I do almost every year. I mix it with radishes (usually GH), rape and kale. I've had good success with the purple top variety. I buy all of my seed at out local Ag supply and mix it myself.
Even test planted a brassica mix (heavier on the kale and rape) in the spring a few years back. A lot of leaf growth, but not as much root development. Was kind of a cool experiment.
Local Farm or Coop. If you don't have any place local you can always get it from Welters. Welter Seed & Honey Co.
Link in my signature. Honey Hole is the only mix that has Turnips in it. (2 kinds of turnips/3 kinds of rape) But I tried a few different varieties at from the co op. I also had good luck with Green Globe turnips found in the Biologic mixes. Here is a picture is a variety of turnip sizes from one plot I had, some small and some big. Some people say deer take a few years to eat them and some deer take to them right away. In that picture I had the turnips getting chewed on before a good frost.. 2nd picture is of a green globe turnip and a purple top turnip from the Buck on Bag mixes.
I have planted turnups for many years. Experimenting with brands such as Antler King, Bullseye, coop mixes, etc and my favorite is Shot Plot by Evolved Harvest. It grows the best under all conditions whether its dry or wet cold or hot. I always mix the seed with Milorganite as the Miloganite fertilizer is granulated the same size as the seed. Mix 4 parts Milorganite to 1 part seed and you will have a great spread of turnups and/or rape. Milorganite is a fertilizer (only 4% nitrogen) made of dried human feces from Milwaukee, WI. It purpose in the mix is to help to not over plant the area. Issue can come about with planting turnups/brassica year after year. Brassica latterly suck the nitrogen out of the ground so it is important to use a fertilizer or rotate crops so the nitrogen (clover and rye are good crops to rotate with) is put back into the ground.
I appreciate all your feedback! I have a 4 acre field on my property and I am trying to figure out what to plant but I want to put something in that the deer will feed through early and late seasons!
4 acre field is quite the plot! Lots of ways to go about it. If you want a simple recommendation =2 acres of soybeans and 2 acres of corn if you got the equipment. If it was mine I would mix it up and include soybeans,get some clover established and some winter rye/oat/brassica mix for the fall. Ideally have the plot with a variety of food to cover the whitetails diet all year long. Keep us updated on what you end up doing and we like pictures too
I like to plant legumes with mine to help feed them nitrogen. I'm still in a zone where I can plant winter crimson clover and winter peas and it's a killer mix. Brassicas do indeed eat nitrogen and are part of a great system for cycling nutrients into the soil structure.
Turnips are probably the best thing i've planted so far...used purple top turnips from generic looking bin at local Agway feed store, grew well....and the tall tine tubers mix from WI...which grew incredibly well. I think I'll always try to incorporate turnips in my clover plots as the deer hit them during our entire bow season and later into Dec even....this is in VT. shawn
Right now we use that field for cover for hunting pheasants and Chukar and about 3.5 acres of it is sorghum. The other .5 acre is Bio Logic and a pasture mix after this year we will not be planting the sorghum there anymore. It works well during early season but eventually the deer stop feeding there and I would like to plant something they will feed on all year long.
I planted Big N Beasty last season and it grew great. I don't have all the photos on my computer but here is some of them. I ended up with some of them being knee high and turnips as big as a softball and daikon radishes as big as a banana. Planting another acre of that this year and planting 2 acres of Biologic Maximum.
