our deer herd, here in Il- just never did like chicory , and I have no idea why, as other guy's in a few counties over, say their deer love it,, We have not planted it for year's now but when we did we added Im, Whitetail clover in with it, I swear to you, we could not even get rabbits to eat the chicory, Got a couple buddies in Ka. that also have also had good success with it, Best of luck to you, When we planted it , we planted it in area's that butted up to timber finger's which really helped for shading. The plot's were beautiful, our picky deer would just not eat it. But that could also be because when it comes to food plot's we offer a smorgase board. And we are also blessed to a lot of Natural browse the deer favor.
briguy-ia
New Member
You may want to search around a little on that. I was thinking the same as you, thought I wanted to plant a solid chicory plot. Not that I'm an expert or anything, but there seems to be some mutual benefits of going chicory with white clover, since the clover will naturally fertilize the chicory due to being a nitrogen-fixing plant. Clover does well with moisture, chicory (once established) does very well in drought.
Unfortunately for 2014, the USA seems to be short on the "Forage Feast" variety of chicory seeds, which seems to be one of the better choices for deer. Six-point or other varieties tends to develop bolts and have leaves that aren't as liked as well by the deer. I've read that others try the Oasis variety of chicory and like it.
Personally, I'm planting Ladino clover this late summer/fall with forage oats as a cover, and frost seeding Forage Feast chicory over the clover next spring if the seed is available then.
Good luck to you.
Unfortunately for 2014, the USA seems to be short on the "Forage Feast" variety of chicory seeds, which seems to be one of the better choices for deer. Six-point or other varieties tends to develop bolts and have leaves that aren't as liked as well by the deer. I've read that others try the Oasis variety of chicory and like it.
Personally, I'm planting Ladino clover this late summer/fall with forage oats as a cover, and frost seeding Forage Feast chicory over the clover next spring if the seed is available then.
Good luck to you.