Brassica Dilemma - What Would You Do?

CuivreDog

Member
Last Sunday in anticipation of an upcoming rain event I worked my tail off in the 112 degree heat index to get my creek bottom brassica plot in before the expected rainfall. I disked, harrowed, and cultipacked the entire plot then spread the seed and cultipacked once more. I finished up around 4:30 pm and headed back up the hill to the house feeling pretty good about getting it all done despite the unbearable temperature and humidity.

I went to bed that night praying for rain and unfortunately I think I prayed too hard! :(

Four inches of rain fell in a little under three hours during the night. I went back down Monday morning to look at the field and you could tell by the remaining rye stubble that was once spread evenly across the field that the rain came down in torrents. All the stubble that was once evenly covering the field was now balled up on the low side of the field indicating that a lot of the seed had probably washed to that location along with the rye stubble.

Fast forward to today when it finally dried up enough that I was able to walk the field without sinking in the mud so I had a chance to look it over from a closer perspective. There are brassica plants coming up in most areas of the field but they appear very thin and spotty at this time. We have high clay soils so once rainfall comes, our soil tends to crust over after a rain event. I really feel the existing stand will be too thin to properly canopy so I am looking for suggestions on what you would do at this point.

Would you......
1) start over
2) add additional brassica seed before the existing plants get too tall and hope it finds its way through the crust
3) add a cereal grain at a later date if the brassicas don't properly canopy
4) other ideas????
 
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My instinct would be to sit tight and wait 30 days or a little more and replant then, if you feel you need to. I'm probably wrong, but it sure seems early to plant those in the St. Louis area. They are a cool season crop, but if you're fighting a 112 degree heat index, it's probably too soon to plant. Not sure of your variety of brassica, but a lot of them get use after a few hard frosts, so you're a ways away from that(?).

In middle Georgia, I'll be planting them in 60-75 days from now.

If your seed is down the low side, your fertilizer might be too.
 
Thank you for your thoughts FarmerD. I thought about waiting as well just to see how thick they do come in. Our average first frost date is Oct 15th. Do you think I would be too late to plant if I started over in a month?
 
In LC's thread he said to plant 60-90 days before 1st frost and that would be correct for the time you planted. I just planted mine today. He said plant mid July to end of July in most of the Midwest.
 
In a square foot, how many plants are coming up? Kind of difficult to give a recommendation on replanting or over-seeding on the information provided.
 
I have had that happen to me!! I went and lightly over seeded the the sparse areas before a rain. The out come was a decent plot but I did have very thick areas that did not produce bulbs, just tops. Deer never noticed. If you wait to long I would think the plants that made it from the original planting would shade out your new seeding.
 
We usually plant brassicas in southern Iowa the first week or so of August. I'd probably redo the whole thing. How big of a plot are we talking about? If you know that you have some large washed out areas, nothing will grow there but weeds, which isn't necessarily a big problem depending on other factors.
 
I would lightly overseed the bare spots before a decent rain (Not another deluge :D). It doesn't take much soil contact for brassica to get started and just overseeding brassica into other plots is a common practice. I have done it several times and does work. I bet you have more of your original plot come up than you think. Keep us posted on your decision and the results.
 
In a square foot, how many plants are coming up? Kind of difficult to give a recommendation on replanting or over-seeding on the information provided.

I wish I could answer that question Dan but that depends on where you look in the field. Anywhere from 1 plant to 20 plants depending on if seeds got hung up in the rye stubble (20 plants) or 1 plant if the stubble was carried away by the rainfall.

FYI - field is just under 1/2 acre for reference
 
I would lightly overseed the bare spots before a decent rain (Not another deluge :D). It doesn't take much soil contact for brassica to get started and just overseeding brassica into other plots is a common practice. I have done it several times and does work. I bet you have more of your original plot come up than you think. Keep us posted on your decision and the results.

I think I'm going to wait a couple more days to see if any additional sprouts appear before making any decision. It's still to wet to do anything anyway. If I see a shower coming I may throw some more down and see what kind of germination I get. It's a fairly small plot so I won't be out more than $10 for the additional seed.
 
Since it's a very small plot I'd use it as an experiment and see what happens.. One thing people always do is plant brassica too thick so I'd wait it out and fertilize with urea after a bit. I think you'd be surprised how big they will get.
 
I would wait a few days to see what sprouts, then rebroadcast more into the thin areas followed up by by broadcasting ceral grain into any remaining bare areas around labor day. I usually do beans followed by brassicas and cereal grain. Plots are usually pretty full
 
Curious if your plots are growing ok with all that rain? I have had nearly 6" since I planted mine last week. No chance of me having standing water on my plots just wondering what I may walk into this weekend when I go check mine.
 
I would consider experimenting with a no-till method for planting your brassicas in the future to prevent this from happening again. Brassicas sprout very easily under the right conditions. The type of washing and eroding you are seeing is a very common occurrence in tilled fields. It only takes five to ten minutes of heavy rains to wipe out hours of work.
 
I would leave it. The plants that have grown will have little competition and put on a massive amount of growth. Then overseed the bare spots around Labor day with winter rye.
 
I would consider experimenting with a no-till method for planting your brassicas in the future to prevent this from happening again. Brassicas sprout very easily under the right conditions. The type of washing and eroding you are seeing is a very common occurrence in tilled fields. It only takes five to ten minutes of heavy rains to wipe out hours of work.

I used the throw and mow method on my remaining plots but in this particular plot I let the cereal rye grow to maturity and it was over 6 ft tall in most places. When the rye died out the smartweed took over so I thought it best to start over from scratch hence the purpose of tilling this particular field.
 
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