How do I plant a food plot without a tractor?
Use the throw-and-mow or throw-and-roll method on existing vegetation, or hand-broadcast onto bare ground after a glyphosate burndown. Hand tools, a backpack sprayer, and a seed-spreader are the only equipment needed for plots up to 1-2 acres. Larger plots benefit from a tractor but smaller hunting plots don't require one.
Throw-and-mow workflow: spray the existing vegetation with glyphosate 2 weeks before planting, broadcast seed by hand, then mow over to crimp the dead vegetation onto the seed for soil contact. Works for clover, cereal grains, and small-seeded brassicas.
For larger plots or heavier soils, a small tow-behind disc and broadcast spreader behind an ATV scales up. Crop calendars have planting windows; variety reviews on the farm side cover hand-broadcast-friendly cultivars.