Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
Tecomate Max-Attract is a multi-species blend (brassicas like turnips and radishes, clover, oats or other small grains, and sometimes cereal rye) built to give deer something green from early fall through late winter. It works best on plots with a real soil test behind them, planted late summer to early fall depending on your zone.
What is Tecomate Max-Attract food plot seed?
Tecomate Max-Attract is a branded food plot seed blend sold under the Tecomate Wildlife Systems line, which is tied to the Whitetail Institute of North America's broader family of plot products (Tecomate is marketed heavily to Texas and southern hunters but sold nationwide). Like most "max" or "deluxe" blends in the food plot seed category, it's a mix of multiple species in one bag rather than a single crop, usually some combination of brassicas (turnips, radishes, or rape), a clover, and a cereal grain like oats or wheat. The idea behind any multi-species blend is simple: no single plant does everything. Clover is a perennial that deer hit hard spring through fall but that goes dormant or gets buried under snow in winter in northern climates. Brassicas are annuals that deer often ignore in September but then hammer after the first hard frost, once the leaves and roots convert starch to sugar. Oats and other cereal grains germinate fast, hold soil, and give deer green forage within two to three weeks of planting, well before the clover or brassicas mature. Blends like Max-Attract are marketed as a one-bag solution for people who don't want to buy and mix three separate seed types. That convenience has a real cost, though: you're locked into whatever ratio the company chose, and if your soil or climate favors one component over another, you can't adjust it. If you want more control, buying straight species seed and blending your own mix, or planting brassicas and clover in separate plots, gives you that flexibility. For a rundown of straight species options, see food plot seed and deer food plot seed.
Do deer eat sorghum?
Yes, deer eat grain sorghum (milo), but it's a distant option compared to brassicas, clover, soybeans, or corn for pure attraction. Sorghum is more commonly planted as a screening or bedding cover crop, or as a supplemental winter food source for a broader range of wildlife including turkey, quail, and doves, than as a primary deer food plot. The USDA NRCS plant guide for grain sorghum frames the crop's value around grain yield and drought tolerance in dry regions, useful where corn struggles, rather than as a deer magnet specifically [1]. If your goal is maximum deer attraction, sorghum is not usually the first plant you reach for; it works better mixed into a diverse planting for whole-property wildlife value or bird cover than as a standalone deer plot.
Do deer like clover, and is it worth planting?
Yes. Clover is one of the most consistently preferred food plot forages across whitetail research, and it's a foundation species in blends like Max-Attract for good reason. It's high in protein (often 25 to 30 percent crude protein in good stands), it regrows after grazing, and as a perennial it can produce forage for three to five years from a single planting if it's maintained. White clover varieties are widely used in food plots because they tolerate grazing pressure well and provide season-long forage where soil and moisture conditions are right, a point backed up across land-grant extension forage guidance. Clover does have real limits: it needs decent drainage, doesn't love acidic soil below about pH 6.0, and can get out-competed by weeds if you skip mowing or spraying. Perennial clover plots also take a full season to establish before they hit peak production, so if you need forage this fall, an annual clover or an annual/perennial blend is the more realistic bet. See food plot whitetail for more on matching clover and other perennials to your property's layout.
When to plant food plots for deer?
| Northern Midwest/Northeast (Zone 3-4) | Late July to mid-August | |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-Atlantic/Central (Zone 5-6) | Mid-August to mid-September | |
| Mid-South/Southeast (Zone 7) | Early September to early October | |
| Deep South/Texas (Zone 8-9) | Late September to November | Soil moisture matters more than the calendar date in a lot of years. Planting brassica or clover seed into dry dust and hoping for rain is one of the most common food plot failures; if a good rain isn't in the forecast within a week or so of your planned date, it often pays to wait. |
Timing depends entirely on what you're planting and where you live. Broadly, food plots split into two windows: spring/summer plantings (soybeans, corn, cowpeas, most warm-season annuals) and late summer/early fall plantings (brassicas, cereal grains, clover, most cool-season blends including products like Max-Attract). For a fall blend with brassicas and clover, the general rule from most land-grant extension guidance is to plant 60 to 90 days before your area's average first hard frost, so the brassicas have time to bulk up roots and leaves before cold weather sweetens them. In the Upper Midwest and Northeast, that's typically late July through August. In the Mid-South and Southeast, it often stretches into September or even early October. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension guidance on food plots for white-tailed deer recommends cool-season plantings in much of Texas from September through November depending on rainfall timing [2]. Here's a rough national framework, understanding your local extension office or state wildlife agency's plot guide will always beat a generic zone map: | Region | Fall blend planting window |
When to plant oats for deer?
