The Good Lord has given us about a week of beautiful dry weather and our food plots are in. Last Saturday, we put in several brassica plots and Winter wheat and oats plots. Monday we put in our first ever alfalfa plot along with a winter rye and oats plot and some more brassicas (rape and radishes). Today our final plots of winter rye and oats and brassicas went in. Two weeks prior to this beautiful weather, we had plenty of rain so soil moisture was high. The plots that we planted on Saturday and Monday have already germinated and are looking good. My prayers now is we don't get any hurricanes with massive amounts of rain and drown our efforts. May the wildlife EAT WELL!
I planted winter wheat and turnips last night. Rains came this morning.
Quote from: nativeks on August 29, 2020, 01:45:09 PM
I planted winter wheat and turnips last night. Rains came this morning.
Perfect timing Native. I pray for Good Rain and Abundant Sunshine for your plots. Get some triple 19 on those turnips at the 3 to 4 leaf stage and pray for an inch of rain a week and you should have turnips the size of softballs in a couple of months. Good Luck!
I cant get deer to eat turnips. This will be year 5. I had monster turnips last year and what I didnt pick to eat rotted in the grou d.
Wow. They devour mine here in Eastern NC. They will normally leave them alone until November, when the leaves fall of the trees and we get our first frost, and by the end of January first couple of weeks of February they will have them mowed to the ground. Do they eat the green tops? Have you tried Rape and or Radishes as an alternative?
Thank god, here comes deer season.....
Last year I did a turnip/radish mix. They mow then down after the first couple freezes and the starches convert to sugars. They dont touch the bulbs.
Since they won't eat the bulbs, I would suggest a mix of Dwarf Essex Rape and Seven Top Turnips. Both of these varieties produce HUGE leaves but very little root mass. They will grow GREAT GREEN TONNAGE with an addition of high nitrogen fertilizer. These varieties will normally be $1 to $2 per pound at most seed stores. And as you said, a good frost or two will cause the sugar content to rise and the deer will pound them.
Coming along nicely.(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200908/6bb2a6d52c8fa0a7490fcc92b6fdf63d.jpg)
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Nice stand of WW and turnips after only 10 days. Looks as if the turnips are pretty thick. Grab a couple bags of 19-19-19 and you should see some good growth in a couple of weeks. Great work Native!
Looks great!!
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Lack of rain killing my plots
I went to our lease Monday, four weeks after planting, and the plots look really good. We received about 2 inches of rain last Thursday into Friday plus a half inch here and there over the last month. The Brassicas are doing well with growth in the 6-8 inch range. Wheat and rye are doing excellent as well. I have fertilized the brassicas once but will put on another dose of Trip 19 in another week or so. We are seeing cooler temps this past week but temps pick back up this weekend. As long as the hurricanes, in the Atlantic, continue to be Fish storms we should have some Very Nice plots by our first frost in November.
We havent had rain since I planted and looking at the forecast the weather looks beautiful but zero chance of rain in the next 2 weeks.
I planted clovers yesterday in two plots at my deer camp. Rain was estimated to be around 1.5" which would've been perfect. Woke up to 3" and still raining....
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Tried wheat and turnips last year planting 0n 9-14-19 was surprises that deer went after the turnips after a couple frosts. In jan they went after the bulbs and by like march only hollowed out shells remained. Put in same on 9-17-20 did add some brassicas and clovers in the mix.
Found my old pics, this was 1-18-20
I don't ever have issues with deer eating so much as keeping them from eating it all too fast.
Clover & chicory
Brassica oats and rye (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200924/50265d9e5f4930201a5ccbbef1289ed5.jpg)
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I gave the guys that let me hunt their land a few bags of this stuff, don't know if it is the best, they do not seem to want to soil test though I wish they would. (I even offered to pay to have some of it done) They are more into deer hunting for the most part than turkey hunting so I tried to give them something that would help both species a bit. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/evolved-harvest-mega-plot-hunter-series-20-73001
We have the best luck in our area with just clover , and keeping it maintained and fertilized ... deer and turkey love it...
There is some clovers in that mix but not sure what kind since I was in hospital and got neighbor to plant it for me this year.. Want to top sow some clover this late winter, we're in USDA zone 7 I believe so first aver frost oct 31 and last aver frost april 1. A red clover grows wild here some places so thought that and some type of white clover. Fertilizer and lime is gonna be a must tho.
Since Sept 1 we have had .25" of rain. It is in the 80s with no chance of rain in the forecast through the next 14 days. Food plots are dead for the most part. I do have a shaded plot that is barely hanging on and seeing some traffic. Did manage to shoot a doe Oct 1.