Shaded area food plot?

What food plot seed have any of you had luck with in shaded areas? I tried some from TSC last season that stated it was for shaded areas. It came up but at about 4-6 inches high it stopped. By early summer it was dried up. I can't remember the brand or seed type.

How shady? Any food plot is going to need some sun. This chart from Domain Outdoor will give you an idea what they recommend based on different conditions. They're a Wisconsin company, so they sell stuff for our neck of the woods.

https://domainoutdoor.com/pages/food-plot-selector

Nothing of any interest to deer will thrive in shade. The results you got were probably as good as you can hope for without cutting trees.

A white clover is probably your best bet.

Thanks for the tips

Durana Clover might be a good option. Ladino, alsike, dutch also.

From my own experience, white clovers can thrive in shade. Don’t expect tall growth or much tonnage, but it will attract deer once established

White clovers. Still needs some sun.
Oats and rye can do ok with partial sun.

A nice feature of oats and rye is that they will pretty much grow in the back of a truck

This is far from the truth. Stop thinking about cultivated crops and start looking and watching what a deer eat. Take a walk thru a woods at various times of the year and look at what they browse on.

Almost all the deer over browsing I see is in wooded (shaded) areas, not open areas.

Clover

used to plant, what I believe was called treefoil? grew good in shade and deer like it

That has absolutely nothing to do with the question. He asked about food plots, not browse. They’re two entirely different things.

I plant my kill plot edges in timber with the following:

Spring Triticale
Balansa Fixation clover
Forage Brassica
Ladino Clover
Medium Red Clover
Alsike Clover
Frosty Berseem Clover

I can't offer you much for what you may be dealing with in MI based on the differences in general climate and growing season, but in VA I'll x10 the WHITE clover recomendations for shade.

As M.Magis pointed out, this has nothing to do with your food plot question, but if you aren't getting results based on how shaded this area may be, perhaps look into a shrub that offers browse and is shade tolerant.

I probably should have explained why I'm looking for a shade tolerant food plot. We own about 40 acres mostly wooded. There is one open area that is about 60 feet wide by about 150 yards long. This is our primary food plot. But it is more towards the east side of our property. In the center of our property is two different bedding/thicket areas and also an old logging road. It is on part of this logging road where we try to grow some food plots.
On 3 sides of our property it is open crop land owned by a very large potato farm. The crops are rotated each year, last year was corn (good for deer hunting, really good) this year will be potatoes. (Not so good to attract deer).
This is why we want to draw deer in to our Woodlore with the potato crops not drawing deer in.

30 feet wide with a big canopy ??

Possible to get rid of some talltrees on the edges?

North Central WI we plant 38 to 42 acres of plots, interior shaded areas are clover. I like Grandpa Rays and or Antler King products.

Let us know how it works for you. Good luck.

here they feed potatoes to the deer by the truck loads

Northern Michigan scrub oak and jackpine blow sand here.
We buy $14 per 100# bags of field rye, very cheap. 19-19-19 fert.
put 1/4 down with 1/4 fert, a month later another 1/4 of seed with little more fert....Doing this over the course of summer. Sometimes mixed with a few #s of cheap mixed birdseed.
Makes a fair plot in the shade and sand of northern Michigan.

Thanks everyone. I will give some of this a try. I'll keep you posted.

A lot of the kale crops have shade tolerance, along with beets, carrots and radishes etc. I would think some of the food plot crops related to those would work in a mix as well.

Bryce