Hello i am new to bowhunting.com and thought i would post a thread about some products that i have tried. I live in southern mn and this last season I was looking to plant some brassicas and I decided on these 2 products. I have used Whitetail Institute and Antler king in the past with great results but never wintergreens or honey hole. I decided to plant these 2 products side by side and see which one grew the best and which one the deer preffered. Here are some pics. View attachment 24811 07/12/12 Here is my plot after the usual prep round up/tilling View attachment 24810 08/08/12 This is the plot 3 1/2 weeks later. Honey hole is on the right and Wintergreens is on the left. Right away when germination started Honey Hole came up first and was taller which I was surprised to see because of Whitetail Institutes rain bond coating. After the initial germination the Wintergreens caught up to the Honey Hole. I am sorry for the gap in the pictures I try to keep the pressure on my property to a minimum so I dont go down there a ton. 10/25/12 Again I appologize for the gap in the pictures. This time the pic is reversed and Wintergreens is on the right and Honey Hole on the left. The plot is about 1ft tall in this picture. During its prime in early sep it was 2ft plus. The wintergreens got a few inches taller but that was about it. At this time its pretty cold here and the deer are hammering the plot. From trail camera pictures and sitting in the stand the deer definatly prefer the wintergreens to the honey hole. They ate all the tops of the wintergreens first and then went to the honey hole. Now they are in the stage of eating the bulbs and again they are mainly eating the wintergreen bulbs. 10/25/12 This is the average size of the bulbs of both products. I didnt see a big difference in the size of the bulbs betweens the two. There are many softball size and bigger turnips in each blend. Again they seem to eat the wintergreens first. Overall I think that the plot turned out well considering we were in a drought and we didnt get much rain. If I had to plant one product it would be the wintergreens hands down. Not that the honey hole didnt do well its just that he deer always ate the wintergreens first. Hopefully this can help someone out if they are looking for a brassica blend to plant.
Thanks for taking the time to do a comparison and posting up your results. I agree on the drought conditions(I am in Central Wisconsin) and hope 2013 brings some more rain. Did you put a little seclusion cage out in the plots? Got any questions though regarding Antler King products ask away Thanks. Jake
I usually put out a cage but I didnt on this plot, i should have. Next year I am going to put Whitetail Institue Wintergreens up against Frigid Forage Big and Beasty. Does anyone have any feedback on Frigid Forage? I have never used it.
After looking at the Big and Beasty contents, I noticed it contains sugar beets. Sugar Beets should be planted in the spring for optimum growth, not late July or August like the most brassica plantings. The sugar beets will probably grow, but not get very big. Sounds kinda like wasting a little money, actually at $40 a 4 pound bag its alot of money. John
