Forage Radish...Sugar Beets

[MUDRUNNER]

This place is kinda slow, so I thought I would ask if anyone has planted any forage radishes or sugar beets in their food plots. After putting food plots in for 5 or 6 years now, I'm still trying to figure out what the deer prefer in my area. I've planted a mixture of rape, turnips, and wheat for the past two years now. The deer seem to jump on my brassicas early and late. Unfortunatley it seems before bow season starts, and after it's over is when it gets hit the hardest. I never have seen a bulb pulled up and chewed on though. The wheat has seemed to help draw deer a little better in November and December, but still doesn't get hit as much as I would like. From what I've read sugar beets can be finicky and tough to grow. It seems like alot of people are having good reults with forage radishes though, and the deer seem to get on them before frost, and stay on them. Just wandering if anybody here has any first hand experience with beets or radishes here.

[Ravin R10 man]

Brassica and purple top turnips are great up north here...deer were on them all fall and were digging up the turnips since Nov.

[LETMGROW]

I have had no experience with radish but have planted sugar beetsI got the seed from Midwest Wildlife Management. This was three years ago when they had Round Up ready seed. They have since been forced to take it off the Market because of some type disagreement with Monsanto over patent rights. I don't know the whole story so I'll leave it at that.

I planted the beets according to instructions and fertilized them once afterward. Seems as though they recommended a lot of other maintenance but that was all they got except for spraying them with Round Up twice while they were establishing growth. I ended up with a good crop and the deer certainly liked them. Too much in my opinion. They were nearly devoured before hunting season. The beets they didn't eat were left until after the early winter when the deer dug them up through deep snow.

The seed was very costly. If I remember right they cost $ 200 for just the seed to plant 1 acre.

MW has seed now but it doesn't say Round Up ready in their ads. Attract deer to your food plots | BuckLunch.com.

I might try again if the price is a little more reasonable.

I still plant brassicas every year. My favorite seed is " Shot Plot " by Evolved harvest. Each year the deer seem to act a little differently about when they prefer to eat the turnips. Sometimes real early, sometimes later. I move my brassica plots every two years to prevent a fungus which can develop after a certain amount of years growing brassicas in the same plot.

Our deer ignore the brassicas until the first or second really hard frost hits. The starch in the leaves turns to sugar and they are eaten almost overnight. They don't really go after the bulbs for a couple weeks or more after the leaves are eaten. Timing varies some. The deer don't seem to eat the turnip when the weather is warm. They for some unknown reason to me prefer them when it is cold weather for a few days. If it warms up again they leave them alone. Cool down and they are back.

Lynn

[MUDRUNNER]

Good info on the sugar beets Lynn! Maxi-rack has untreated sugar beet seed for $10 a lb. It would be nice if they were RR ready though. I only have a little over an acre all total that is clear ground for food plots. I might just add some radishes to my brassica/wheat mix that I've been using, and take like a 1/4 acre and plant sugar beets by themselves, just to see what happens. If it works...great. If not, I'm only out $20 in seed.

I've had good luck with Shot Plot also. It just always seems like the deer hit it in September and February, and leave it alone the rest of the time.

[wtnhunt]

Tried a mix here a few years ago that had sugar beets in it along with turnips and brassicas. I honestly cannot say about the beets because I don't know how well the beets came in. Deer hit the leaves on the plants ok after the first frost, but that was pretty well the extent of it. My wife and daughter enjoyed the purple top turnips and have asked me to plant them again, don't think the deer dug up any of what was planted in the plots we planted, saw no evidence the deer dug any up. Just my opinion, but think if you are where there is other food around and the deer do not have to work to get it then they will use that food. I watched deer on several occasions walk through a lush plot full of baseball to softball sized turnips without ever dropping their heads as they went to get to pasture grass in the open field.