Deer seeds: what to plant and when, by species and zone

Last updated 2026-07-24

what is a food plot, exactly

A food plot is a planted area, usually somewhere between a quarter acre and five acres, seeded with forage crops to feed deer and other wildlife and to give hunters a place to observe or hunt over. That's it. It's not complicated, but people overthink it constantly. Food plots serve two different jobs and a lot of hunters blur them together. A "nutrition" or "destination" plot is big, planted with something like clover or alfalfa, and meant to feed deer all season, building body weight and antler growth. A "hunting" or "kill" plot is small, tucked into cover, and planted with something deer will hit hard for a short window in fall, like brassicas or cereal grains, so you can catch them moving in daylight. State wildlife agencies generally treat food plots as a legal form of habitat management, separate from baiting, as long as the crop is planted and left standing rather than piled or broadcast loose on the ground. That distinction matters a lot depending on where you hunt. Baiting rules vary heavily by state; some states ban bait outright for deer hunting, some allow it with restrictions, and a planted, standing food plot is treated differently from a bait pile in nearly every state's regulations. Check your state wildlife agency's current hunting regulations before you plant or hunt over anything, because the line between "food plot" and "bait" can hinge on details like whether the crop is still rooted in the ground. If you want a starting point tailored to your property instead of general guidance, that's the whole idea behind a food plot whitetail plan built around your acreage and region.

what are deer's favorite food plot seeds

Clover (white/red)	20-30%	Spring through fall, perennial
Soybeans (forage type)	25-30%+	Summer, before pod stage
Cowpeas/lablab	20-25%	Summer
Brassicas (turnip, radish)	15-25% (leaf), higher in root	Post-frost, late fall

Deer preference research consistently ranks clovers, soybeans, and cowpeas at the top of the list for palatability and crude protein, with brassicas and cereal grains close behind depending on season. There's no single universal "favorite." Preference shifts with plant maturity, weather, and what else is available nearby. White-tailed deer diet studies, including long-running work summarized by university extension wildlife programs, show legumes like clover and soybeans commonly test in the 20 to 30 percent crude protein range when actively growing, which is why deer hammer them hard in spring and summer ^[1]. Brassicas like turnips and radish start out less attractive in late summer, then become a magnet after the first hard frost converts starches to sugars, making the greens taste sweeter ^[2]. Here's a rough ranking based on how consistently a species shows up as a preferred forage across extension and wildlife agency plot guides: | Seed type | Typical crude protein | Peak attraction window |

do deer like clover, and is it worth planting

Yes. Clover is about as close to a universal answer as food plot seed gets, and it's the default recommendation from most state wildlife agencies and university extension programs for a reason. White and red clover are perennial, meaning one planting can produce forage for three to five years with proper mowing and fertility maintenance, which makes the cost per year of tonnage lower than almost anything else you'll plant ^[3]. Clover also tolerates grazing pressure better than most annuals. Deer can hit a clover plot hard, repeatedly, all season, and the plant keeps regrowing from its root crown as long as you're not overgrazing it into the ground (which does happen on small plots with high deer density, especially in year one before roots establish). The tradeoff is establishment. Clover needs a firm, well-prepared seedbed, correct soil pH (most clovers want a pH of 6.0 to 7.0), and it's slow out of the gate compared to a cereal grain. If your soil test comes back at pH 5.2, don't expect clover to perform until you've limed and given it time to work into the soil profile, often 6 months or more depending on lime type and application method ^[4]. For a hunting-specific approach that pairs clover with something more attractive right at first frost, look at how a deer food plot seed blend stacks perennial and annual components together.

do deer eat sorghum

Yes, deer eat grain sorghum, but it's not a top-tier forage choice. Most hunters use it more as a cover crop, screening plant, or supplemental grain component than a primary attractant. Sorghum produces a grain head deer will feed on once it matures, similar to how they hit standing corn, and the tall stalks (often 4 to 7 feet) double as excellent screening cover around a plot edge or hunting access trail. The catch is that sorghum isn't especially high in protein compared to legumes, and deer usually treat it as a fall and winter grain source rather than something they graze all season. It's also more of a Midwest and Southern row-crop staple than a dedicated food plot seed; you'll see it marketed more often as part of a wildlife blend or a standalone screen planting than as a headline species. If you're choosing between sorghum and something like soybeans or cowpeas for summer attraction, go with the legume. Save sorghum for situations where you specifically need height for screening, or you want a grain component that holds up standing through winter for late-season deer and turkey.

