Turnips in

[wolc123]

I got a couple small plots of purple tops in yesterday.  I went light on the seed and heavy on the fertilizer.  The new Chapin bag spreader worked pretty good for the fertilizer.  The 80 day sweetcorn in the back of the photo is tassled good and probably 2 weeks from being ripe enough to eat.  I left some buckwheat between that and the turnips, which will get worked up and planted with wheat/soybeans/white clover mix in September.  The field corn in the front (planted May 30 same as the sweetcorn), is looking pretty good and up about 6 feet but not tassled yet.   I will probably start trapping coons in about 2 weeks to try and save some sweetcorn to eat and field corn for deer season.  

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by wolc123

[Lomax]

Nice corn is looking good.  Mine suffered from lack of rain but is coming along now but won’t be as good as previous years

I mowed and fertilized 4 1/2 acre plots this past weekend and sprayed them tonight w round up.  Going to till them up in next week and plant turnips radishes and brassicas for later season draw. Try and plan to spread the seed just before some rain that’s the plan

[corydd7]

Wolc, does all your corn tassel at the same time?

[catskillkid]

Nice job, looking good. You should have a great deer season

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, Lomax said:

Nice corn is looking good.  Mine suffered from lack of rain but is coming along now but won’t be as good as previous years

I mowed and fertilized 4 1/2 acre plots this past weekend and sprayed them tonight w round up.  Going to till them up in next week and plant turnips radishes and brassicas for later season draw. Try and plan to spread the seed just before some rain that’s the plan

That sounds like a good plan.   We are supposed to get some rain here in WNY tonight and tomorrow.   I was not going to put the turnips in until the weekend but my plans changed when the gearbox wore out on my rotary mower last week.  I am picking up a new mower on Saturday, so that left me some time to plant the turnips yesterday.   I wanted to have all my mowing done by now, but that will have to wait until the weekend.   

My corn is looking as good as it ever has at this time of year.   Hopefully, it will last and hold some deer around thru gun season (unlike last year when I did not even see any after opening day).  That all depends on how the coon trapping goes.   There sure is a lot of them around this year.   I would like to start trapping them now (my wife saw a whole coon family between our house and barn when she drove in last night).  The NY state DEC says that you can't trap them until they cause "damage", so I will wait until they start tasting that sweetcorn before I start.  They always begin hitting that a few days before it is ripe enough for people to eat.      

47 minutes ago, corydd7 said:

Wolc, does all your corn tassel at the same time?

The sweetcorn in that photo was all 80 day variety, planted the same day, so should all tassel around the same time. The fieldcorn must be a later ripening type because it has not even started yet.   I planted more of that 80 day stuff out back. I also planted some 90 day sweetcorn and some fieldcorn back there, but I messed up by planting the 90 day stuff closer to the "late" field corn so it will probably cross-pollinate a bit.   The corn patches are smaller and closer together back there with no buckwheat left, and just a narrow strip of turnips now in between.   

Edited July 22, 2020 by wolc123

[UpStateRedNeck]

Nice roller Wolc!  I need me one of those.

[wolc123]

8 hours ago, UpStateRedNeck said:

Nice roller Wolc!  I need me one of those.

That one needed a bit of work when I got it but the price was right (a case of Genny cream). I scrapped two broken wheels, cut the width down from 8 ft to 7, and made new treated wood bearings.  It has worked good at my place for the last 15 years.

I just paid a neighbor 40 dollars for one just like it that was in similar condition. Fixing it up will be a good winter project. I have had about enough of trying to cover seeds with ATV tires or by dragging a log at my folks place.

 

 

 

 

[UpStateRedNeck]

3 hours ago, wolc123 said:

That one needed a bit of work when I got it but the price was right (a case of Genny cream). I scrapped two broken wheels, cut the width down from 8 ft to 7, and made new treated wood bearings.  It has worked good at my place for the last 15 years.

