by Captain Mark W. Gore

One of the best ways to help improve your deer herd is by establishing and maintaining their food intake. This is done by many landowners and hunting clubs by creating food plots and also by providing protein feed and mineral blocks. Soil testing and maintaining proper PH combined with effective fertilization and proper use of herbicides can do a lot to help most hunt clubs and landowners in Florida improve their hunting habitats. How many years have you wanted to do soil testing, but then blown it off because you waited too long to get a soil sample? I finally took a grand total of one hour, to collect soil from the plots, bag it up and fill out the required paperwork.

I would finally know for sure what the dirt and sand I was planting in needed to create that beautiful food plot we all see on TV and in magazines. The entire process was made simple and painless through downloadable instructions and forms at the Mossy Oak Biologic web site.

On July 10th, I took samples at both plots by collecting and mixing soil from 5 spots each. To ensure that nothing foiled my results, I mixed the soil from several areas in each plot. This provides an average that evens out all the irregularities that could change the pH from one side of the plot to the other. This allows the soil testers, in this case Biologic, to provide results that give a better overall recommendation as to what to add to the soil.

The time we had invested in clearing, plowing, fertilizing and planting had produced some food plots that had done their jobs, but we had figured out that much of the fertilizer we spread on the plots wasn't making its way into plantings. That is why the importance of adding lime to bring up the PH level is so critical. The ph of the soil is a measurement of how acidic or alkaline the soil is. The lower the number means the soil is more acidic, and the higher the number means less acidic. Most food sources that people grow in food plots do best around a neutral pH of 7.0. Soil that has a high acidic count will bind up the nutrients in the soil particles, therefore limited amounts of fertilizer will be available to your plantings.

Highly acidic soil reduces the activity of good soil microorganisms and that in turn limits the nitrogen fixing in leguminous plants. Recent conversations with some experts have convinced me that Florida's loamy sand, even in the most fertile regions, isn't going to be close to a pH of 7.0, especially if it's dirt that's recently been turned over and was under thick vegetation.

Getting the pH right for the specific crop you're planting means that all the nutrients that are locked up in the soil, even those from your fertilizer applications would now be available for your plants. That means your plants are going to be more succulent and more nutritious, and your deer herd will stay around to feed on the smorgasbord of forage that you have offered.

My results came back from Mossy Oak within in 36 hours and we found that some of our plots that we had worked on for many years were finally getting close to that 7.0 PH that we were looking for. The newer areas that we had just created this year needed a lot of lime to bring that PH level up to a more reasonable level. Lime comes in many forms, and two common liming materials are Dolomitic limestone that is high in magnesium and calcic limestone, which is basically ground limestone. How fast lime can affect the soil really depends on the particulate size, type of soil, and the moisture content of the soil. Don't forget that liming is often more important than fertilizing We decided on the poor boy method of improving our plots and took 40 bags of lime and spread it the hard way by dumping it as evenly as possible all over the small food plot area. This was done early in the summer and we had several months of good rains to have it mix into the soil. Lime does not work like fertilizer and putting it down with your seed in the fall is really too late, and in reality it is almost a waste of time. If you can put it in at least a month before planting that would be better than nothing. The good thing is even if it does not help you much this year, it will definitely help your plot next year. I hope this quick bit of information will help you realize just how important soil testing can be to developing that photo perfect food plot. Just planning ahead, if not for this year but for next year, will definitely improve your chances of keeping more deer on your property and taking Trophy Bucks.

Good luck this hunting season, and remember to always wear that safety harness, there are people at home that need and love you tremendously, don't let them down and return home safe!

Capt. Mark W. Gore is an outdoor writer, guide & speaker from Tampa Bay. He owns Guide Headquarters offering fishing charters & outdoor communications. Contact him by phone at: 813.434.5504 by email at: mgore2@tampabay.rr.com or visit www.captainmarkgore.com.