when to plant food plots for deer

Planting windows split into two seasons, spring and late summer, and the right one depends entirely on what you're planting and what job you need it to do. There's no single national date because frost timing varies by 8 to 10 weeks across the whitetail's range. Spring plantings (perennial clover, chicory, alfalfa) typically go in from mid-April through May in northern states and as early as March in the Deep South, timed to soil temperatures reliably above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Late summer plantings (brassicas, cereal grains, annual clover) are timed backward from your first expected fall frost, usually going in the ground 60 to 90 days before that date so plants have time to establish before cold shuts down growth ^[5]. The honest answer is: pull your average first frost date from NOAA or your state extension office, count backward, and plant. A university extension planting calendar for your specific state is worth more than any generic "plant by Labor Day" rule of thumb, because a hunter in northern Minnesota and a hunter in central Alabama are working with completely different calendars.

when to plant turnips for deer

Turnips go in the ground roughly 80 to 100 days before your area's first killing frost, which puts most of the whitetail range somewhere between mid-July and mid-August for planting. Turnips are a brassica, and brassicas need that long runway to bulb out and build leaf mass before cold weather hits. The frost timing matters more for turnips than almost any other food plot seed, because the whole appeal of the crop is the sugar conversion that happens after a hard frost. Deer often ignore a turnip plot for the first month or two after it's up, then switch over hard once temperatures drop into the low 20s Fahrenheit a few times. If you plant too late and that bulb doesn't have time to size up before frost, you lose a lot of the tonnage that makes turnips worthwhile as a winter food source. Seeding rate for turnips alone typically runs 4 to 6 pounds per acre, drilled a quarter inch deep or broadcast onto a firm, prepared seedbed and lightly cultipacked. Turnips do best on soil with a pH of 6.0 or higher and a healthy phosphorus level, both things your soil test will tell you directly.

when to plant oats for deer

Oats are almost always a late summer planting, going in 6 to 10 weeks before first frost, which lands most of the country between mid-August and mid-September ^[1]. Some hunters in the Deep South plant a second round in early spring, since oats are a cool-season annual that can handle a spring window too, but the fall planting is by far the more common use case for deer hunters. Oats germinate fast, often showing green in 5 to 7 days under good moisture, and deer will hit young oat shoots almost immediately. That quick green-up is exactly why oats are such a popular hunting-plot component: you plant in August, and by early October you've got a green, attractive food source right when bow season opens across most of the whitetail range. Oats aren't great winter survivors on their own north of about USDA hardiness zone 6, where hard freezes kill the plant back completely. That's fine if your goal is October and November attraction, but if you want something standing into December and January, pair oats with a winter-hardy cereal like winter wheat or cereal rye, or lean on brassicas for the deep winter window instead. Seeding rate for oats runs 2 to 3 bushels (roughly 64 to 96 pounds) per acre broadcast, a bit less if you're drilling.

when to plant food plots for deer, by zone

North (MN, WI, MI, ME, upper NY)	Late April - May	Late July - mid-August	Late Sept - early Oct
Mid (OH, IN, IL, VA, KY, MO)	Mid-April - mid-May	Mid-August - early Sept	Mid-Oct
South (GA, AL, MS, FL, TX)	March - April	September - early October	Nov - Dec	The pattern holds across every zone: perennials go in the spring window, annuals meant for fall hunting go in 60 to 100 days ahead of first frost. A soil test result doesn't change your planting date, but it will change how much lime and fertilizer you're working into the ground before that date, and lime especially needs lead time to adjust pH, sometimes months, so don't wait until planting week to find out your soil needs 2 tons of ag lime per acre [4]. If you'd rather have someone build the specific calendar and seed mix for your coordinates and soil numbers instead of working off a generic zone table, that's the entire purpose behind our $99 Custom Food Plot Plan. We're not your soil lab and we won't override its lime and fertilizer recommendations, but we'll turn your test results and location into an actual planting plan.

