather hits ^[1]. When to plant oats for deer? Oats are a fall annual that works well as a nurse crop and a straight attractant. Most guidance has oats going in late August through September, roughly 6-8 weeks before your first expected hard frost, so they've got time to establish green growth before season. Oats are cheap, germinate fast, and deer will hit young oat shoots hard, making them a popular add-in for early bow season plots, though they won't survive a hard winter the way clover does. Do deer eat sorghum? Deer will browse young sorghum shoots and grain sorghum heads, and it's sometimes planted as a summer annual for cover and forage, or as a component of dove/wildlife mixes. That said, it's not typically the go-to species in a clover-chicory blend since sorghum is a summer annual, not something you'd interseed into an established perennial stand. It's more relevant if you're rotating a plot through a warm-season annual mix in a separate field. Do deer like honey? Not in any meaningful food plot sense. Deer aren't drawn to honey as a food source in the wild, and there's no legitimate agricultural or extension guidance treating honey as deer forage. If you've seen products marketed with honey or molasses scent as an attractant, that's a mineral lick or scent-based product category, not a food plot input, and it has nothing to do with what you'd plant in the ground.

clover vs chicory vs turnips vs oats: which should you actually plant

White/ladino clover	Perennial legume	3-5 years	Spring through fall	Moderate
Chicory	Perennial forb	3-5 years	Summer (heat/drought stress period)	High
Turnips/brassicas	Annual	Single season	Post-frost, fall/winter	Low-moderate
Oats	Annual	Single season	Early fall, dies back in hard winter	Low
Sorghum	Annual	Single season	Summer, minor deer use	High	If you only have room or budget for one plot, a clover-chicory perennial blend is the workhorse choice most extension programs and seed companies point to first, because it gives you spring, summer, and fall production from one planting instead of a single-season burst. Annuals like turnips and oats make sense as a second plot dedicated to late season, planted specifically to time peak palatability with your hunting dates.

Every species question above boils down to the same decision: are you building a perennial plot meant to last years, or an annual plot meant to peak for one hunting season? Here's how the main options stack up. | Species | Type | Lifespan | Peak attraction window | Drought tolerance |

how much does a clover chicory food plot mix cost

Seed costs for a quality clover-chicory blend typically run $25 to $50 per acre for the seed alone, depending on the brand and the ratio of chicory (which usually costs more per pound than clover). Add lime if your soil test calls for it, which can run anywhere from $20 to $40 per ton delivered and spread, and you might need 1-2 tons per acre on acidic ground. Fertilizer adds another $20-40 per acre depending on current prices and what your soil test specifies. All-in, a realistic first-year cost for a half-acre to one-acre clover-chicory plot, including lime, fertilizer, and seed, lands somewhere between $150 and $400 depending on how much lime correction you need and whether you're renting or borrowing equipment. After year one, maintenance costs drop substantially since you're just mowing and maybe a light fertilizer pass, not re-liming or re-seeding the whole plot. This is where a lot of hunters overspend without realizing it: buying premium bagged mixes without ever pulling a soil test first. If your pH is at 5.2, no amount of expensive seed fixes that. Lime is the cheapest yield-multiplier in the entire food plot world, and it's the first thing your soil test will tell you if you need it.

what do deer's favorite foods actually look like across a season

There's no single answer to what deer's favorite food is, because preference shifts hard by season and by what's available locally. Acorns are arguably the single most preferred fall food where oaks are present; deer will bypass planted forage for a good acorn drop almost every time. Outside of acorn season, agricultural crops like soybeans and corn rank extremely high, along with clover, which Mississippi State University Extension lists among the recommended perennial plantings across the whitetail's range ^[2]. In spring and early summer, new clover growth, forbs, and browse tips dominate the diet. In late summer, deer lean on whatever stays green and palatable through heat, which is exactly why chicory earns its spot. In fall, mast (acorns) and standing crops take over if they're available, with brassicas and turnips becoming attractive after frost sweetens them. The honest answer for food plotters: there's no magic single species. A property with a good acorn year and standing beans will pull deer away from your clover plot every time, and that's fine. Clover-chicory is meant to be a consistent, season-long floor of nutrition, not a silver bullet that outcompetes every other food source on the landscape.

do state rules affect what you can plant or how you hunt over a plot

Food plots themselves are legal everywhere in the US as an agricultural and wildlife management practice, but baiting and supplemental feeding rules vary significantly by state and can affect how you hunt near a plot, especially if you're also running mineral sites or spin-feeders. Some states draw a hard line between a planted food plot (legal to hunt over almost everywhere) and piled feed, bait, or minerals (restricted or banned in many states during hunting season). Check your state wildlife agency's current regulations before combining a plot with any supplemental feed or mineral station, since the definitions of "bait" and the distances required from a stand vary by state and change periodically. This isn't a gray area worth guessing on. A quick check of your state agency's hunting regulations page before season takes five minutes and avoids a real problem.

where a custom plan actually helps versus a generic bag of seed

A bag of clover-chicory mix off a store shelf is built for the average buyer in the average region, which means the ratio, the seeding rate, and the fertilizer recommendations on the tag are generic by design. Your ground isn't generic. Soil pH, existing weed pressure, sun exposure, and your specific latitude all change what actually performs. That's the gap a Custom Food Plot Plan is built to close: a $99 one-time plan that takes your soil test results and location and turns them into a specific species mix, planting window, and fertility plan instead of a one-size-fits-all bag rate. It's guidance, not a guarantee. Your soil test lab remains the final word on lime and fertilizer amounts, and no plan can promise deer activity or a harvest. What it can do is take the guesswork out of matching species and timing to your actual dirt instead of a national average map. If you're weighing clover-chicory against other plot styles for your specific property, it's worth reading through options like food plot whitetail strategy or comparing deer food plot seed choices before you commit acreage.

