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Brassicas - how thick or thin

L

lovetohunt

Member
I planted some brassica's a week or so ago. They are coming up nicely but being a food plot rookie, I am wondering I am to thin. How many plants per square foot should I have? If anyone has any pictures of optimal seed/plant coverage, that would be awesome. I am am thinking I am thin in certain spots then to thick in others.
 
I'm not sure how much this will help as these are 3 1/2 weeks old as of today.....
This was exactly 5.5#/acre of 50/50 PT turnips and radishes. I measure my plots on GIS and then measure seed with a food scale to cover the area at the rate I want. I do this until I figure out a calibration of sorts on my hand seeder.

...and as you can see deer are already eating the tops, so it does not take a frost as some say.

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That is a great looking plot, weather must have cooperated in your neck of the woods. I had to reseed a few spots due to heavy rains/water standing that i had to reseed.
 
Yeah, i will have to take some pics over the weekend. But I can tell you that I would be as happy as a puppy with two peters if mine was like that.
 
Easy to get the stuff too thick. I used to throw by hand,,now have a crank spreader,,which is better. The stats on so much per acre don't work for me. I have several small , strange shaped plots. None an acre. I just know when the plants look too thick now. Too crammed together. Depends too,,do you wan leaves or big bulbs beneath for winter? Optimum both I suppose,,but deer like the leaves thru Nov. Bulbs later. Last yr the leaves served me well,,until that early cold freeze snap in Nov.. After temps in the teens it warmed up and my Brassica was Mush. Too bad too, Had beautiful Radish.:mad:
 
Great looking large food plots. Must have a lot of deer.? My small plots,,done by hand,,glad I don't have a lot of deer around, or my spots would be munched down in a week!
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
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...and as you can see deer are already eating the tops, so it does not take a frost as some say.
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The deer will eat the tops as soon as they look like yours do, which by way look very nice, congrats!!

It is the bulbs, particularly turnips, that the deer will target after a hard frost. They'll eat the tops of both turnips and radishes as soon as they can and until they are gone and in my experience they will eat the radishes whole up until they start to rot out. And radishes will normally rot out way faster than the turnip bulbs.

For me, radishes last until about Thanksgiving, plus or minus a few days, and are heavily dependent on temps/frosts. An early, hard frost in October, followed by fairly warm days in later October and early November = ROTTEN turnips :mad: ...usually before Thanksgiving.

The turnip bulbs will "sugar up" after a freeze and are often what the deer will be digging for on into January/February. Turnip bulbs are just more hardy than the radish bulbs...but I think deer strongly prefer radishes while they are available.
 
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