Splitting the whitetail's range into three rough climate zones makes the calendar easier to use than a single national date. These are approximations built around average frost dates, not hard rules, so cross-check against your own county's frost data. | Zone | Spring perennial planting | Late summer annual planting | First frost (typical) |

does soil test data actually change what seed you should plant

Yes, more than almost any other decision you'll make on the plot. Soil pH controls how available nutrients are to the plant, and most food plot seeds want a pH between 6.0 and 7.0; clover and alfalfa are especially sensitive, struggling badly below pH 5.5 ^{[3] [4]}. A soil test from your state land-grant university extension lab (most run $10 to $20 per sample) tells you your current pH, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter, and gives you a lime and fertilizer recommendation specific to the crop you tell them you're planting. That's the authority you should be following, not a bag label's generic rate. Your lab's recommendation accounts for your actual soil, and it will differ plot to plot even on the same property. Here's the practical order of operations: test soil in late summer or fall, before your fall planting window if possible, since lime takes months to fully react with the soil. Apply lime based on the test. Plant your seed. Fertilize according to the test's split recommendation (some of it at planting, sometimes a topdress later for perennials like clover). Skipping the test and guessing at lime rates is one of the most common reasons a food plot underperforms, more common than seed choice itself.

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

No, and this one's worth clearing up because it comes up more than you'd expect. Deer don't eat honey in any meaningful nutritional sense, and honey isn't a food plot seed or forage crop at all, it's a processed bee product with no place in a planted field. What's actually happening when people ask this is usually confusion with two different things. First, some liquid deer attractant and mineral products use molasses or sugar-based scent ingredients that smell sweet and get lumped in with "honey" colloquially. Second, deer will occasionally investigate a broken-open honeybee hive for the wax and larvae, which is a rare opportunistic protein snack, not a dietary staple, and has nothing to do with food plots. If you're trying to boost attraction to a plot, skip anything marketed as a honey- or sugar-based additive and put that money into lime or fertilizer instead. A properly limed, fertilized clover or brassica plot will outperform any scent or additive product every single time, because you're feeding the plant, not the deer directly.

cereal grains vs brassicas vs clover: which seed fits your plot

None of these three categories is universally "best." Each solves a different problem, and most experienced plot managers run at least two of the three on a given property. Cereal grains (oats, wheat, rye) are the fastest to green up, cheapest per acre, and most forgiving of poor soil, but they don't carry protein value or tonnage anywhere close to legumes and they're annuals you replant every year. Brassicas (turnips, radish, kale) build serious tonnage and become a late-season magnet after frost, but they need a longer growing window and can smell strong enough that some hunters won't plant them near a stand site. Clover is the long-term investment: slower to establish, needs the best soil prep and pH management of the three, but pays back for years once it's in. A lot of experienced managers run clover as the season-long nutrition plot and a brassica/cereal grain blend as the hunting plot near a stand, timed to peak right at gun season. That two-plot approach covers both jobs, spring-through-fall nutrition and a late-season hunting draw, without asking one seed to do everything. For a side-by-side breakdown of specific blends and how they perform against each other, deer food plot seed and food plot seed both cover blend comparisons in more depth than a single species can.

how much seed and ground do you actually need

Most state agencies and extension programs suggest food plots cover somewhere between 1 and 5 percent of total huntable acreage for a property aiming for both nutrition and hunting value, though this varies by region and deer density ^[6]. On a 100-acre property, that's roughly 1 to 5 acres split across multiple smaller plots rather than one big field, which also spreads out deer use and reduces pressure on any single spot. Seeding rates vary a lot by species. Clover typically runs 6 to 10 pounds per acre broadcast. Oats run 2 to 3 bushels (about 64 to 96 pounds) per acre. Turnips run 4 to 6 pounds per acre. Soybeans run 50 to 60 pounds per acre drilled, more if broadcast. Always check the actual bag or blend label you're using, since blended products list a combined rate that differs from planting any single species alone. Don't over-buy seed thinking more is better. Overseeding wastes money and can actually reduce stand quality through competition. A $30 bag of clover seed covering a half acre correctly beats two bags crammed onto the same ground.