Oats are one of the fastest-establishing food plot cereals, and they're a common filler in blends like Max-Attract because they green up quickly and give deer something to eat while slower components like clover and brassicas mature. Plant oats in late summer to early fall, generally 6 to 8 weeks before your first expected frost, so they have time to establish good leaf growth before cold really sets in. Oats aren't as cold-hardy as winter wheat or cereal rye. They'll take a light frost fine but tend to die back hard once temperatures drop into the teens for extended stretches, which is one reason plots in the Upper Midwest sometimes lean on wheat or rye instead for late-winter forage. In milder Southern climates, oats can survive most of the winter and keep providing forage well into late winter.
When to plant turnips for deer?
Turnips, the most common brassica in blends like Max-Attract, need to go in the ground 60 to 90 days before your area's first hard frost. That timing lets the plant build a bulb and leaf mass big enough to survive frost and hold up as a late-season food source. Here's the key thing a lot of first-time planters miss: turnips and other brassicas often get almost totally ignored by deer for the first month or two after they green up. Deer avoid the bitter, high-glucosinolate taste of young brassica leaves until a hard freeze converts starches in the plant to sugars, which usually happens after the first few frosts in the 25 to 32 degree range. That's why brassica-heavy plots often look untouched in October and get hammered down to bare dirt by December. If you're timing a hunt around a brassica plot, plan for the weeks after your first hard frost, not the weeks right after planting.
What are deer's favorite foods, and where does a blend like this fit?
There's no single universal "favorite" food for whitetails; preference shifts by season, region, and what's available. That said, research on deer diet composition consistently points to a short list of high-value groups: acorns and other hard mast, soybeans and other high-protein legumes, clover, and, seasonally, brassicas once they've sweetened after frost. Whitetail nutrition research out of university deer labs shows that natural forages, especially acorns in fall and forbs and browse the rest of the year, still make up the bulk of a wild deer's diet even on properties with food plots; plots are a supplement to, not a replacement for, natural habitat [3]. Corn and soybeans tend to top the list for pure caloric draw where they're available, especially in agricultural regions where deer are already conditioned to field crops. Clover and brassica blends like Max-Attract fill a different role: they extend the season, especially late fall through winter when row crops are picked and mast is gone. For deer, food selection also tracks nutritional need. Spring and summer forage priorities lean toward protein for antler growth and lactation; fall and winter shift toward carbohydrates and fat reserves for the rut and cold weather, which is exactly the window brassicas and cereal grains are built for.
Do deer like honey (and why do people ask)?
Deer don't seek out or eat honey in any meaningful dietary sense; they're herbivores built around forages, mast, and browse, not honey or other animal-derived sugars. The question usually comes up because of "Honey Hole" branded attractant or mineral products in the hunting industry, or because people confuse honeysuckle (a genuine deer browse plant in many regions) with honey itself. Honeysuckle, on the other hand, is a real and heavily browsed plant in a lot of whitetail range, particularly Japanese honeysuckle in the Southeast, and it shows up often in deer diet studies as a preferred browse species during fall and winter when other green forage is scarce. If you're seeing "honey" search interest tied to deer, it's almost always this confusion or a branded product name, not deer actually eating honey.
What's actually in a bag of Max-Attract, and how do you read a blend label?
Seed blend labels list species by percentage of the bag by weight, and that percentage tells you a lot about what the plot will actually look like in the ground. A bag that's 40 percent brassica, 30 percent clover, and 30 percent oats will behave very differently than one that's 60 percent oats and small amounts of everything else. Manufacturers don't always publish exact percentages on their marketing pages, so the seed tag on the actual bag, required by law in every state under seed labeling statutes, is the one document you can trust. The Federal Seed Act (7 U.S.C. Chapter 37) and its implementing regulations at 7 CFR Part 201 require labeling that discloses kind, variety, lot number, germination percentage, and net weight for agricultural seed shipped in interstate commerce, and states enforce parallel seed labeling laws for seed sold at retail [4]. Read that tag before you plant. If germination percentage on a component is low, or if the lot is old, that changes your seeding rate math regardless of what the front of the bag promises. Generally, for a blend seeding rate, follow the bag's recommended pounds per acre rather than guessing off a straight brassica or clover rate, since blends are formulated at lower per-species rates than a monoculture planting of the same species would use.
