Few questions on food plots

[land 1]

So this year i planted July 20th and 21st, last year was august 8th what r the pros and cons of earlier vs later,  also if you find one thing the deer really like in my case turnips is it better to have a wide range of plants, i perfer late season foods i do have some clover, and how r wild apples doing mine didnt do anything this year. this is my only second year with plots and like other people in-put , hopefully things go as well as last yr

[goosifer]

What region did you plant in? In areas where its been unusually dry, like northern Niagara county, the two extra weeks might not make a big difference as far as when the plants mature. Now that is just a semi-educated guess, but certainly a factor to consider.

[G-Man]

the 1st year i planted turnips was july 1st. they were awesome. bulbs made it to size of volley balls deer chewed away at them all winter. following year i planed august and deer pulled the whole damn plant out and field was empty by end if october. i now plant midjuly when rain is called for.  seems a happy medium.

[LET EM GROW]

I dont think it bothers a deer so much in the middle of winter when food is scarce, but if i was competing with neighbors I would try not to plant much earlier than need to. As bulbs grow bigger they become less palatable, vs younger baseball sized bulbs. Again, in the middle of winter and with no other bulb plots around you probably dont have an issue. On my end, I compete with many neighbors who plant bulb/winter plots as well. I try to keep my bulb planting dates around the 1st of August in Central Steuben county. 

I seeded mine Friday   7/20 this year because i wont have the time around the first of the month. They were also calling for rain this weekend and I wanted to make sure i had bulbs with an earlier planting vs the chance of no bulbs with a later planting. My winter plots this year are PTT, GHR, Rutabaga and Kale.  

Most Turnips need around 60 days to mature. some more, some less. But having to be planted in middle of summer when most places are dry. If you are within the end July Early august time frame when rain is near... plant on. Rain is more important than timing sometimes

[WNYBuckHunter]

I have found that things in my area are similar to what Let Em Grow explained. Early July Turnip plantings end up with very large bulbs, and those only seem to get eaten by rabbits and woodchucks. The deer will eat the greens off of them but thats it. Late July and early August plantings end up with baseball or softball size bulbs, and the deer hammer those.

I will have my seed in the ground the first weekend of August this year. I would rather put them in this coming weekend, but I will be out of town. My mix this year will be Purple Top Turnips, Groundhog Radish, Rape, Ladino clover and Winter Rye.

[moog5050]

17 minutes ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

I have found that things in my area are similar to what Let Em Grow explained. Early July Turnip plantings end up with very large bulbs, and those only seem to get eaten by rabbits and woodchucks. The deer will eat the greens off of them but thats it. Late July and early August plantings end up with baseball or softball size bulbs, and the deer hammer those.

I will have my seed in the ground the first weekend of August this year. I would rather put them in this coming weekend, but I will be out of town. My mix this year will be Purple Top Turnips, Groundhog Radish, Rape, Ladino clover and Winter Rye.

I would have liked to have held off for 10 day more days or so but I had the tractor when I had it and rain was coming so I planted this last weekend.  Hopefully is works out.  The mix sounds close to what you are using John.

Edited July 23, 2018 by moog5050

[WNYBuckHunter]

21 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

I would have liked to have held off for 10 day more days or so but I had the tractor when I had it and rain was coming so I planted this last weekend.  Hopefully is works out.  The mix sounds close to what you are using John.

Youll be fine. If I was able to get my stuff in the ground this weekend, I would have done all of it except the winter rye, which I would have over seeded the plots with a few weeks later. Its a great mix, did you pick your stuff up at Turners?

[moog5050]

14 minutes ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

Youll be fine. If I was able to get my stuff in the ground this weekend, I would have done all of it except the winter rye, which I would have over seeded the plots with a few weeks later. Its a great mix, did you pick your stuff up at Turners?

We had a bit of a hodge podge John.  I used Frigid Forage big n beasty blend with some whitetail institute clover at my place.  In mendon, we used the same blend that Phade bought last year at tractor supply (don't recall name but it worked great).  He was able to grab  2 more bags this year plus what I had left of the frigid forage.  Now just hoping for some more rain. 

[land 1]

 

well camp is 

 

 

 

 

Camp is down in chennango co. no neighbors have plots and the reason i planted earlier was the rain we had forecast and we did get it, i planted big n beasty and tall tine tubers, I dont think i got to worry about rabitts and chucks, I ve only seen a few rabitts and 1 chuck in 2 yrs, and the way the deer ate this stuff last year bigger may be better, we will see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[land 1]

ment to say say neighbors do not have plots and very limited ag in area

[WNYBuckHunter]

18 minutes ago, land 1 said:

Camp is down in chennango co. no neighbors have plots and the reason i planted earlier was the rain we had forecast and we did get it, i planted big n beasty and tall tine tubers, I dont think i got to worry about rabitts and chucks, I ve only seen a few rabitts and 1 chuck in 2 yrs, and the way the deer ate this stuff last year bigger may be better, we will see.

