Brassica bulbs

[SWEDE]

Planted my first brassica plot this year. Grew great giant bulbs huge tops. But.  When are they going to come for bulbs.  All the tops are chewd to nothing but not 1 chew mark on bulbs

[moog5050]

My experience is that small to medium size bulbs are preferred and they tend to hit them after the snow flies as they become sweeter.   I would think you would start seeing them paw at the bulbs and rip them out now.  Last year, I watched numerous deer pull them from the ground and eat away.

[SWEDE]

Im in cattaraugus county and have had snow and temps in 20.s  they found em but just like the tops. Maybe because theyve never tried one before. I ax.ed the tops off a few so the smell is stronger.

[moog5050]

3 minutes ago, SWEDE said:

Im in cattaraugus county and have had snow and temps in 20.s  they found em but just like the tops. Maybe because theyve never tried one before. I ax.ed the tops off a few so the smell is stronger.

It might take them a year to figure it out but as food becomes more scarce, they will hit em!   Good luck.

[Zag]

3 hours ago, SWEDE said:

Planted my first brassica plot this year. Grew great giant bulbs huge tops. But.  When are they going to come for bulbs.  All the tops are chewd to nothing but not 1 chew mark on bulbs

I planted them once maybe twice and had the same thing happen, they never touched em all winter.

[land 1]

Weird ive heard of deer not eating them but they crush mine already feeding heavy on them, i have no ag for miles or other food source other then natural browse

[Marsala-man]

I had them last in last year. The deer hit them once the ground froze and pushed the bulbs up. The weather we've had thus far might explain why the deer aren't into eating them. 

[G-Man]

I assume they are purple top or apin turnips. , they may not hit them till january, but next year they will pull them out early.  Radish tops and tuber are prefered earlier in the year with turnips prefered later.  The lack of snow is big factor as well they will dog thru snow for them but no snow leaves lots of natural browse avaiable and that is usually prefered over food plots in my experaince.

[SWEDE]

Thanks fellas maybe a split plot of dikon radish to get some early feeding. Was amazed at the production of those new zealand brassica mix tho. Maxima?

[SWEDE]

Some got way bigger by gun season

[SWEDE]

Greens all gone now

[wolc123]

6 hours ago, moog5050 said:

My experience is that small to medium size bulbs are preferred and they tend to hit them after the snow flies as they become sweeter.   I would think you would start seeing them paw at the bulbs and rip them out now.  Last year, I watched numerous deer pull them from the ground and eat away.

What's going to happen with these basketball sized ones?

[******pike]

i think if i get hungry this weekend i might naw on a few  since the deer aren,t i might 

Edited December 9, 2020 by ******pike

[Farflung]

have you tried pulling some and cutting/smashing them. this worked for us when they were just ignoring them.

[LET EM GROW]

Those are green globe Turnips.. I dont have as good a luck with them VS Purple Top Turnips, Radish or Rutabaga.. 

Pull a few out and leave them on top of the soil for them to figure out.. Sometimes it takes a couple years befor ethey tear them up. Also, I like to keep bulbs no bigger than softball size if i can help it. The bigger they are, the less palatable they are.. and if there is better tasting plots around, they'll go to them first 

[suburbanfarmer]

4th yr and none touched everytime but then again the deer population is very  low where I am at. Next yr going to try something different.

Edited December 22, 2020 by suburbanfarmer

[mlammerhirt]

Those are green globe Turnips.. I dont have as good a luck with them VS Purple Top Turnips, Radish or Rutabaga.. 
Pull a few out and leave them on top of the soil for them to figure out.. Sometimes it takes a couple years befor ethey tear them up. Also, I like to keep bulbs no bigger than softball size if i can help it. The bigger they are, the less palatable they are.. and if there is better tasting plots around, they'll go to them first 

How do you keep them from growing bigger?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[LET EM GROW]

10 hours ago, mlammerhirt said:

How do you keep them from growing bigger?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

You would just plant them sooner or later to change size. To get them slightly smaller, Plant them a week to 2 weeks later. In the heart of the winter they will probably eat them regardless of size, but for a late season pull, I like to keep them a little smaller in size like apples etc.. easier to pull or dig up.. And sometimes they will only eat them to the dirt level when the ground freezes as they cant pull them from frozen soil most times. 

[SWEDE]

Well they finally started to eat the hell out of em........last 4 days of season.. ...at night only. Figures. 2020 curse. Next season ill try the purple tops. radish. Tubers. Did get good feeding on tops early. Now they know there good to eat so next year should be better. Thanks fir the advise guys 

[LET EM GROW]

 

19 hours ago, SWEDE said:

Well they finally started to eat the hell out of em........last 4 days of season.. ...at night only. Figures. 2020 curse. Next season ill try the purple tops. radish. Tubers. Did get good feeding on tops early. Now they know there good to eat so next year should be better. Thanks fir the advise guys 

That is typical. It usually takes cold weather and or snow to get deer to eat the bulbs. but unless you have better foods available in your area, they will be there to eat them. I like a blend of seeds, it keeps deer in the plot more days than not as each seed has a preferred time frame.. radish, Purple Top, Rutabaga as well as winfred brassica. Regardless your are adding tremendous amounts of Organic matter to your soil for the next year.  

[SWEDE]

Good point 

[wolc123]

It looks like one deer found some turnip greens way out back last night.  By the looks of the tracks,  three or four must have been feeding in the front patch, where there is still some corn left on the adjacent stalks.  They were also going for the wheat in front of the turnips.

It appears that the turnip greens were the preferred forage last night anyhow.  I was encouraged to find more deer tracks than coyote tracks when I cross-country ski'd around the plots today.  My neighbor has been doing well trapping the coyotes.  I think he is up to 5 or 6 so far this season.

  

Edited December 27, 2020 by wolc123