We may be hunters and aspiring food plotters but we are not farmers any more. As a matter of fact, if we have agriculture questions, some of us don't even know a farmer to ask. I live in rural Pennsylvania in the town of Derry. It's located among rolling hills where farm country gives way to the Allegheny Mountains. If you go up in a helicopter near my house you will notice that the entire area is broken up into 40 acre farm blocks, but the farmers are gone, it's just property. Actually most of the woods here are regenerating hardwoods about 50 years old that are scribed with leaning split oak fence posts and rusted barbed wire. The farmers are gone and so is the base knowledge of planting seeds in tilled soil in order to get a crop.

Farming is a science and although our ancestors have been farming for thousands of years I'd wager that the how-to about planting seeds is not spoken about at your dinner table. But there are methods that will allow you as a food plotter to succeed and we are going to discuss one of the critical areas, seed soil contact.

Seeds have certain requirements to germinate and grow to maturity. Among the necessary criteria is soil, moisture and soil nutrients. Some seeds require that they be buried in 1 or 2 inches of soil in order to germinate and survive. Others seeds can surface sprout and send down a root to tap the needed moisture and nutrients. We are most familiar with this type of seed because most of us have planted grass. But there is one factor that all seeds require and that is seed soil contact.

The short story is easy to understand. Seeds do not do well when exposed to air. Seeds like to be touching soil or covered by it. When I say touching here is what I mean. Imagine a tennis ball is a seed. Even is it is a surface sprouting seed type like some grasses it will do better if it can be pressed down into the soil so 1/3 to half of it is pressed into the soil. We accomplish this by rolling the soil after planting. In the farming world we use a cultipacker to compact the soil.

Some seed manufacturers, in an attempt to make plotting seem easier than it is, will tell you to spray Roundup, wait a week and broadcast seed onto the area you sprayed. This is a little like diet plans that allow you to eat all the Dove Bars and mashed potatoes you want but just take this $4 pill once per day. There is no magic in dieting or food plotting. Although this sounds like a plan it is not a plan it will usually yield poor results because even surface germinators need the grass and weed duff removed so they can reach the dirt, contact soil and benefit from moisture.

Compaction of the soil is important for another reason. Soil once it is tilled is full of air. Sometimes soil may be as much as 40% air immediately after working it with disks and harrows. Running over it with a cultipacker will compact the soil and reduce the air content. Sprouting seeds can then send roots down into soil rather into air which is unfriendly to the root hairs that emerge form the tap root. The root hairs gather in moisture and to do this they need to contact moist soil, not air. Compacting the soil will actually allow it to hold moisture better than loose and airy soil.

Some seeds require even more protection when germinating and must be buried 1-2 inches below the surface to successfully germinate. Peas and beans are in this class of seed and here we need to disk to loosen the soil, then compact it with a cultipacker. Broadcast the seed on the soil and then lightly disk. This will put soil over the seed, then cultipack again.

Here is your take home from this discussion. Seeds need to touch the soil or be buried into packed soil to prosper. If you want to have your first food plot be a success I suggest you plant a fall plot with annuals such as a RACKMASTER seed blend by Buckmasters.