I just finished tilling, seeding, and cultipacking my hunt plot. Sugar beets, turnips, radishes, carrots, forage (oats, beans,and peas) plus others. Then the rains came last night and gave the new seed a drink with no standing water or erosion.
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That’s nice looking soil! You don’t have far to walk to your stand in the morning. You should be able to just sit up in bed and shoot!
Nice plot. Sometimes I think we’re more like deer farmers than deer hunters.
Looks great. This year we planted our kale, turnips and radishes on June 28th. Last year we planted about the end of July and we didn’t get near what we wanted for yield and growth. Of course growing seasons are different. Tyipicslly we try to get them in around the 10th of July.
Nice, buddies corn is 7 ft tall right now! I still have not planted yet , heavy clay and stone after 5.5 inches of rain ,its nothing but mud . Daikon Radish ,Brassica,s turnips and clover this year . First it has to dry up a bit.
I’ve got a lot of learning to do yet since this is my first year. I have yet to figure out what the deer like the best especially during the fall hunting season. I also planted a fruit orchard. Apples may take a year or two, but the northern peaches are looking great!
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One more pic
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I have yet to figure out what the deer like the best especially during the fall hunting season.
I assume you’ll have a few game cams up on the plot. You will shorten your learning curve dramatically after a year. Besides time of year, pay close attention to weather and temps to what food source they eat. Took me a while to really grasp the difference. Ive been amazed how much their diet can change from day to day following snow/rain, heat….
Looks great. This year we planted our kale, turnips and radishes on June 28th. Last year we planted about the end of July and we didn’t get near what we wanted for yield and growth. Of course growing seasons are different. Tyipicslly we try to get them in around the 10th of July.
The #1 problem that food plotters come to me with when it comes to brassicas plots is they are planting too late. I hear all the time that they hear on the outdoor shows that brassicas are a “fall” crop. So they wait too long to plant.
I half jokingly answer that fall in MN starts on July 4th.
Grouse
What percent maturity do you want brassicas at the time of the first killing frost for ones own area?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>riverruns wrote:</div>
Looks great. This year we planted our kale, turnips and radishes on June 28th. Last year we planted about the end of July and we didn’t get near what we wanted for yield and growth. Of course growing seasons are different. Tyipicslly we try to get them in around the 10th of July.The #1 problem that food plotters come to me with when it comes to brassicas plots is they are planting too late. I hear all the time that they hear on the outdoor shows that brassicas are a “fall” crop. So they wait too long to plant.
I half jokingly answer that fall in MN starts on July 4th.
Grouse
Yes. Fall food plots actually start in the early june as well. It takes time for a couple of mowing and spraying and discing.
The planting and using a drag is a piece of cake. 
What percent maturity do you want brassicas at the time of the first killing frost for ones own area?
I would want everything mid to late maturity. Your feeding the deer the tops as well as what’s under them. You want good bulbs.
That is what I researched also. To simplify the whole equation, I averaged my days to maturity of all my brassica varieties, then found the average date of the first killing frost in my area. Basically, my brassicas will be 75% mature on the first killing frost date which is September 19th. The deer cams will tell the real story. We’ve had them out since late May.
Ok, so overnight the deer are back on the plot after seeding my brassicas…and they are eating the seed! What do the experts recommend to slow or stop this at least till the seed germinates???
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Ok, so overnight the deer are back on the plot after seeding my brassicas…and they are eating the seed! What do the experts recommend to slow or stop this at least till the seed germinates???
Got to bury as much of the seed as possible. I disk it in with 2 notches of disk gang and then roll it.
Seed predation is a major food plot issue. Birds are usually the main culprit.
What percent maturity do you want brassicas at the time of the first killing frost for ones own area?
I want all the maturity I can get. Over maturity isn’t an issue unless someone tries to plant brassicas in the spring.
Calculating time to maturity isn’t just about days, it’s really about growing degree days aka heat units. As we lose daylight hours and therefore heat units, growth and maturity in plants slows way down. So the month of Sept doesn’t produce anything close to the crop growth that June does for this reason.
Ive planted too late several times. My property is in the Hinckley area so I plant between June 20 and July 4. This year I planted on July 1.
Grouse
Shoot through mesh on those fish house windows? 
Ok, so overnight the deer are back on the plot after seeding my brassicas…and they are eating the seed! What do the experts recommend to slow or stop this at least till the seed germinates???
I’ll put piles of corn or oats just off the plot when I plant them. I’ll try to kick the piles into the grass some so they have to work at it a little. Not sure if that helps but I feel that it does. Just takes the pressure off the plot for a bit.
DT
I think technically here in the county I’m in Wisconsin, feeding and baiting is illegal. ???
Update on brassica hunt plot:
Grouse was spot on. I should have planted at least a month earlier. Plants and root size are about half due to growing season and heavy grazing by the deer…but they keep hitting it at least a couple times almost every day. Right now it’s groups of does, so hopefully they keep this pattern and draw in some bucks during the rut(s). Fingers crossed.
