About J. Wayne Fears

“I don’t have an opening on my property to plant a food plot, but I do have many mature oak trees and other mast producing plants. I’m told I can fertilize these plants and they will bear lots of mast and attract deer. Is this correct?”

This is a question I’ve received a lot the past few months and it is true, there are many “food plants” growing that with a little management can be a food plot themselves. Let’s look at the oak tree.

While it is debated as to how effective it is, many wildlife research agencies recommend that carefully selected oak, and other mast producing trees, can be helped nutritionally by following a fertilization program. After a period of time, if other conditions are favorable, the tree will produce a higher yield of mast. To the hunter, this can mean having a number of “food trees” offering several stand sites that have a lot of potential for attracting bucks. This is possible with the proper selection and with the use of fertilizer and other improvements we will discuss. Developing the project is a fun early spring activity and, while it takes time – sometimes years – when the food trees do entice a buck, there is a lot of satisfaction knowing you teamed up with Mother Nature to have a successful hunt.

Here are the steps to having your own secret food trees.

Selecting Trees to Fertilize

The word “select” is the key word in fertilizing oaks for deer. I have seen many hunters go out and pick out a large oak and fertilize it with little or no results. There is a lot more to it than that. The first thing that is necessary is to get to know the kind of oak you are going to work with. Since there are more than 50 different oaks that reach tree size in this country, I am going to use the Eastern white oak (Quercus alba) as an example.

The white oak is my favorite oak to fertilize because it is found throughout much of the U.S. and its acorns are a favorite food of deer. The reason it is sought out by deer in the fall when acorns are dropping is because the white oak acorns have less tannic acid than the red oaks. Tannic acid causes acorns to taste bitter.

It often comes as a surprise to some hunters to learn that many white oaks, as well as other oaks, do not produce mast every year. Some oaks have never produced acorns. Individual white oak trees tend to have either a very good or a very poor seed crop and are somewhat consistent in seed production from year to year, be it good or bad. Under ideal conditions, white oak acorns mature in one year and red oak acorns require two years.

Trees growing free of competition with ample sunlight and fertile soils have been known to produce acorns as young as 25 years of age. Other trees growing in thick forest conditions with lots of competition, poor sunlight and in poor soils, may not produce acorns until they are well over 50 years of age or older. Some may never produce acorns.

All of this is to say that just picking a white oak tree and fertilizing it is not the answer. You must spend the time to select a white oak tree that you know produces acorns and then go to work to make it even more productive. Sometimes this takes a couple of years or more. Once you find a good seed producer, mark the tree so you can find it again. It is a good idea to mark its location on your topo map and to store its location in your GPS.

I like scouting for good seed producing trees in the early fall when squirrels are feeding. Find a white oak full of feeding squirrels and you have probably found a potential food tree.

Keep in mind that even the best acorn producing white oaks can have a bad year. White oaks, and many other oaks, flower when the leaves begin to emerge at the first of spring. Dry winds or freezing temperatures can be detrimental to flower development and the year’s acorn crop. Lack of pollination or damage by weevils can also result in an acorn crop failure.

For this reason, and the fact that you don’t want to hunt too hard around just one tree and cause the deer feeding there to become nocturnal, it is a good idea to have several trees in a variety of settings to fertilize.

Important! Reduce Competition

As I stated above, to be good seed producers, oaks must be as free of competition as possible. Tall oaks with crowns reaching above the upper level of the forest canopy receive a lot of sunlight and are usually among the best acorn producers. Oaks out in the open produce even better.

If the oak tree you have selected to fertilize has other trees crowding it, you need to eliminate as many as practical. This is especially true with those which touch the crown. Studies have shown that acorn producing white oaks growing in thick woods may produce 10,000 acorns in a good year. A tree in a more open environment may produce 20,000 or more.

Consult with a state forester to work with you to develop a thinning plan to give selected oaks more daylight.

How to Fertilize

Fertilizing a selected oak is more than a matter of scattering a handful of fertilizer at its base. There are two methods of fertilizing your selected oaks. The first is the use of 13-13-13 granular fertilizer. This should be applied in early spring. Apply it at a rate of 2 pounds per 1,000 square feet of crown. A mature white oak with a crown measuring 80 by 80 feet, or 6,400 square feet, would require about 13 pounds of fertilizer.

You want to apply the fertilizer from the edge of the drip line – that is, the outer edge of the furthermost tips of branches from the tree trunk – to within three feet of the trunk of the tree. If there are a lot of leaves and limbs on the ground in the area to be fertilized, you will want to take a rake with you to rake them away so that the fertilizer will come in contact with the soil quickly. Use a Cyclone-type hand seeder/fertilizer spreader to distribute the granular fertilizer uniformly.

A second method is to purchase a box of fruit or shade tree fertilizer spikes at a nursery or garden supply store and follow the instructions on the box. They are more expensive than granular fertilizer but are easy to carry into the woods for use.

Results Takes Time

While this is a good way to increase the acorn production of a selected oak, do not expect to see bushels of acorns appear on the tree the next fall. Based on my experience, it is usually the third year if all things go right, such as no late spring frost, that you can see a significant increase in the acorn crop. Like most habitat management, it takes time and is a long-term project that requires fertilization every year.