Brassicas - Tribute to Lickcreek

Here is a link to the Brassica thread that Lickcreek had going over at QDMA. Tons of great information in here if you can read through it all!

Brassica - Tribute to Lickcreek

 

LC talks often of over seeding brassicas into legumes and cereals like rye. Has anyone had success over seeding brassicas? I recently tried broadcasting brassicas onto tilled soil and attempted to have the rain work it in. However, checking the plot two weeks later showed some pretty low germination... I'm going to try to re plant this weekend and use a drag and roller to get better seed contact.

 

Are you going to do the same thing with the winter wheat vs winter rye thread? Pretty cool to save all this and post it.

 

Yes, broadcasting on top of soil and letting the rain work it in works well. I've done it with great success. heck the guys in Missorui take brassica seed and broadcast it from an air plane into standing corn and it germinates and works well. The seeds are so small with a little rain will work themselves in by themselves. .


DO NOT DRAG BRASSICA SEED!!!!!!!!! A roller or cultipacker is a good idea but a drag will bury them too deep.

 

They do that everywhere now that cover crops are the "in" thing in agriculture.

 

I think LC had about 8 or 9 really great threads about habitat and food plots that I plan on saving and making a post for each one of them.

 

That is the confusing part for me, for about 8 years we have been tilled the soil, spread seed, then dragged it in without rolling and we have never had too much of a problem with germination (if we get some rain). But I have heard that dragging is too much for brassicas, and event though we have a very light drag that I think almost doesnt do anything, I decided to try and let the rain work in our brassica seed this year. We tried this is 6 different plots and I checked 5 of them last weekend and each had horrible germination.

My plan for this weekend was to re plant by discing, draging (same time), spreading the seed, dragging with a light drag, then rolling. But after what you said BJE80, I dont know if that is the best plan?

 

Moose, Thanks for all the work.
Your question about over seeding has been done by Dr. Grant Woods. He had good results last year of over seeding some soy. Hand broadcast during a good rain.

 

Most brassicas will do well just broadcast. While I've never overseeded rye or other cereal grains, I have done no till plots with it several times and had fantastic results. When doing this I'll spray the original growth with gly and then just overseed the dead stuff with brassica and it has always turned out excellent for me. If the area is small I'll use a trimmer to knock down the dead stuff after I put the seed down just like throwing straw on top of a freshly seeded lawn to hold the moisture in and keep the birds off it.

The plot I just seeded last weekend at my house is a mix of triticale and oats. Assuming it takes off I'll over seed that one with daikon radishes the second week of August or so. I'd prefer to do half the plot in a cereal like Rye or Wheat, the other half in a brassica, then flip every year........but I had minimal time to prep this site and no time for a test. It's about a 1/8th acre, so I put down 240lbs of lime and 50lbs of 10-10-10 and I'm hoping the over seed approach doubles my chances of getting a decent plot out of it the first time around.

 

MnMoose.

I'm going to be hand spreading a few different things (peas, small grains, brassicas) into both standing corn and soybeans for our cattle in a week or two. I will try to remember to record some results to share. Little late for what you want but same geographical area will give a little input for future reference.

 

I've done the over seeding with wr into my established brassicas the same time I put urea down and it works fantastic. Adds diversity and takes browsing pressure off the leaves a bit. Then in spring the wr is the first thing green and feeds the deer and provides a cover crop for as long as you wish into summer without having to do a thing.


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What do you do with the WR the next summer? Do you over seed into it or till it up?


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Has anyone tried over seeding brassicas into clover?


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I got a chance to get out to our land this weekend. I was expecting bad results on our initial seeding since last weekend I checked them and the germination looked pretty poor. I had two bags of Heartland Wildlife Rack Maker and two bags of the Rack Maker Extreme. When I got there I was surprised that the germination seemed to be improving! Maybe that is a symptom of letting the rain work the seed in?

Most plots I just over seeded with the Rack Maker and one completely failed wheat plot I disced under and planted the Rack Maker Extreme by dragging in the wheat, winter rye, and soybeans and then rolling in the brassicas.

There will be pics to follow, along with pics of our homemade 55 gallon roller that we finished this weekend!

 

You can overseed it with clover then mow it and the cut WR acts like a thatch covering for the clover. Otherwise WR is a great weed defense in the spring and awesome soil builder to disc down then after spring green up and it heads out. From there you'll get some volunteer WR from tilling the heads, and you can than plant anything spring wise or wait till Fall to plant stuff.

 

Good Stuff, I will have to do some price checking and see what it would take to over seed some WR when I apply Nitrogen in a few weeks. What seeding rate do you use when over seeding into brassicas?

 

Depends what I am going to plant the following year. Most of the time I'll let it go till about Mid to late June then nuke it and till it under. Then plant whatever you want as part of your rotation. One thing I would not do is let it go to full seed otherwise you will gets lots of volunteer WR coming back and competing with whatever you plant.


So it looks like this come June. Great place for fawns to hide and turkeys to nest. Plus its good for the soil.

 

WR is cheap. That is one of the advantages of it. I would go about 50 lbs/acre seeding on the WR. I do it on feel so I don't know the exact seeding rate.

 

After you are done working up the plot in the dead but standing WR it just gets worked in to the soil and lays on top.

 

And do you seed it at any time or do you try to wait for a rain to shortly follow your seeding?