It takes a long time to come up with a food plot plan that works for your property, CRC. Even with what would seem like an obvious advantage I had with relatives in the ag and seed business, I basically got everything wrong when I started on my own property. And add to that the fact that every year the weather and growing conditions are different…
A couple of thoughts based on what you’ve said in your posts above:
Controlling browsing pressure – I think this is going to be a bigger long-term challenge for your property than will be getting species and planting times right. It sounds like you have a LOT of deer and probably for cover and security reasons they are bedding and living near your plots (which is a good thing!) but they are also feeding constantly on your plots.
You’re already on to one solution–go bigger.
Another thing that really helped me with overbrowsing is to plant less of the “once and done” annuals like soybeans and brassicas, and more of the perennials like clover blends. That all season growth of clover fills a lot more deer so having clover available keeps them off of the annuals that are easily browsed to oblivion.
The second as already mentioned is some kind of barrier system. I use and we are dealers of the PlotSAVER system because electric fence is impractical for the size and layout of my property. But I have plenty of customers who DO use and swear by electric fencing as well, so really down to what works for your property and budget.
Keep after it though! You’re doing really well on your property and you have accomplished a lot just this season.
Grouse
Great info Grouse. One other mistake I may have made. I think I overseeded my brassica hunt plot causing too much competition between the plants. Thanks again, Dave R.
Great info Grouse. One other mistake I may have made. I think I overseeded my brassica hunt plot causing too much competition between the plants.
Brassicas are VERY sensitive to being too crowded. See the post “Don’t be that guy” on the Midwest Monster Blog where I show what happens when someone (in this case, um, me) seeds too heavily.
This is a really common mistake with brassicas. Food plotters complain all the time to me, “Yeah, I tried brassicas but all I got was little itty bitty golf ball-sized turnips and such.”
Then I ask them to show me how far apart where these brassicas. They usually show me a couple of inches apart. That’s way, way too close.
A brassicas plot should NOT look like a green carpet when it is young. You should see plenty of bare dirt around every plant. Brassicas are fast-growing, but as such they need space because they suck up a LOT of fertilizer. Crowd them and they’ll never forgive you.
And BTW, the second issue I see constantly with brassicas is lack of fertilizer. Guys don’t believe me when I tell them that the MINIMUM fertilizer routine I recommend is:
1. At planting – 20-20-20 at 100 to 150 pounds per acre.
2. When plants are 6-8 inches high on average – 64-0-0 (also called Urea) at 100 to pounds per acre.
3. Monitor plants for yellowing leaves that are not attributable to drought. Top dress as needed to maintain green plot.
So that’s at least 200 pounds of fertilizer per acre of brassicas. Really. And often they need more. Some food plotters find this hard to believe so they skimp and then are finally surprised at how big their brassicas get when they finally do follow the recommendation.
I’ll keep this going. Thus is our second year of planting brassicas. We changed brands this year and the deer don’t seem to like the greens in them as well. Is it the brand or something else?
We changed brands this year and the deer don’t seem to like the greens in them as well. Is it the brand or something else?
Well, the serious big deer guys are all growing Midwest Monster plot blends these days. Hey, I had too say it…
Generally we don’t grow brassicas for the leaves. In fact the starchy leaves are an advantage because lots of leaf browsing = less bulb or root growth.
I’m watching a plot of our Brassicas Bender mix right now. I’ve seen 14 deer on the last 4 hours of sitting here. Brassicas are the firearms season hunter’s best friend.
Grouse
Mr Grouse, did you protect any of your brassica plot till hunting season?
Mr Grouse, did you protect any of your brassica plot till hunting season?
No, I didn’t protect it by fencing or using the PlotSAVER system, however…
One of the best ways I’ve found to protect brassicas is by offering the deer something else to eat. Make the brassicas tops the worst tasting food they have available during the summer and fall and they will choose to eat elsewhere until the brassicas are ready in the late fall when everything else is dead or buried by snow.
I grow soybeans and clover in the same plots or near the brassicas because both these foods are preferred by the deer in the early fall. This produces great bow hunting and it also takes the pressure off the brassicas because the deer only want soybeans and clover for as long as they can get it.
But if you don’t have enough space, I have lots of customers who protect their brassicas plots using the PlotSAVER system. Works just as well on brassicas as it does on soybeans which is what I use it for.
Picture from yesterday evening.
Grouse
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Yes, my brassicas are right next to a clover planting. Next spring the clover plot is getting doubled in size since it was so overgrazed this first year.
I picked several of our brassicas when I was hunting last time and brought them home and put them in the bunk feeder….deer won’t touch them…..I stopped giving them corn for almost a week and they would just go by and not eat them…..damn picky suburban deer. I did have a nice buck just run off a doe from the feeder.
I picked several of our brassicas when I was hunting last time and brought them home and put them in the bunk feeder….deer won’t touch them…..
Not uncommon at all. The deer don’t know what they are.
I had the same issue at my hunting property when I first tried brassicas. Deer ignored acres of them. Finally they figured it out and it’s been game on ever since.
Grouse
I picked several of our brassicas when I was hunting last time and brought them home and put them in the bunk feeder….deer won’t touch them…..I stopped giving them corn for almost a week and they would just go by and not eat them…..damn picky suburban deer.
It may not be they don’t like it.
Watching them in my plot, they will have a large branch in their mouth then it gets pinched off and drops to the ground. They never pick that piece back up and finish it. They always snip off a new, fresh stalk.
So your picking some is kinda like offering them all the dropped stalks which they won’t eat.
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