Brassicas plot too thick and patchy, What to do?

[Charlieyca]

Planted my brassicas plot sept 5 right after a heavy rain. Great germination throughout the plot, but a week later had a very heavy rain and I believe flooded out some plants. It was planted 10 lbs to the acre, 3 turnips, 3 radish, 4 rape with 50lbs of rye as a nurse crop. Looks to me that the low spots flooded out after germination. We have a hurricane bearing down this weekend so any actions will be 2 weeks at the earliest. It is a 1/2 acre plot.

1) leave it alone, enough growing there for growing
2) reseed straight rye in part spots since it will grow anywhere
3) reseed original mix of brassicas and rye to fill in spots.

This is the first time I have tried brassicas and the only brassicas plot I have on the farm. There are (2) 1/2 acre plots of rye.

 

[Brokenbear]

I vote #2 and here is why (assuming cereal rye is the suggestion)
...in your case ...I would turn this into a test ..I would go to the bare spots and plant cereal rye in several spots ...Winter wheat in a few ...Oats ....MAKE A MAP of what area is what ...then sit back and let the deer teach you a thing or two about their palate IN YOUR AREA ..On the back of the map ..date the entry and note temperature + things like area deer linger in most and note growth stage of said area ..draw a line in your notes when the first killing frost hits ...see the feeding patterns move with the A. growth of the plant B.Temperature C.Before/After frost
Why all the effort ...cow peas, kale and turnips are my winning ration with a late spread of Cereal Rye
My Pal two counties away cannot get his deer to stay on any of the above but knocks'em dead with Radishes,Rape and and Oats

In both cases the above plots mentioned are in the hills,ridge tops, logging roads and old log yards and sawmill location
in both cases in the hills we have wildlife ponds ...I have 3 in my 180 AC of hills/hardwoods and my Pal has 2 on 120AC
In both cases we have(helping each other) hinge cut (where possible) 180 degrees around any plot 1/2AC or bigger
We both do woods burns ..Me one year him the other ..we burn our rest areas every 3-5 years and our big timber burns are an on going project burning a bit at a time as we catch a creek full (fire break) or some other way such as an east wind which comes so seldom

Of course both of us have Red clover in spots thru out the fields
We both have 5+AC of each corn and beans and a few strips of milo (all left thru winter standing) but all of these row crops bottoms are 360 degrees surrounded by very tall CRP growth heavy in very tall switch grass,flowering large brassicas etc.

You don't shoot a shotgun full of #8"s at a deer ...you use a single projectile to get the job done ...why shotgun all these wild and wonderful (and sometimes expensive) seeds all over ??? learn to feed'em what they want and all you can!!!

Just cover the 3 stages A early and into bow season (Cow Peas)
B frost to fall gun seasons (Turnips/Kale)
C winter (Cereal Rye)

Have a great and a safe season ALL!

Bear

 

[Kujo]

I vote #2 and here is why (assuming cereal rye is the suggestion)
...in your case ...I would turn this into a test ..I would go to the bare spots and plant cereal rye in several spots ...Winter wheat in a few ...Oats ....MAKE A MAP of what area is what ...then sit back and let the deer teach you a thing or two about their palate IN YOUR AREA ..On the back of the map ..date the entry and note temperature + things like area deer linger in most and note growth stage of said area ..draw a line in your notes when the first killing frost hits ...see the feeding patterns move with the A. growth of the plant B.Temperature C.Before/After frost
Why all the effort ...cow peas, kale and turnips are my winning ration with a late spread of Cereal Rye
My Pal two counties away cannot get his deer to stay on any of the above but knocks'em dead with Radishes,Rape and and Oats

In both cases the above plots mentioned are in the hills,ridge tops, logging roads and old log yards and sawmill location
in both cases in the hills we have wildlife ponds ...I have 3 in my 180 AC of hills/hardwoods and my Pal has 2 on 120AC
In both cases we have(helping each other) hinge cut (where possible) 180 degrees around any plot 1/2AC or bigger
We both do woods burns ..Me one year him the other ..we burn our rest areas every 3-5 years and our big timber burns are an on going project burning a bit at a time as we catch a creek full (fire break) or some other way such as an east wind which comes so seldom

Of course both of us have Red clover in spots thru out the fields
We both have 5+AC of each corn and beans and a few strips of milo (all left thru winter standing) but all of these row crops bottoms are 360 degrees surrounded by very tall CRP growth heavy in very tall switch grass,flowering large brassicas etc.

You don't shoot a shotgun full of #8"s at a deer ...you use a single projectile to get the job done ...why shotgun all these wild and wonderful (and sometimes expensive) seeds all over ??? learn to feed'em what they want and all you can!!!

Just cover the 3 stages A early and into bow season (Cow Peas)
B frost to fall gun seasons (Turnips/Kale)
C winter (Cereal Rye)

Have a great and a safe season ALL!

Bear

I'm to new to food plotting to weigh in on this having just put out my first plot, but that was a good read, makes alot of sense.

 

[Scott44]

I would go with rye, oats and radishes. earlier this summer I had bare spots in my brassicas so I added rye and oats to the bare spots. I believe you have quite a bit more growing season left compared to us up north. Good luck and hope the hurricane doesn't hit you too hard.

 

[dogdoc]

I would just over seed your bare spots with rye. If this is the first time you have planted brassicas don't get disappointed if they aren't heavily browsed. First year I planted them they didn't get touched but subsequent planting did get foraged. Being is zone 7b you could get away with still planting any cereal grain but rye will get you the best growth as colder temperatures approach.

good luck
todd

 

[Charlieyca]

Thanks for the advice, love the idea of doing a patch of each cereal grain in each open spot. I'm also new enough to plotting that I'm learning what my deer want and what I can grow. Great explanation of the why you choose option 2.

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[Charlieyca]

The way last "winter" went we have all year to plant fall plots. I saw frost 2x before February last year. I have family in the charlotte area so we are playing it safe and enjoying a weekend with the grandparents away from the coast.

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[Charlieyca]

I was leaning towards a rye fill in, just because it is cheap, grows easy and I know it will at the very least limit my weeds through the summer. I've heard mixed reviews in NC about brassicas, either love em or hate em.

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[MK111]

I'd also plant a cereal crop. Anything green to cover the bare ground. I learned that any new crop and the 1st year the deer have to learn to eat it and the 2nd year deer hit it hard.

 

[Charlieyca]

I hadn't thought about how long it takes them to get "used to" a new crop. Now that you saw that my white clover from last fall is the most browsed food plot I have.