Taking out the Guesswork – This should be your 1st step before the creation of a new wildlife food plot…

Knowing your soil types and testing them regularly is essential to growing a good crop – the success of your food plots directly related to whether or not you take this fundamental step in the right direction. You’ve likely heard it before and you’ll likely hear it again – test your soil before planting. Not only that but, first find the best soil your property has to offer before ever creating a new food plot and you’ll save yourself a great deal of time, money, backache, and heartache in the end. No, you don’t have to go out and clear acre upon acre and take hundreds of soil samples before coming to a consensus as to whether or not an area of your property is suitable for a new plot. If I learned anything in college, it’s the importance of using websoilsurvey when it comes to soils and soil samples.  It is one of the greatest tools at the disposal of hunters, farmers, land managers, & more.  The best part – everything you put in your “shopping cart” is free and your customized soil report is available for download in just minutes.

Using the link above, which will take your directly to the Web Soil Survey Home Page, you can follow the simple directions and be well on your way to getting a custom soil report for the property you hunt.  Once done, you’ll have a better idea as to which areas of your property are suitable for wildlife farmland and which areas are not.

So, you’ve done your homework – You checked out of Web Soil Survey with a site specific soil report.  Your young pine plantation has just been thinned and you’ve hired a dozer and cleared specific logging corridors & old loading decks that fell within areas of your property that were classified by web soil survey as “farmland of statewide importance” or “all areas are prime farmland”.  Now, what do you do?  If you don’t have a soil probe – buy one!  They’re available at various stores like Southern States and you can find them online at places like Forestry Suppliers.  They’re not cheap, but the $60 +– dollars you spend on a probe will more than pay for itself when it comes time to buy lime and fertilizer.

Now that you’ve got a probe, it’s time to take some soil samples.  With a 5-gallon bucket and labeled Zip-Loc Bags I strike out for the areas I’m looking to plant.  Regardless whether they’ve been planted before or have just been cleared and are ready to be cultivated for the first time, I take 10-15 samples per plot (most of our plots are 1 acre or less) -taking more than enough is always better than taking too little!  I strive to get at least 4-6 inches of soil in the probe and up to 8-10 inches if the area has been plowed within the past six months to a year.  Once I’ve got my samples in the bucket I do a rough mix of the soil and fill the appropriate bag.

Now, the fun part!  I’m back home with all of my individual samples.  You know those paper plates you have a stash of in your pantry?  You’re gonna need them, as well as a sifter or strainer from the kitchen (she’s not gonna like this).  I take each sample and pour onto a paper plate and diligently pick out any small rocks or other debris, running it through the strainer a time or two to ensure that only soil makes it through to the final step.  Once the rocks, sticks, roots, and other plant fibers are gone I allow the soil to bake in the sun for a minimum of 30 minutes – since I choose to use zip loc bags in the field, the drying phase is pivotal due to the fact that the bags help the soil to hold moisture.

I start the next phase of the food plot process by labeling each of my NC Agriculture sample boxes and filling out the accompanying “Soil Sample Information” Sheet (both the boxes and the information sheets available at your local Ag. Extension office or in most cases at the nearest Farm Supply Store).  The sheet, the boxes, and the zip loc bags filled with dirt need to match – Triple Check! Don’t put the wrong soil in the wrong box and so forth!  Otherwise, the results you’re ultimately provided and the following soil amendments will be carried out on the wrong piece of dirt!

Once your samples have been shipped to the soil testing facility, you should expect your results in as little as two weeks depending on the time of year.  Personally, I choose to have a PDF of the results sent to me via email.  My soil tests for Fall 2015 will be going out within the next week if I can help it.  After I’ve received the results, I’ll follow up with a post about how to read them and where to go from there!  Stay tuned!