I just paid a neighbor 40 dollars for one just like it that was in similar condition. Fixing it up will be a good winter project. I have had about enough of trying to cover seeds with ATV tires or by dragging a log at my folks place.

 

 

 

 

I heard that last part.  Need to find something like what you just described!

[Lomax]

Got 2 plots in

 And one tilled up getting ready to be planted. 

[landtracdeerhunter]

Nice looking plantings. About ready to plating rice here,  with 3  1/2" inches or rainfall since 12:20 Monday afternoon. 

[BizCT]

Looks great

[wolc123]

The purple tops are up a few inches and the distribution looks ok.  They were seeded on the light side with plenty of fertilizer.  If we get some decent rain over the next couple weeks, they ought to do good.

The buckwheat to the east (white flowered) is about 4 ft tall and will get Bush-hoged in about a week.  I use that for weed suppression and to build up the topsoil.  I will disk that up and broadcast a soybean, wheat, white clover mix in early September.

The sweetcorn beyond that buckwheat is just starting to ripen.  We had some for lunch yesterday.  I lost about a dozen ears to coons and have trapped and buried 3 of them over the last few days.

The rr fielcorn to the west is now fully tasked and making ears.  It is almost weed free, unlike the non-RR sweetcorn which I was too lazy to hoe.

 

[wolc123]

Both these turnip plots were planted on 7/21, seeded and fertilized at the same rate.  Due to dry conditions, the one on the poorly drained ground out back (top photo)did a bit better than the one on the well drained ground up front.  They are up about 18" and thick out back and 12" and thin up front.  We have got a fee good rains over the last few days and it is supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow.  It will be interesting to see if the slower plot on the well drained ground catches up.

Edited August 29, 2020 by wolc123

[wolc123]

Some of these purple-tops have reached the size of basketballs now.  The deer have picked the adjacent corn clean, but have not touched the turnips yet.  This ought to be a good spot for Late ML season.

[suburbanfarmer]

I have planted forage turnips for 3 yrs and deer dont touch them till late january in my area

[ncountry]

A friend of mine plants a turnip and rape mixture. He doesnt put his in until mid to late August.  The dear absolutely love the tops. The root or bulb never matures and they don't seem to touch that until December.  

[wolc123]

I have seen them get on them pretty good in mid-December, if it is cold and snowy.  The one bb, that I shot from my bedroom window on the last day of ML that year, had a mouth full of turnip greens when he died.  I can't recall ever seeing them eat the bulbs, but they like the greens after they get frozen good.

[surmn8er]

Deer are hitting my turnips and radishes hard including the bulbs. Mostly at night though and they don't have a whole lot of other options with no ag near by and the acorns pretty much gone.

[wolc123]

21 minutes ago, surmn8er said:

Deer are hitting my turnipi syolls and radishes hard including the bulbs. Mostly at night though and they don't have a whole lot of other options with no ag near by and the acorns pretty much gone.

I still have quite a bit of standing corn, and they rarely start on the turnips until that is picked pretty clean.  One of the advantages of a high coyote population, is that small acreage of corn lasts a lot longer.  Coyotes love eating coons.

[Will_C]

Maybe it's lack of acorns, but my turnips have been hammered over the last month, Never seen deer touch them until the first part of December before. 

[wolc123]

Just now, Will_C said:

Maybe it's lack of acorns, but my turnips have been hammered over the last month, Never seen deer touch them until the first part of December before. 

Is there any corn around ? 

[Will_C]

No corn within 2 miles. Hasn't been in previous years either.

[suburbanfarmer]

Interesting, what zones are you guys in. My plot is in 8f

[wolc123]

13 minutes ago, suburbanfarmer said:

Interesting, what zones are you guys in. My plot is in 8f

I am in 9f.

[E J]

9 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

I have planted forage turnips for 3 yrs and deer dont touch them till late january in my area

Deer at my place won't touch them ever. I've tried turnips, rape, radish and sugar beets. Also 8F. Too much other good stuff for them to eat