How does soil testing change what you plant, blend or not?
A soil test is the single most useful $15 to $20 you can spend before buying any food plot seed, blended or straight species. Clover and brassicas both want a soil pH in the 6.0 to 7.0 range for decent nutrient uptake; below that, lime becomes non-negotiable no matter how good the seed genetics are. University extension soil test labs (most state land-grant universities run one) will give you a specific lime and fertilizer recommendation based on your actual soil chemistry, not a generic bag recommendation. Extension soil fertility guidance consistently notes that lime takes months to fully react in soil, so testing and applying lime well ahead of planting, ideally the prior fall or at minimum 60 to 90 days before seeding, gives it time to raise pH before the crop needs it [5]. If your test comes back at pH 5.2, dumping a bag of any blend, Max-Attract included, into that ground without lime is a good way to waste seed money. Your soil test lab is the authority on your specific lime and fertilizer numbers; a blend's bag recommendation is a generic starting point, not a substitute for what your test says. If you want help translating a soil test into an actual planting plan across your specific fields, that's the kind of thing a $99 one-time Custom Food Plot Plan is built to do, it takes your test results and property details and turns them into species and timing recommendations rather than a one-size-fits-all bag rate.
How do multi-species blends compare to planting straight species?
| Multi-species blend (like Max-Attract) | One bag, one pass, built-in succession of forage | Higher cost per pound, fixed ratio, less agronomic control | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight species (clover only, brassica only) | Cheaper per acre, full control of rate and timing | Requires more planning, possibly separate plots or passes | |
| DIY custom mix | Full control, can match your soil test exactly | Takes research and sourcing multiple seed types | A reasonable approach a lot of experienced plotters use: plant one plot or section as straight clover for a perennial, protein-heavy base, and use a blend or straight brassica mix in a second plot for the late-season frost-sweetened draw. That gives you spring-through-fall coverage plus a strong late season option, without betting everything on one bag's fixed ratio. See deer food plots for more on splitting acreage across multiple plot types. |
Blends save time and reduce the guesswork of mixing your own seed, but they cost more per pound than buying straight species seed separately, and you give up control over the ratio. If your soil strongly favors one species (say, good drainage and near-neutral pH that would let clover thrive but marginal for brassicas), a blend forces you to plant all three anyway. | Approach | Pros | Cons |
What should you check before you plant a bag of any blend?
A few things matter more than the brand on the bag. First, your soil test and any lime/fertilizer it calls for; second, your realistic planting window based on your first frost date; third, your state's baiting and supplemental feeding regulations, which vary widely and can affect whether a food plot counts as "baiting" for hunting purposes in some states, especially around minerals and broadcast feed rather than planted crops. Most states treat a planted food plot differently from a bait pile, but rules on things like mineral licks, protein pellets, and even certain broadcast seeding methods differ by state wildlife agency. Michigan's baiting and feeding law, for example, defines and restricts baiting and feeding of deer under MCL 324.40111a, and spells out specific exceptions and distance rules that hunters have to follow [6]. Check your state's specific hunting regulations before assuming a practice is legal; agencies like state departments of natural resources or fish and wildlife publish these rules annually and they do change. What's legal in one state can be a citation in the next. Also worth checking: local frost dates from NOAA or your state climate office, since planting even a well-formulated blend two weeks too late in a short-season climate can mean brassicas never bulb up before winter kills the leaves.
What is a food plot, really, and how does a blend like this fit the bigger picture?
A food plot is a planted area, usually somewhere between a quarter acre and several acres, established specifically to provide supplemental forage for deer or other wildlife, distinct from agricultural fields grown primarily for harvest and sale. Food plots serve two overlapping goals: nutrition (helping deer through nutritional stress periods, especially late winter and post-rut) and hunting access (drawing deer to a huntable location at a predictable time of day). The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Practice Standard for Wildlife Habitat Planting, Code 420, defines the practice as establishing and managing food and cover areas for wildlife, and it's a practice that can be built into a broader NRCS conservation plan, sometimes with cost-share support [7]. A bag of blended seed like Max-Attract is just one tool inside that bigger picture, it's the seed, not the whole plan. The plan is your soil test, your planting calendar, your equipment, and how the plot sits relative to bedding and travel corridors on your specific property. For a broader look at how food plots fit into overall deer management on a property, see deer for food and domain food plot seed.
Frequently asked questions
Do deer eat sorghum?
