Turnips

[hunt4ever]

GTOHunter - I am going to have to call BPS today and order another D40, I currently have three which I am happy with.  I also like to plant turnips and brassica mix and enjoy eating the purple top turnips and the greens.  I picked a few turnips yesterday (ref. photo) and had some with dinner last night plus tried the greens.  All was great except, the stems were a little bit bitter, but the leaves were sweet.  The turnip & brassica have grown great, as you can see from the photo, some turnips are 4'  or so.  However, I have had problems with mustard weed & golden rod in this 30+ year old pasture as covered in other posts.  Yesterday, I got my son-inlaw to take his weed wacker to them to prevent the weed to go to seed and that seemed to work pretty well, ref. photo.  This should lessen the weed problem next year when I go in there and disk-let-grow & kill a couple of times before planting. [size="4"]Tom Mac[/size]

[buckhunter21]

Nice turnups!  I just put in a turnup and brassica mix today myself....Hopefully I got it in with enough time to spare before the first frost!

[qdmdr]

I have grown Purple Top Turnips and the Hudson Turnip and Deer just tear them up in late Nov-Dec. here in the Thumb of Michigan. I just purchased 6#bag of the NY NY Turnip from Jeff Best at www.bestoutdoors.com he still has a few bags left. He also has the Eagle seed forage soy bean that can grow up to 6 feet tall with leaves 8" in dia. I will be planting these beans next to my Turnips.

[fasteddie]

My son planted Brassica a few years ago at his camp . The deer would eat the leaves during the summer and not the turnip part as it is bitter . After one or two frosts , the beet gets sugary and the deer dig them up .

[easports]

I'm in the process of tilling and planting three small food plots in Northern Virginia. Just completed one field and planted Bio Mass All Legume. Thinking about planting Sucra seed on the second field and I still not sure about the third field at this time. In reading about you all with the turnips got me thinking. How early can I plant turnips because in VA, April and May will be nice but June, July and August will be hot and dry? Are turnips planted in late August, early September? One thing I'm always lacking is food as an attractant come November and December time frame which is why I'm going with smaller plots and a variety of food.

Also can you plant turnips in a wooded environment depending on the amount of sun light? I'm thinking about cutting some trees to open up sun light to the forest floor for approx. 5 to 6 hours.

[GTOHunter]

hunt4ever....thats on heck of a turnip patch for sure! [;)] Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see your food plots this 2010 Season!


Last Fall when we planted our food plots with turnips,brassicas,rape,clover and wheat together I bought some sugar beets to put in with them...the Deer ate up all the brassicas,rape,turnips and beets in the winter time so all that was left was the wheat and clover so I top-dressed the plot in march with some more red clover to help thicken it up a bit!


Oh yeah.....Moultrie is having a sale on most of their trail camera's via their Web Site,the I-60 (Infared 6.0 camera) is on sale for around $149.00 so thats a very good deal on that camera and it has the built-in viewer for looking at pictures out in the field!I think the other Camera's are at lower prices too?

www.moultriefeeders.com

[easports]

msbadger

You mentioned that you have 12 plots….how big are they? Also when your planting something new, are you doing anything special to keep the deer off the plot until the seeds germinate and plants mature to a degree? I was thinking about netting or some kind of chicken wire to block off the plot but the expense is too much. I'm not sure how well the over the counter chemicals work to keep out deer and rabbits for a window of 30 days to allow the plants to grow up. I'm sure you have to reapply the product several time to keep them off for that time frame. What's your thoughts?

[msbadger]

 With the turnips I've never had a problem....they don't normally touch them until after a frost or two.......beets and with the corn and soybeans I will be planting...I use the fertilizer Milorganite...it is processed human sewage sold as fertilizer...it has a smell to it that helps keep them at bay for a while....www.milorganite.com/home/faqs.cfm . Slow release nitro and iron...actually good for around tree plantings and blue berries

My plots are all small and irregular in shape...trail plots average size is 10 - 15ft wide by 150 to 300+ ft long....some are a mere 50ft x30ft and others are 75yrds  by 90yrds and everything in between

PS...for birds...which can cause more problems than deer...I buy shiny toy whirly wigs... they are a buck a piece and last a few years...I stick them around new seedings....even a light wind will get them moving and if you loosen them a bit as you position them in the ground they'll turn to the best wind

[motorbreaker]

I planted a 3/4 acre soybean plot, The deer have been tearing it up. I,m thinking
that at the rate they are eating the beans that there will be nothing left before long.
I have a smaller plot next to the bean plot where I will be planting turnips, Would
I be better off planting turnips over the beans? I was thinking maybe broudcasting
and cultipaking the seed in right over the beans. What is the latest time to plant
turnips? My plan was Aug 6 for the other plot. What do you think? Jake

[Ky Bob]

I planted about an acre of turnips, think they were White Globe, but I couldn't tell that the deer even touched them.