I am thinking about doing a fall/winter food plot next year but don't exactly know what to put in it. Do you guys have any ideas? I was thinking maybe some turnips but don't know what else to put with it.
If you've never had turnips before then don't count on the deer using them a lot if that's all you plant in there. A mix of winter rye, wheat, winter pea, and radish/turnips would be more fitting. Turnips are an aquired taste for deer and most it takes a year for them to pick up the taste for them.
If the plot is big enough, I like to split plant a Brassica (Kale, Turnip, Radish) mix on one side (Third-Fourth week of July for my zone), and clover (Ladino for me)/winter rye mix on the other half at the end of August or beginning of September. Like Covey said, often the first year planting of Brassicas will take some time for deer to acquire a taste for them, sometimes not. However, clover and rye will get hit through fall, and the rye shoots staying green through winter is great (they're often pawing at them under thick snow cover). Plus, it's a fallback in case the Brassica's don't take well during the gap between plantings, or deer just aren't hitting them. The former happened to me this year with this planting. My Brassica's shot up a week or two after planting the third week of July, but then were stunted by prolonged heat through August and early September. As a result, they didn't do so well this year (not bad, but not great). My clover/rye planted right before some rain in September took off and has been a hotbed for deer activity ever since.
I do the soil test and lime or fertilize accordingly. I kill all the weeds with round-up first, plow,apply soil amendments and plant the end of august. This is all weather related, if its to dry I try to plant just before a rain. I also plant turnips. Deer seem to like big healthy plants better.IMO Q
your $6 soil sample should be able to tell you. Might need a little lime but if its in a good soil area probably won't take a whole lot. If you have a pretty good size plot 2 plus acres soy bean pods that are not eaten before they turn brown get hit really hard this time of year - but you don't know how hard they are going to get hit prior to turning brown and might not be a lare enough stand of beans to justify it. I have tried Evolved Harvest Shot Plot in the past and it works really well - deer liked it - mostly a Barracis blend. Covy knows his food plotting and his reccomendation is good. Ceral grains make good winter food plots. Deer prefer oats over rye in most areas. A plot of oats and barracis is a good option. He is also spot on about the turnips - they look good but don't always get torn up like they do on TV. You could also designate a small area in your plot for turnips and see how they do. Whatever you do spray the weeds good before tilling and then watch the weather and make sure you've got rain in the forcast. good luck!
I know the answer will be "soil test" but does anyone know if soybeans require a lot of fertilizer and are they easy enough to grow?
They will probably require some fertilizer. But the point is, you might not need any at all! If you have acidic soil you can put all the 10-10-10 or P and K you want it won't do any good - you need lime! Does that make sense? Can you get away with a soil test? Sure - I planted beans last year without a soil test see picture and had great results. That said, this was not a first year plot and the soil likely already had decent nitrogen contents - I had also put lime down the previous year. Not all the soils are the same, just because it worked for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone. You could put down some Milorganite (6-2-0) and it will provide some of the same advantages of fertilizer plus will keep deer off your beans during early development - especially useful on small food plots. But your basically just guessing - beans are not "easy" to establish and if your plot is less than an acre and you don't put in a lot or time to keep deer off the plot you will never have anything less they will demolish them before they pod.
I wouldn't necessarily say that brassicas aren't good their first year. It's true that the bulbs themselves are an acquired taste for the deer, but the greens are actually a pretty good late season attractor. They hold a really high starch content which makes them bitter to deer for most of their growth, but after the first couple hard frosts the starch breaks down into sugar which makes at least the tops a good draw for deer for a good chunk of the fall and into the beginning of winter.
I'm not so sure deer love sugar. Everything I have tasted that deer eat are very bitter, clover, chicory,acorns. I think maybe...there is not much of anything else to eat in late season, may as well eat the greens. Q
I have had great success using brassica blends and cereal blends. Turnip and radish tops are usually gone around here the beginning of October. One seed I will always use every year is winter rye. It is a great early season food source that last through winter and still feeds deer the following spring. Easy to grow also without much soil prepping.