Yes, but sorghum ranks low compared to brassicas, clover, corn, or soybeans for pure deer attraction. It's more often planted for grain yield, drought tolerance, and cover value for turkey, quail, and doves than as a standalone deer food plot species.
Do deer like clover?
Yes, clover is one of the most consistently preferred food plot forages for whitetails, often 25 to 30 percent crude protein, and it regrows after grazing across multiple seasons as a perennial, according to university extension forage guidance.
When should you plant food plots for deer?
Fall blends (brassicas, clover, cereal grains) generally go in 60 to 90 days before your area's first hard frost, late July into September depending on your zone. Spring/summer plots like soybeans and corn are planted after your last frost date in spring.
When do you plant oats for deer plots?
Plant oats 6 to 8 weeks before your first expected fall frost. They germinate fast and give deer green forage within two to three weeks, but they're less cold-hardy than wheat or rye and can die back hard in a severe winter.
When should you plant turnips for deer?
Plant turnips 60 to 90 days before your first hard frost so the bulb and leaf mass have time to develop. Deer often ignore turnips until after a hard freeze converts starches to sugars, so peak attraction usually comes weeks after planting, not right away.
What is a food plot?
A food plot is a planted area, typically a quarter acre to several acres, established to provide supplemental deer or wildlife forage. It's distinct from a cash crop field and serves both a nutritional role and a hunting-access role by drawing deer to a predictable location.
What are deer's favorite foods?
There's no single universal favorite; it shifts by season and region. Acorns and other hard mast, soybeans, clover, and frost-sweetened brassicas consistently rank as high-value forages in university deer diet research, with natural browse still making up most of a wild deer's diet.
Do deer like honey?
No, deer are herbivores and don't eat honey in any real dietary sense. The question usually comes from confusing honeysuckle, a genuinely heavily browsed plant in many regions, with honey, or from branded 'Honey Hole' attractant product names.
What's in Tecomate Max-Attract food plot seed?
It's a multi-species blend, typically combining brassicas (turnips, radishes, or rape), a clover, and a cereal grain like oats, though exact percentages vary by bag and are listed on the required seed tag, not always on marketing copy.
Is a blend like Max-Attract better than planting straight clover or straight brassica?
Blends save time with one planting pass and give succession of forage, but cost more per pound and lock you into a fixed species ratio. Straight species plantings cost less and give full control, which matters more if your soil strongly favors one species.
Do I need a soil test before planting a food plot blend?
Yes. Clover and brassicas both want pH 6.0 to 7.0 for good nutrient uptake. A soil test from your state land-grant extension lab gives you a specific lime and fertilizer recommendation; skipping it risks wasting seed on soil that's too acidic to support the crop.
Are food plots considered baiting under state hunting law?
It depends on the state. Most agencies distinguish planted food plots from bait piles or mineral feeders, but rules on minerals, protein pellets, and broadcast seed vary. Check your specific state wildlife agency's current regulations before assuming a practice is legal.
How much does food plot seed cost per acre?
Costs vary widely by species and blend, straight clover or brassica seed often runs in the range of $15 to $40 per acre in seed cost depending on rate and variety, while multi-species blends typically cost more per pound than single-species seed due to the added formulation and species mix.
Sources
- USDA NRCS Plant Guide, Grain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor): Sorghum is used for grain yield and drought tolerance and as supplemental wildlife food rather than as a top deer attraction species
- Michigan DNR, deer forage and diet composition research summary: Natural forages such as mast and browse make up a large share of wild deer diet even where supplemental food plots are present
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Food Plots for White-tailed Deer (SP-419): Recommends cool-season food plot planting windows from September through November in much of Texas
- Federal Seed Act labeling regulations, 7 CFR Part 201: Seed labeling requirements mandate disclosure of kind, variety, lot number, and germination percentage on agricultural seed sold in the U.S.
- University of Missouri Extension, Soil Testing and Liming Guide (G9101): Lime takes months to react in soil, so testing and liming well ahead of planting is recommended for forage and food plot crops
- Michigan Compiled Laws 324.40111a, deer baiting and feeding provisions: State wildlife agencies set specific, varying rules on baiting and supplemental feeding that hunters must check before planting or feeding
- USDA NRCS Conservation Practice Standard, Wildlife Habitat Planting, Code 420 (Michigan NRCS Field Office Technical Guide): Food plots and wildlife habitat plantings can be part of USDA-recognized conservation practices for wildlife management