About J. Wayne Fears

“I don’t own a tractor and farm equipment; are there any plants in the woods I can manage to improve the natural habitat and attract more deer to my property?”

This is a question I am getting regularly from the readers of this column, and at deer management seminars in which I participate as a speaker. The answer is yes – there are several plants naturally growing in the woods and on idle farmland that can be managed to be very beneficial and attractive to deer.

Foremost, honeysuckle may be the food plot you already have on your property or hunting club and not even know it.

Usually, when you read about a food plot crop, you read about all the wonderful values of the plant or plant mix. Catch words such as nutritious, high protein, and drought hardy are often used to describe the plant. However, when you mention Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, the first thing you hear is exotic, pest, weed, invasive, snake cover, and so on. It is an exotic plant, but in the right place and with correct management, it can provide all the good things other crops that are planted for wildlife can deliver.

As the name implies, Japanese honeysuckle is not a plant native to North America and comes from Asia. It is known by many names throughout the country – honeysuckle, southern honeysuckle, white honeysuckle, Chinese honeysuckle, and common honeysuckle. This fast-growing plant is found in the wild from southern New England west; south of the Great Lakes to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; and south to the Gulf Coast. It is also found in the Pacific Northwest. The range of this hardy plant is constantly spreading.

Search for wild patches of honeysuckle in the spring when it is blooming. The blossoms make it easy to find.

Its small leaves are oval with smooth margins and short petioles, or stems. Its flowers, occurring from late May until August or later, are white and yellow with an unforgettable sweet fragrance. The perennial woody evergreen vine grows well in shade or direct sunlight. It is an aggressive, hardy plant that can withstand drought and cold weather. When growing in your landscaping, along the chicken house or on fences, it can be hard to kill and has given many farmers a reason to swear. It is considered by many to be an undesirable weed. As a youth I spent many hot summer days pulling honeysuckle off fences and outbuildings. I hated the fast growing fragrant vine, and certainly never dreamed I would one day be promoting it for deer management.

IMPORTANT: Before introducing Japanese honeysuckle or any other new plant to your property, check with your county agricultural agent to make sure it is not considered to be an aggressive or undesirable plant for your area.

Having said this, honeysuckle leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds, are a preferred food source for deer, wild turkey, rabbits, quail, woodchuck, and song birds. Also, it serves as cover for many of these species. Thanks to research done by Auburn University, we have learned that an isolated stand of honeysuckle can become a valuable food plot with a small amount of management. I know hunters who have located patches of honeysuckle in openings of replanted clear cuts, in grown-up fence rows, and around old home sites, and have managed them so they became prime hunting areas. Many hunters have secret plots of honeysuckle they silently fertilize and hunt during the season, with good results.

Management

Managing honeysuckle is relatively easy. Scout for patches late in the winter and mark their locations on a map or in your GPS. When you are soil testing your other fields or food plots, soil test your honeysuckle patches. Fertilize according to soil tests. If this is not possible, lime and fertilize in the spring and fall at a rate of 3.5 tons of lime per acre, and 300 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer per acre, top-dressed with 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate per acre.

When fertilized, the vines will grow quickly and produce an abundance of foodfor wildlife. Fertilized vines have been known to grow as much as 15 feet per year on a moist site. Information I obtained from the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station stated that fertilizing a stand of honeysuckle can almost double its forage production. This also increases the plant’s palatability and increases the crude protein content from 11% to 17%. The fertilized honeysuckle averaged more than 2,480 pounds of forage per acre. Compare that to a red clover food plot which produces 1,115 pounds of forage per acre.

It is easy to “burn” honeysuckle, so I have learned not to fertilize during periods of drought, and try to top dress on a day when rain is predicted.

	The fragrance of the honey-suckle blossom will announce to deer far away that a choice food source is available.

As common as Japanese honeysuckle is, it is easier to find a wild stand and manage it, than it is to start a stand from scratch. If your property does not have Japanese honeysuckle on it, you can establish a patch by transplanting or purchasing seedlings to plant. Again, since it is considered to be an invasive weed, before you introduce it to your property, you need to check with your county agricultural agent to make sure it is not considered an undesirable plant for your area.

Because of the rapid growth of the vine, it does not require a lot of seedlings to establish a stand. Start by preparing a 25– by 25–foot bed in the spring. Plant 25 seedlings, 5 feet apart, in rows of 5 feet. Containerized seedlings can be ordered from The Wildlife Group (www.wildlifegroup.com), and cost $35, plus shipping, per ½ tray of 40 seedlings.

Cover the bed with chicken wire to keep deer and rabbits from eating the new growth. Deer love fertilized honeysuckle and will often eat it to the ground where they can get to it. I have seen fertilized patches of honeysuckle so heavily grazed by deer that the plants disappeared. On my farm, I have laid old hog wire, 2– by 4–inch welded wire fence, or chain length fencing over honeysuckle patches so that deer and rabbits cannot eat the plants back to the ground.

So, like the more commonly accepted wildlife food plot crops, honeysuckle can be nutritious, high in protein, drought hardy, and a great perennial. I have known hunting clubs to even plant stands of Japanese honeysuckle to replace food plots on property managed for deer. Where natural stands of honeysuckle are found, they are less costly and time-consuming to start and to maintain each year.

If you don’t own a tractor and farm equipment but have access to property, spend a weekend looking for Japanese honeysuckle. You may have some food plots in the rough, just waiting for a little care.