winter food plot

[LABS4ME]

The deer have just been hammering the turnips and radishes the past few weeks. I have seen as many as 20 deer in this small field at dusk. They have the option of standing corn a half section away and yet are destroying this plot....

Good Luck!

Ken

[Scott K]

Nice to see, I havent gotten up to see what they have done to mine yet.

[minky]

Looks like they are hitting the plot hard!

When is the best time to plant turnips for late fall and winter deer use?

[LABS4ME]

Some plots we plant in mid-late May if we want to help build the soil up with very large tubers. Otherwise we'll typically plant late July - late August.... We usually plant w/ radish, forage oats and rape in the fall plots. If we plant in late spring, we do radish, cow peas, crimson clover and rape ( and sometimes some soy beans) with the turnips.

Was up over new years eve and they were still hitting plots hard. They were really digging through the snow to get to the food...

Good luck!

Ken

[minky]

Thanks Ken, I am new to the food plot game and will put your information to good use next spring. Minky

[LABS4ME]

Enjoy Minky... habitat improvements become addicting once you start to see the changes in your herd.

I'd maybe do a late summer planting. Spray the plot in May and June with round up to kill down all the weeds. Plant late july - early August. Put down a 19-19-19 fertilizer and work up the soil. Brassica is a pretty heavy feeder. You can broadcast seed, just make sure to drag it to get good soil contact.

I'd maybe do 25-35 pounds of forage oats, 7 pounds of turnip, 7 pounds of daikon radish and 3 pounds of rape per acre. You'll have good food from end of August through the winter and very little weeds.

If your plots are going to be ready this spring, you can plant it late May. Maybe add in some peas or beans to the mix and maybe some crimson clover. I'd probably forget the oats or greatly diminish the amount.

Do not plant brassica more than 2 consecutive years in a row in a plot... You risk losing the plot to disease.

Good Luck!

Ken

[minky]

Hi Ken, I know this is a little off subject but do you plant any soft mast trees like apples around your food plots?

[LABS4ME]

We just planted 20 apple trees this fall. There is a thread on here about that. Pretty excited about the future with the orchard... Was the old cow pasture and was technically 'useless' for anything. Too rocky to turn into a plot, just old pasture grass that the deer had no interest in.

We have in past plot projects planted crab apples and hawthorns in and around the plots... Some of the trails received Juneberry trees. We do these as much for the grouse and turkeys as the deer. We have planted over 4000 trees in the CRP... Many of those are soft mast. Nanking cherry, chokecherry, viburnum, elderberry. The song birds and pheasants are really happy about those!

If you are going to plant apples, let me know this fall. Many years I have access to nice trees at a very reasonable Price at the end of the season.

Good Luck!

Ken

[minky]

Thanks for the offer, I may take you up on it this fall.

I checked out your thread on tree planting, looks great!

Thanks again for all the info and taking the time to answer my questions.

Darell