yup, 4 pounder, made that baby into a Pastie! Then I ate it! now I am bragging about it online! BECAUSE THIS IS AMERICA!
PastorAndrew Have you had turnips/radishes this size in past years? I'm goign to assume this isn't the first year you've had massive turnips and am wondering if the deer eat them the same as if they are golf ball - softball size? Not sure if the massive size changes the taste? How many times in the year did you fertilize and how many days did you plant prior to the first frost in your area?
The deer eat them just the same, they will go after the bulbs in mid November and be digging at the plot till everything is consumed in the spring, it will go from lush green to bare dirt at the end of march. a few things I find key to getting big brassicas are planting them thin, I would say somewhere in the 4-5 pounds per acre range. people will try to argue that point but in my experience over the years, 4.5 pounds is what i recommend if its a mix that has multiple bulb producers. making sure you have the proper ph, lime if needed fertilizer = results, anything that grows fast has a heavy appetite. If i can afford it, I like to apply 400 pounds to the acre of 19-19-19 the minimum I will do is 300 pounds per acre. fertilizing a brassica plot properly will cost you 120-160 dollars per acre. Some guys think that's to much money. for me, if these plants average 4 pounds a plant and there is a 1 plant per square foot average, then that means there is roughly 44,000 of those on an acre. 44,000 times 4 pounds equals 176,000 pounds of food on one acre. That is 88 tons of food. I probably have 250 dollars an acre into my plots from start to finish that's a high number. However, when you equal that out with the amount of food produced, you are getting your deer food for around .0014 cents per pound. So if you bought a 100 pound bag of corn for 10.00 you are paying .10 cents a pound. it would cost you 17,600 dollars to buy the equivalent weight of corn for what you can potentially produce on an acre of brassicas. makes 250 an acre seem worth it to me! work building your soil, crop rotation and spring plow downs help immensely with this. you can't get out of the soil whats not in it! I am 5 ft 6 inches tall, I can't dunk basketballs, so imagine if you hired me to dunk basketballs, you would get no production out of me. Its the same with your soil, if the nutrients aren't there you won't get good production. organic matter, dead leaves, compost, manures, grass clippings, all are full of minerals! applying them to the soil will help to build it's microbial life which in turn makes food available to the plant. the micro organisms in the soil have a symbiotic relationship with the plant roots, they break down the nutrients into a form that the plant can receive. I apply my fertilizer one time at planting, the entire batch. I don't want my plants to be stressed at any point in there life, from germ to maturity. I know guys will wait to see what comes up before they spread fertilizer, not me, never. That would be like me weighting to buy formula for my new born till I see if he needs it! of course he needs it, early and often. a young plant is the same way, and brasiscas need lots of food early and often! As far as a planting date, I usually try to plant my plots the last week of July. I just watch the 10 day forecast and when I see a few days that have a high percentage of rain in it after July 20th i get after it. I am in central Michigan so that would be a solid date for anyone from central Indiana and Illinois north. If I was in southern Indiana and south I may not plant till the middle of august. those are some things to consider
This stuff is the real deal. I will try to get pics posted in the next couple of days. I planted mine in central IL the first week of August and they look awesome. The biggest problem I have is keeping my friends and family from picking and eating all of the radishes!!! Deer are not using them yet but I still have 100 or more acres of standing corn right next to the house. As a side note this is my first successful food plot and was super easy. I learned the hard way that killing all of the weeds is paramount.
He has great seed, but the best seed doesn't do you any good if you ignore the whole process. The seed is in my opinion less than 10% of what controls the end result.
We've been planting brassicas for years now and suffer from overseeding...tough to sprinkle so lightly.
I over seeded for probably five years, found out how to produce biggin's literally by mistake. I had some purple tops left over in 2009 maybe like a once or two, I spread them over my garden and forgot about them until late October when I walked out by there and about crapped my pants! They were between the size of softballs and volleyballs. I immediately began trying to figure out what was different than in my plots! it helped me take my food plots to another level!
Nice Bulbs. 4lbs an acre is almost perfect. Broadcasting Urea (Nitrogen) once they start growing really increases production and growth..Planting a spring till down crop such as crimson clover,buckwheat,bermseem clover adds nitrogen to the soil and will aid in growth as well..Well Done!!
