seed bed preparation for our small hard seed plots

I know it’s still too early to plant my brassicas. (rape turnips etc, but I have been spraying and preparing some plots so that when the time comes I will be ready. other than having a good worked up plot, your seed bed for these small seeds should be very firm, If my footstep is more than 1/2″ deep the seedbed is too soft. I use a cultipacker before and after I plant the brassicas or clover. you can use a lawn roller, chainlink fence or even your ATV to firm and also pack your plot after planting. in 2008 i conducted an experiment using a cultipacker on 1/2 of a rape and turnip plot. The cultipacked part of the plot was up and growing in 5 days, the non packed part took another 4 days to come up and was not as thick as the cultipacked portion of the field! One other thing is to measure your plots and use the recomended seeding rates on them. Again with turnips and any other brassica heavy seeding will result in a short stand that will turn your leaves purple and also produce very small turnip bulbs. remember plant these seeds no more than 1/8″ deep! all they need is seed to soil contact to grow. Good luck on your fall plots!!

Bobss, I have a question??? Is it too early to plant those????

The only reason I asked I was experimenting with some stuff last year and actually planted a Rape & Turnip plot on June 1st. This thing took off like gangbusters and by mid July it was well over 24″ high and the size of the leaves were unreal. CLICK HERE I had turnips bigger then a Pop Can.

Are there any disadvantages to planting it early? It seemed with the Hotter Summer heat and adequate moisture this plot put out some serious tonnage for the deer.

I have planted this seed blend (Turnips and Rape from EH) for a few years (4-5) in Early to Late August with pretty good results that had me using it again and again, but nothing remotely compared to this early planted plot. I thought a lot of the time my plots would get hit with that first frost/freeze in September sometimes and stop growing. Especially on our property up by McGregor, MN. So I thought I would try planting it earlier close to home on my Test Plot, see what happens and be able to monitor it. The post I linked above was at about 53 days after planting. After seeing the results from last year it really made me think. What are your thoughts?

I totally agree with the hard firm seed bed. I have been using the tires of the wheeler and tractor since I started om my small plots.

One of the bigger Turnips I found!

Never too early for me!! This plot was seeded in May!! The only disadvantages I have found are you get much higher weed compition when spring planting rather than late summer or “fall” and once the plants reach maturity the deer will begin hitting them, not as hard as after the frost but they will be in there. Im using them as a tool under my bow stands that I dont hunt much late season simply due to their natural migration coupled with neighboring land owners leaves very few deer around. Hoping that this will draw them in dispite all the natural food source that become avalible in early fall(acorns/ Changing fall foliage/farm feailds/apples) Im going for tonnage and thats it, some may say that the palitabilty wont be as good as the younger stuff, thats fine trust me they still eat it! I had some pushing 3 ft last fall and they were the first to get hit!!

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Bobss, I have a question??? Is it too early to plant those????

The only reason I asked I was experimenting with some stuff last year and actually planted a Rape & Turnip plot on June 1st. This thing took off like gangbusters and by mid July it was well over 24″ high and the size of the leaves were unreal. CLICK HERE I had turnips bigger then a Pop Can.

Are there any disadvantages to planting it early? It seemed with the Hotter Summer heat and adequate moisture this plot put out some serious tonnage for the deer.

I have planted this seed blend (Turnips and Rape from EH) for a few years (4-5) in Early to Late August with pretty good results that had me using it again and again, but nothing remotely compared to this early planted plot. I thought a lot of the time my plots would get hit with that first frost/freeze in September sometimes and stop growing. Especially on our property up by McGregor, MN. So I thought I would try planting it earlier close to home on my Test Plot, see what happens and be able to monitor it. The post I linked above was at about 53 days after planting. After seeing the results from last year it really made me think. What are your thoughts?

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Thats a nice looking plot!! If you are that far north and the leaves don’t dry up before freeze up I would go ahead and plant them anytime from the end of june thru the end of july. I Have also been moving my planting dates up on my northern food plots,and have had better luck. My plots in southern mn still seem to do the best when planted the last week of july.

That plot in the above link is a Metro plot and I too found similar things to QDM, The deer will browse in it, but once the first frost or two hits the leaves go from thick down to about nothing in about a week. Then they started the Turnips. This plot is fairly small so it didn’t take long before it was gone!

As far as weed competition goes, the soil was pretty well wiped as clean as it can get before planting and they seeds I planted erupted so fast it pretty much drowned out all the competing weeds and built a good canopy not getting sunglight through for those competing weeds.

Thanks for the tips and info QDM and Bobss!

For those new to ploting these photos show just how fast it can go after the hard frosts begin, but look at the tonnage! This plot was seeded mid June in the Metro, had pics of 7 new bucks in 4 days hit this plot, the big six (middle pic) ran them all off!! Only to get hit by a car

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these photos show just how fast it can go after the hard frosts begin

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I hear ya QDM!