common mistakes that kill a clover chicory plot early

Planting too deep is the number one killer. Clover and chicory seed is small, some of it dust-fine, and it should sit barely under the surface, roughly a quarter inch or less, not drilled down like corn or soybeans. If you can't see any seed at all after cultipacking, you probably went too deep. Skipping the soil test is the second most common mistake, and it's the one that costs the most money long-term. Planting a $40-per-acre seed blend into soil sitting at pH 5.0 without lime is close to wasted money; clover struggles badly in acidic soil regardless of how good the seed is. Not mowing is the third. Left alone, clover and chicory get shaded out by taller weeds and grasses within a season or two. Regular mowing at 4-6 week intervals during the growing season, keeping the stand around 4-6 inches, resets growth and knocks back competition without hurting the perennial roots. Last one: planting a full perennial mix in ground that floods or holds water. Clover tolerates a lot, but standing water for extended periods will rot the crown and kill the stand. If a spot on your property holds water into June most years, it's a better fit for an annual or a different species altogether.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum?

Deer will browse young sorghum shoots and grain heads, and it's sometimes used in warm-season wildlife mixes, but it's a summer annual and not typically part of a clover-chicory perennial blend. It's more relevant as a standalone summer plot or dove/wildlife field component than a food plot staple for deer specifically.

Do deer eat clover?

Yes, heavily. Clover is one of the most preferred forages in whitetail food plot research, with crude protein often running 25-30 percent in healthy stands. University extension programs list it among the top perennial food plot choices nationwide because of its palatability and regrowth after grazing.

When to plant deer food plots?

For perennial clover-chicory mixes, plant in early spring (March-May depending on zone) or late summer (mid-August through mid-September). Annuals like brassicas and oats generally go in late summer to early fall so they mature right as hunting season and cold weather arrive.

Do deer like clover?

Deer strongly prefer clover across almost every regional whitetail study and extension publication. It's high in protein, regrows quickly after grazing, and stays attractive from spring green-up through fall, which is why it's the base species in most perennial food plot mixes.

When to plant oats for deer?

Plant oats roughly 6-8 weeks before your area's first expected hard frost, typically late August through September in most whitetail range. Oats germinate fast and provide strong early fall attraction, but they're an annual and won't survive a hard winter.

When to plant food plots for deer?

Timing depends on species. Perennial clover-chicory blends go in spring or late summer. Fall annuals like brassicas and oats go in late summer through early fall. Always confirm with soil temperature (mid-50s F and rising) and your local extension office's frost date data rather than a fixed calendar date.

When to plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips in late July through August in most of the Midwest and similar latitudes, giving them roughly 80-90 days to mature before a hard frost. Frost converts starches to sugars, which is why deer often ignore turnip tops early and switch hard to eating them after the first freeze.

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted area on hunting land, usually a quarter acre to several acres, established to provide supplemental forage for deer and other wildlife. Plots can be perennial (clover, chicory, alfalfa) lasting years or annual (brassicas, oats, soybeans) replanted each season.

What are deer's favorite foods?

There's no single favorite; it shifts by season. Acorns dominate in fall where oaks are present, clover and agricultural crops like soybeans rank high through spring and summer, and frost-sweetened brassicas become attractive in late fall. Clover consistently ranks among the top preferred planted forages in university studies.

Do deer like honey?

No. Deer aren't naturally drawn to honey as a food source, and no legitimate extension or wildlife agency guidance treats it as deer forage. Products marketed with honey or molasses scent fall into the mineral lick or attractant scent category, not planted food plot inputs.

How long does a clover chicory food plot last before replanting?

A well-managed clover-chicory perennial stand typically lasts 3 to 5 years before it needs renovation or full reseeding, depending on weed pressure, drought stress, mowing frequency, and how hard local deer graze it. Regular mowing and occasional overseeding extend the productive life of the stand.

What soil pH does clover and chicory need?

Mississippi State University Extension publication P2617 recommends a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0 for clover and chicory food plots. Below 6.0, clover growth and nitrogen fixation drop off significantly. A soil test is the only reliable way to know your actual pH and lime requirement before planting.

Can you plant clover and chicory together with brassicas or oats?

Not really as one blend, since clover and chicory are perennials meant to persist for years while brassicas and oats are annuals that die back. Most experienced plotters run them as separate plots or separate sections of a field, timing the annual planting for peak fall attraction and letting the perennial plot run continuously.

Sources

1. Purdue University Extension, Food Plots for Wildlife (FNR-535-W): chicory's deep taproot makes it more drought-tolerant than clover, and brassica planting timing guidance
2. Mississippi State University Extension, Establishing and Managing Wildlife Food Plots (Publication P2617): clover ranks among the top perennial forage legumes for deer food plots, and target soil pH range of 6.0 to 7.0
3. University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Frost Seeding Legumes into Pasture (A3776): frost seeding clover onto frozen or thawing ground is a documented low-cost establishment method
4. USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet, Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.): chicory develops a deep taproot system that supports drought tolerance and nutrient uptake
5. University of Georgia Extension, Growing Clovers in Georgia (Bulletin 1273): white and red clover characteristics, grazing tolerance, and adaptation differences used in food plot mixes