2011 Food Plot Seed Order

I am getting ready to place my 2011 food plot seed orders. Any recommendations on good places to buy. I am specifically looking for the following.

Eagle Forage Beans and,

A very good Brassica mix with hopefully a 20%+ mix of sugar beets. I like turnips but have noticed that mixes with multiple different roots seem to lengthen the season of the plot as some turn sweet earlier.

I noticed a QDM club in Eau Claire, WI has what appears to be what I am looking for. Has anyone ordered from them before?

I haven’t but let us know what you find out I would be interested in your Brassica/sugar beet mix too

I’m also looking for brassicas. The rest of the stuff we plant is readily available locally.

I planted the brassica sugar beat blend at my cabin last year. The problem is that Sugar beats should be planted much earlier than the brassicas, They all grew real good.But very small sugar beet bulbs, The deer loved the greens so I would consider planting them again. But probably earlier like mid July. as far as brassica seed we can get it from Dundas mn in any quantity that you want. I planted Biologic winter bulbs and sugar beets

Thanks Bob – Thats what I was wondering, as it sounds like beets and turnips are almost two different seasons, so the question is does one try to plant the turnips earlier or try to mix the beets in with a different plot like a late spring plot of clover, chicory, etc etc. Might have to experiment. Do you think you can plant the beets too early? I remember Ma planting beets in early June with all of the other veggies but dont know if they would be any good by Nov-Dec.

yes they are two different animals.there is still a lawsuit going on with the rr sugar beets(Monsanto) so its very hard to control the weeds when spring planted
They should be planted in the spring,but I know that pat has had good luck planting his brassicas early, So maybe a blend of brassicas and beets planted late june might work OK. As soon as the rr beets are available again I will be planting them again

After some analizing the options I have found that sugar beeta are highly overrated!! The cost to effectivly plant, fertilize, control weed is roughly 7 times as much for sugar beets over tunrups!! They do not grow well in most soils as well as they need plenty of rain, all these factors have me planting turnups and rape, they eatem, they are healthy and very cost effective!! I can’t wait to put the Eagle seed beans to the test!! We will see if they are all they are cracked up to be!! My problem with spring planting of brassicas is they grow to big to fast due to the spring rains and then when the hotter drier parts of the summer come the go nto drought protection mode and start dropping foliage inattempt to keep themselves alive, they will live but typicaly have burnt up a lot of the nutrients in the ground by fall and the regeneration of new tender foligae is jusgt not rapid enough to gain back the tonnage you had in ealry summer WHEN the deer are keying in on other ffoods sources!

I get all of our stuff from Albert Lea Seed. They have a very large selection of food plot seeds and will have all of your brassicas and beets. They did not have Eagle Seed beans last year but they may have them this year. (They ship speedy delivery).

As mentioned by Bob, I would also highly recommend planting your Sugar Beets early. I planted them with my brassica mix this year in the begining of Aug and they just did not develop fast enough. I was left with few beets because the radishes and turnips out competed them and the few that I did have were small in bulb size. They are very needy in regards to soil nutrients.

As far as the Eagle Seed beans, it was the first year we planted them and I was quite impressed. Though they did not produce a very high yeild in regards to beans, the amount of forage/green tonnage was immense. They stayed green well into October and grew to 4’+. I have some pictures of them here

http://www.idohunting.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=habitat&Number=652853&fpart=1&PHPSESSID=

At the bottom of this link is a pic of them starting to turn (10/10/10) and some of the pods. They only produce about half as much yeild but far greater quantities of tonnage. Deer hammered them late summer into bow season and again late season.

http://www.idohunting.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=habitat&Number=658073&fpart=1&PHPSESSID=

Quote:

---

yes they are two different animals.there is still a lawsuit going on with the rr sugar beets(Monsanto) so its very hard to control the weeds when spring planted
They should be planted in the spring,but I know that pat has had good luck planting his brassicas early, So maybe a blend of brassicas and beets planted late june might work OK. As soon as the rr beets are available again I will be planting them again

---

It sounds like Monsanto may end up on the winning side of this I got word the other day that they are not going to have to kill off the seedlings that they were originally ordered to do. That is great news!!

Quote:

---

Thanks Bob – Thats what I was wondering, as it sounds like beets and turnips are almost two different seasons, so the question is does one try to plant the turnips earlier or try to mix the beets in with a different plot like a late spring plot of clover, chicory, etc etc. Might have to experiment. Do you think you can plant the beets too early? I remember Ma planting beets in early June with all of the other veggies but dont know if they would be any good by Nov-Dec.

---

Go in and get your turips planted early and then come in later with whatever else you want in the plot and and drill right over the already developed turnips. The hearty turnip will be able to take the disruption that the drill will cause and you will get your plot to mature like you want it to