Radishes vs Turnips...

That time of year. There ain't CRAP to eat in the woods. Except maybe buds. This is the time of year you'll be glad you have tubes on your trees. LOL
 
Our radish bulbs are stinky mush now...I sat near the feeder in the woods on Sunday evening with my bow hoping to kill a boar but only saw deer. None came to the corn...all 5 total I saw were still eating acorns. We had an acorn crop of biblical proportions this past fall...
 
I cant say one over the other when they go so well together. Here in SE NC they leave my turnips until a good frost, which is often after season. Radish turn to mush around new year and I picked up some turnips for dinner just yesterday. Every top was eaten with just a little browse on the bulbs closest to the cover. Similar seed size and planting time so why not mix em together unless your way up north with lots of snow?
 
I cant say one over the other when they go so well together. Here in SE NC they leave my turnips until a good frost, which is often after season. Radish turn to mush around new year and I picked up some turnips for dinner just yesterday. Every top was eaten with just a little browse on the bulbs closest to the cover. Similar seed size and planting time so why not mix em together unless your way up north with lots of snow?

Yep...Turnips are getting browsed heavily right now. Radish greens are long gone. Just tubers sticking up out of the ground. Anything green on the radish tops gets browsed to the tuber. Glad I got grains and clover in the plot along with the brassicas. For hunting season attraction, I like radishes. And, when I plant each fall and see the amount of food out of the ground I always think there is no way the deer will eat all of this. WRONG! Come mid January thru February, all plots look like they've been mowed. Reason I love the LC mix. Keeps em fed till green up down here.
 
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Last thought on brassicas for the year...I was at the farm this past weekend. Nothing left of brassicas other than the tubers. Barren! On the other hand, wheat and oats still pumping out new growth. Wondering with me being this far south with relatively mild winters am I better forgetting brassicas and just going with winter grains that keep on giving throughout the winter down here. I'm headed to farm tomorrow and will try and remember to take a few pics of what is left of the brassicas.

Last thought...On 287 acres, I'm up to pushing 15 acres of food plots. Early November I'm thinking no way will the deer eat all of this. Come February it's a different story. Deer consume a lot of tonnage.
 
Be honest with you AC, that's one of the main reasons I don't plant a whole lot of brassicas any more. It's hard to beat wheat or rye and arrowleaf or crimson clover for our cool season stress periods.
 
Be honest with you AC, that's one of the main reasons I don't plant a whole lot of brassicas any more. It's hard to beat wheat or rye and arrowleaf or crimson clover for our cool season stress periods.
I'm getting closer to where your are LLC on the brassica thing in our neck of the woods. Wheat, oats n rye still pushing up green. So is the clover. Radishes n turnips...not so much.
 
I'm getting closer to where your are LLC on the brassica thing in our neck of the woods. Wheat, oats n rye still pushing up green. So is the clover. Radishes n turnips...not so much.
Are your radishes and turnips gone because they froze and stopped growing? Or because the deer preferred them over wheat and oats for better nutrition and ate them first? Your situation is about the same as mine, and I'm not ready to give up on radishes yet, even if they don't last until spring, they fill a niche in late December and early January.
 
I like to use them for soil building (and the short deer feeding period) but I always make sure wheat or clover is in there for the long haul.
 
Are your radishes and turnips gone because they froze and stopped growing? Or because the deer preferred them over wheat and oats for better nutrition and ate them first? Your situation is about the same as mine, and I'm not ready to give up on radishes yet, even if they don't last until spring, they fill a niche in late December and early January.
That's a great question. I was down late yesterday and drove through the brassica section of the plot. The are browsed completely down to the bulbs/tubers. And, interesting enough, the turnips are getting browsed now while the radish are just pulled out of the ground and laying on top. The perimeter is in clover. The south section of the plot is in wheat. And the brassica area was oversewed with wheat. I wondered the same thing yesterday...are the deer preferring the bit of growth that is still coming out of the tops of the brassicas over the grains? Grains are being browsed heavily but the brassicas are browsed completely down to the build even though there is still green on top of the bulbs. After 7 seasons you'd think I'd have this figured out.

I know one thing for sure...I will always have perennial clover and grains in the fall. Will decide before next fall if I will continue with brassicas.
 
That's a great question. I was down late yesterday and drove through the brassica section of the plot. The are browsed completely down to the bulbs/tubers. And, interesting enough, the turnips are getting browsed now while the radish are just pulled out of the ground and laying on top. The perimeter is in clover. The south section of the plot is in wheat. And the brassica area was oversewed with wheat. I wondered the same thing yesterday...are the deer preferring the bit of growth that is still coming out of the tops of the brassicas over the grains? Grains are being browsed heavily but the brassicas are browsed completely down to the build even though there is still green on top of the bulbs. After 7 seasons you'd think I'd have this figured out.

I know one thing for sure...I will always have perennial clover and grains in the fall. Will decide before next fall if I will continue with brassicas.

I am definitely of the same thought on perennial clover and cereal grain, that is our mainstay but we normally also do 10-15 acres of brassica every year and I'm a huge fan of it also. I was down yesterday and most of out smaller brassica plots are wiped out but our big ones still have lots of tubers left and they are hammering them as normal. The tubers normally last until early-mid march before they are gone and then it isn't long before the clover and grain that is eaten down to lip high right now explodes for the spring. I will always plant a decent amount of brassica but going forward I will try and stick to planting it in areas of 1 acre or bigger.
 
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