Frequently asked questions

Do deer eat sorghum?

Yes, deer eat grain sorghum, especially the mature seed head in fall and winter, but it's lower in protein than legumes like clover or soybeans. Most hunters use sorghum for its height as a screening or cover crop around a plot rather than as a primary attractant.

Do deer like clover?

Yes, clover is one of the most consistently preferred food plot forages, often testing at 20 to 30 percent crude protein while actively growing. It's a perennial, so one planting can last three to five years, making it a strong long-term nutrition plot choice.

When should I plant food plots for deer?

Perennials like clover go in during spring, roughly mid-April through May depending on your zone. Annuals meant for fall hunting, like brassicas and cereal grains, go in 60 to 100 days before your area's first frost, typically mid-July through mid-September.

When should I plant turnips for deer?

Plant turnips 80 to 100 days before your first expected fall frost, usually mid-July to mid-August across most of the whitetail range. Turnips need that long runway to bulb out and build the leaf mass deer key in on after frost sweetens the plant.

When should I plant oats for deer?

Oats go in the ground 6 to 10 weeks before first frost, typically mid-August through mid-September for most of the whitetail range. They germinate fast, often showing green in 5 to 7 days, making them a reliable pick for early bow season attraction.

What is a food plot?

A food plot is a planted patch, usually a quarter acre to several acres, seeded with forage crops like clover, brassicas, or cereal grains to feed deer and give hunters a place to hunt over. It's a habitat management tool, distinct from baiting, when planted and left standing in the ground.

What are deer's favorite foods?

Preference studies consistently rank clover, forage soybeans, and cowpeas at the top for protein and palatability, often 20 to 30 percent crude protein when actively growing. Brassicas like turnips become highly attractive after the first hard frost converts starches to sugars.

Do deer like honey?

No. Honey isn't a natural deer food and isn't a food plot seed. The confusion usually comes from sugar or molasses-based scent products marketed for deer attraction, which have nothing to do with planted forage crops.

Is it legal to hunt over a food plot?

Generally yes, since a planted, standing crop is treated differently from a bait pile under most state regulations, but rules vary by state and sometimes by season or weapon type. Always check your state wildlife agency's current hunting regulations before hunting over any planted or supplemental food source.

What pH does clover need to grow well?

Clover generally performs best between pH 6.0 and 7.0, and growth drops off noticeably below pH 5.5. A soil test from your state extension lab will give you the exact lime rate needed to correct your specific field's pH.

How big should a deer food plot be?

Most extension and wildlife agency guidance suggests food plots cover roughly 1 to 5 percent of total huntable acreage, often split across several smaller plots instead of one large field. Actual sizing depends on your deer density, available ground, and whether the plot is for nutrition or hunting.

Can I plant clover and brassicas in the same food plot?

Yes, and many hunters do, though clover is a perennial planted in spring while brassicas are annuals planted in late summer, so they're usually established in separate plantings or plot sections rather than seeded together in one pass.

Sources

1. Oklahoma State University Extension, Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases of White-Tailed Deer (PSS-2913): legume forages such as clover and soybeans commonly provide 20-30% crude protein for white-tailed deer
2. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Brassicas for Grazing (PM 3033): brassica sugar content increases after frost, boosting palatability to grazing animals including deer
3. University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension, White Clover (AGR-93): clover is a perennial forage that can persist multiple years with proper management and lowers per-year cost
4. University of Georgia Extension, Soil Testing for Wildlife Food Plots (C1109): most food plot forages including clover require soil pH between 6.0 and 7.0, and lime needs months to fully react in soil
5. Clemson Cooperative Extension, Wildlife Food Plots (HGIC 1802): fall annual plantings should be timed roughly 60-90 days ahead of the area's first killing frost
6. Mississippi State University Extension, Establishing Wildlife Food Plots (P2111): food plots are commonly recommended to cover roughly 1-5% of total property acreage