Bigger is better when it comes to greens, but not with the tubers (bulbs) in my experience. Its pretty easy to test yourself, just pick some of the turnips that are at different sizes and eat them. You will find that the larger they get after they hit softball size, the more they become woody tasting and the texture really changes at that point too. I have tons of trail cam photos and videos showing them yanking the smaller ones out of the ground and eating them, seen it with my own eyes from stands and blinds as well. Never once have I gotten one of a deer eating the larger tubers, or seen them eat them in person.

Again, this is my experience in the area I hunt and plant food plots over the last 7 or 8 years. I am in heavy ag country, so that may have something to do with it. If there is little ag near your area, the deer may be driven to eat the less palatable large bulbs, whereas in my area, theres enough food where they dont have to.

[LET EM GROW]

WNY stated it perfect, eat it for yourself. I do that with everything i plant. lol. They prefer smaller more palatable ones over the bigger woody bulbs/tubers. But they eat whats available. I'm sure they will eat them regardless of size during harsh winter months. In reality, they are eating woody browse as a main food source then anyways. But when it comes time to compete with neighbors, i highly suggest keeping them on the smaller baseball type size.

Even with the bigger ones in my experience also, they'll only eat the op half of them anyways.

But plant when you can and when mother nature allows optimum conditions.  

[moog5050]

Let it rain baby!  Just started up again.

Edited July 23, 2018 by moog5050

[land 1]

I think i got enough rain lol flash flood warning now down by camp as the ground is saturated

[G-Man]

1 hour ago, LET EM GROW said:

WNY stated it perfect, eat it for yourself. I do that with everything i plant. lol. They prefer smaller more palatable ones over the bigger woody bulbs/tubers. But they eat whats available. I'm sure they will eat them regardless of size during harsh winter months. In reality, they are eating woody browse as a main food source then anyways. But when it comes time to compete with neighbors, i highly suggest keeping them on the smaller baseball type size.

Even with the bigger ones in my experience also, they'll only eat the op half of them anyways.

But plant when you can and when mother nature allows optimum conditions.  

i agree but larger bulbs are left for late season. a small turnip plot by me will be wiped out by mid oct. even with apples ect around . they left them alone 1st year then they start eating the tops in sept now.  a late palnting for late season here wpuld be a fail..early seems the bulbs to last and be the late season draw for muzzleloader.. every place is different for populations and food sources..this year all the farms by me are in cereal grain and will be picked early normally it would all becorn usually leaving it stand till muzzleloader messing up season fo me...lol

[LET EM GROW]

45 minutes ago, G-Man said:

i agree but larger bulbs are left for late season. a small turnip plot by me will be wiped out by mid oct. even with apples ect around . they left them alone 1st year then they start eating the tops in sept now.  a late palnting for late season here wpuld be a fail..early seems the bulbs to last and be the late season draw for muzzleloader.. every place is different for populations and food sources..this year all the farms by me are in cereal grain and will be picked early normally it would all becorn usually leaving it stand till muzzleloader messing up season fo me...lol

I tried getting my bulbs to get big back in the day.. And i could hardly ever get them much bigger than softballs. But the earliest i ever planted was late July, and i do not use fertilizer often. Just rotate crops, and let different seed species feed one another. Last year mine, as well as my neighbors brassicas were all wiped out by November. thats many acres of bulbs lol. Never sene it before. We both planted late July, but had dry conditions. Hope they dont wipe them out early season again. 

[G-Man]

43 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

I tried getting my bulbs to get big back in the day.. And i could hardly ever get them much bigger than softballs. But the earliest i ever planted was late July, and i do not use fertilizer often. Just rotate crops, and let different seed species feed one another. Last year mine, as well as my neighbors brassicas were all wiped out by November. thats many acres of bulbs lol. Never sene it before. We both planted late July, but had dry conditions. Hope they dont wipe them out early season again. 

phosperous and potassium are more important than nitrogen for bulb production. nitrogen is good for leaves. my big concern isnt really hunting over the plot but providing enough food through the winter for survival. bulbs do that as well as acres of standing corn i leave. the leaves are early season casualties by me

Edited July 23, 2018 by G-Man

[LET EM GROW]

I just saw this picture the other day. Thought it was very interesting. I dont have enough acreage for corn, nor the money to invest in feeding growing corn etc. I wish i did, cause ive seen what it can do in winter months. 

I normally dont hunt my food plots much either, unless a buck shows a pattern or what not. but try to catch them in between. Unless we have the perfect access routes setup its hard to get in and out of plots undetected most times. And the last thing we want is deer, especially mature ones, picking us off coming to or going from our stand  

[G-Man]

the coloration of leaves will be present in all plants and is very evident on brassica. its a helpful chart when wondering what is wrong with your plot. 

[LET EM GROW]

totally agree g man. I remember seeing purple and yellows in my brassicas the first couple years. Since then, i rarely see a non green brassica plant.