I planted some ICPs for the first time in central wi mixed in with some buckwheat. The plot is about a .5 of an acre and I covered them in milorganite at the time of planting. I am disappointed in the activity that has occurred in the plot. There is absolutely no evidence of browsing, and the peas and buckwheat are up to about 2.5-3' tall. I'm curious if they do not recognize it as a palatable food source and do you think they will hit it this year, or will they need to be planted another couple of years before they begin to use them? deer density is also not very high near us, which contributes I'm sure, but I'm shocked there is nothing browsed off. Also no large ag fields in immediate area. It's been a month since the last milorganite application. Thanks for the input.
When you say no browsing, do you mean absolutely none. You don't see the buds being nipped here and there. I have a hard time believing it hasn't been touched at all. But it may take a second year for them to recognize it as a significant food source if they're not used to it. What have you had in the field in the past. You might put up a camera that has a plot watch feature to see if their is any activity at all. Good luck with it.
Yes I mean no browsing at all. I was surprised too. I've had a camera in the plot since planting with one 1 picture of a deer in the past month. We generally plant turnips and corn, and attempted soybeans once in a very small plot but they were browsed heavily. I'm hopeful it maybe will just require another year of planting to get them to take to it, and in the mean time it will help improve the sandy soil
It's probably an interaction between the buckwheat and the milorganite. It's already know that milorganite is a deer repellant and buckwheat has some unique uptake characteristics so that would be my best guess. I'd give it a few more weeks and see what happens, not much you could do about it anyway but learn from it I guess.
Like Covey said, people use Milorganite to keep deer out of their plots to give them a chance to grow. I would stop the milorganite applications and see if that makes a difference.
If it is legal throw some feed down on the edge of the plot, if they show up to eat the feed they may figure out that the plot is a buffet.
I believe there is a chance Covey nailed it! Milogranite is a repellent...could be it is still doing its thing.
I would till that stuff in and plant winter oats, rye and wheat mix within the next week or so. those peas will have fixed lots of nitrogen and the buckwheat will be great for the soil.
Never would've given the milorganite a thought. Especially after a month. Learn something new every day.
Shoot...just spray kill em....leave standing and seed right over em with those cereal grains at about 100lb/acre rate or more. Stuff germinates pretty much anywhere!
Thanks for all the input. Hoping to be up there in the next week or so. Ya i put the milorganite to keep deer off, never thought it would still be keeping them off. I'll see how plot looks, and may give them a little more time depending what kind of activity is in them.
Sounds like the deer finally turned on to the peas. Dad took the bike up to the property and unfortunately didn't take pictures, but came home and asked "what the heck did you guys plant this year? It looks like green stems?" Good to hear the deer were using them. Too bad I pulled the camera off the field but some of the others should have gotten deer on the main trails headed towards the plot. Going to up the plot size next year to .75 of an acre, only was able to plant about .5 this year cuz of standing water.
I have to use Milorganite at my in-laws due to the deer density. The peas that we planted last year weren't really messed with until January. We planted them this year at my in-laws on August 28th. We were able to plant them in a mix without damaging much of the soybeans that were still growing to help with the browsing.
Glad to hear the news! Products like that are largely reliant upon environmental conditions to break down so it makes it impossible to know for sure what the specific window of action will be. You may do the same thing next year and have the deer strip it a month earlier.
