Conceal: We’ve Got You “Covered

By Whitetail Institute Staff Photo by Jason Say

mperial Whitetail CONCEAL is designed to quickly produce screening cover for food

plots, deer bedding, hunter travel and much more. As such, its potential uses are virtually unlimited. CONCEAL sold out last year, and it’s expected to sell out this year too, so don’t delay ordering CONCEAL if you want to be sure you don’t miss out on it this year!

In this article, we’ll use the term “cover” to describe what is in essence “screening”: something that obscures deer or hunters from visibility sufficiently to give deer a feeling of safety coming to your property, staying there, and utilizing the property more often during daylight hours. Winning the Competitive Sport. There’s no question that deer hunting is a competitive sport. While many of us have occasionally connected with deer during past seasons purely by luck, we know that consistent success during hunting season depends almost entirely on the quality of our preparation. The better we prepare, the more our odds of success increase. In essence, preparation is a matter of

stacking the deck in the hunter’s favor in two ways: by maximizing the drawing and holding capacity of our hunting property, and by minimizing the chances that deer will detect us as we move to and from our stands. Both are heavily influenced by the availability of cover. CONCEAL’s Primary Attraction: Cover. Designed to be planted in the spring CONCEAL is a carefully designed blend of fast-growing plant types that produce thick foliage and that grow to different heights, producing a dense wall of foliage up to 8-9 feet tall, which provides highly attractive cover for bedding and travel. CONCEAL’s Secondary Attraction: Food. While CONCEAL is also designed to be attractive to deer as a food source, it’s not designed to replace your food plot plantings. Here again, the Whitetail Institute’s detailed attention to research, development and testing is evident. The Whitetail Institute designed CONCEAL to offer just enough attractiveness as a food source to give deer even more incentive to use it and still maintain its value as cover by regenerating and continuing to grow as deer utilize it.

Examples of Uses for CONCEAL. CONCEAL’s thickness, height and rapid growth make it ideal for establishing bedding areas near food plots and anywhere else you and your deer would benefit from cover such as screening food plots from public roads and neighbors, and dividing large, open areas into plantable strips.

Another application for CONCEAL is to plant it in strips to establish cover for deer and hunter travel. For example, CONCEAL can be used to funnel deer between two heads of woods that are separated by open ground. Consider that by providing deer one way to cross the open space and remain concealed, you can actually alter deer travel so that they walk by your stand! In most cases, planting a strip of CONCEAL about 90-100 feet wide between the two wooded areas is sufficient to allow you to hang stands in multiple locations at each end of the strip so that you can hunt it in any wind direction.

Also consider how important it is that hunters be able to access stands without spooking deer. That can be difficult to impossible in cases where the only way to reach a stand is either through a bedding area that surrounds part of the food plot or across open ground. CONCEAL can be the answer in such cases by allowing you to plant tall, thick cover across the open ground to shield hunter travel. In most cases, planting a strip of CONCEAL at least 15-20 feet wide will be sufficient. Once CONCEAL is established and toward the end of summer, mow a 3-6 foot wide walking path through the middle of the CONCEAL to allow a quiet and concealed entry and exit. One bag of CONCEAL will plant 1/4 acre, which is approximately 20 feet wide by 500 feet long. CONCEAL can also be used to plant little spots of cover to camouflage ground blinds and, for those of us who are getting old enough to need to drive a little closer to our stands, a spot to hide an ATV or other vehicle out of sight. Conclusion. CONCEAL comes in 7lb. bags that will plant ¼ acre and is designed for planting in the spring. Do not plant CONCEAL until soil reaches a constant temperature of 65°or higher.

Finally, keep in mind that if you own the property, it’s a good idea to establish more permanent screening. In most areas, you can identify native grasses, shrubs or trees that can provide permanent screening once they’re mature enough. CONCEAL is an ideal tool for providing screening cover until your permanent screening plants are able to do the job. ^