LETMGROW Posted April 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2012 (edited) Purple tops grow real well here, problem is the deer don't seem to care for them or maybe they just don't know they are food. Last time I planted them we had tons of baseball to softball sized turnips that rotted. Only luck we had was with deer eating the greens immediately after the first frost(2-3 days tops), then they turned away from them and left them alone and walked through the plot to get to pasture grass. My girls like the turnips though, Christina keeps asking me to plant them again. Looks like my spring planting will be a planting of a mix from our wildlife folks. Gonna wait til fall to redo a couple clover plots. I've wondered if brassicas are as effective in the south as they are up here. Our turnips don't get hardly touched until they have been hit by a couple hard killing frosts. The starch in the plants turns to sugar and they become candy to the deer. The deer will mow down the greens almost overnight. They don't bother with the bulbs until later on. Especially after we have a good snow cover they will start to dig up the bulbs. Therefore I don't plan to hunt over these plots. I use them more for a late winter food source for the deer. When other food is under a foot or two of snow the deer seem to find them. They sure stink when rotting. I think I could even find them. My whole family likes purple tops. We usually pull up a couple 5 gal. pailsfull, clean and slice them up and cook them down. We freeze several vacuum bagsfull and enjoy them later. Lynn Edited April 28, 2012 by LETMGROW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 wasnt confused..LOL just havin a little fun with you! Teachers do have a sense of humor do they not? We try. Helps when you actually want to punch a kid in the throat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 My whole family likes purple tops. We usually pull up a couple 5 gal. pailsfull, clean and slice them up and cook them down. We freeze several vacuum bagsfull and enjoy them later. Lynn What do they taste like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 a little like a mild radish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 not planting anything specifically for deer here. just hunting ag fields that are already going in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 I've wondered if brassicas are as effective in the south as they are up here. Our turnips don't get hardly touched until they have been hit by a couple hard killing frosts. The starch in the plants turns to sugar and they become candy to the deer. The deer will mow down the greens almost overnight. They don't bother with the bulbs until later on. Especially after we have a good snow cover they will start to dig up the bulbs. Therefore I don't plan to hunt over these plots. I use them more for a late winter food source for the deer. When other food is under a foot or two of snow the deer seem to find them. They sure stink when rotting. I think I could even find them. My whole family likes purple tops. We usually pull up a couple 5 gal. pailsfull, clean and slice them up and cook them down. We freeze several vacuum bagsfull and enjoy them later.LynnLike I said Lynn, we have not had any luck with deer and turnips. Far as I have seen they just don't eat the bulbs here, too much other food usually still around. Some seasons we have pasture grass still green through the winter. The girls eat the turnips raw, even sliced some up in the field. lol. And YES they stink bad when they get rotten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sskybnd Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 started on a new plot last weekend, just need to lime and disc it now, no ideal what im going to plant as of yet, have to get a hog proff fence up first, went to the other plots for the fist time this year, one was planted in turnips and winter greens, that one looks so trashy every thing in its brother seems to be growing in it. the other i was pretty shocked i planted winter wheat in it and i have a wheat field waist high, dont know if i should cut it down or let the wheat kernels fall off and regrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted May 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 If it were me, I'd cut it and disc or plow it under. You would be adding organic matter to the soil which can provide good soil nutrients. I'm afraid by the time it headed out and dried to reseed the field would be overtaken with weeds. At that point you would have to spray with weed killer and kill everything anyway. Lynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultradog Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 If it were me, I'd cut it and disc or plow it under. You would be adding organic matter to the soil which can provide good soil nutrients. I'm afraid by the time it headed out and dried to reseed the field would be overtaken with weeds. At that point you would have to spray with weed killer and kill everything anyway. Lynn I agree Letm, I drilled in a couple acres of rye a few years ago and had it high as my waist by fall. I let it ripen and then bush hogged it all down and disked it back in. It came up the next year almost as well as the first. Did that for one more year but by then it needed to be plowed and reseeded and i didn't have time to do it. So I just let it go back to hay grass and that's what it is today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.