Brassicas

[risto2351]

Paul,

I used my rake yesterday to break up the dirt on the top of the plots.

Question is should I recultipack and then seed and cultipack or just seed
after I break the top?

Welters will send me my seed tomorrow and I will get it replanted.

Thanks for your help and sorry for bothering you on Sunday.

 

[KSQ2]

Dbltree, can I topdress phosphorus? I tilled in potash and nitrogen at planting, but I neglected phosphorus.

 

[dbltree]

Paul,

I used my rake yesterday to break up the dirt on the top of the plots.

Question is should I recultipack and then seed and cultipack or just seed
after I break the top?

Welters will send me my seed tomorrow and I will get it replanted.

Thanks for your help and sorry for bothering you on Sunday.

I've been onvacation so I imagine you already got it planted but if the soil is not tilled deep and loose then one could just sow and cultipack.

Dbltree, can I topdress phosphorus? I tilled in potash and nitrogen at planting, but I neglected phosphorus.

Yep...you can apply P&K anytime...

I've been on vacation this past week and I returned to find I was inundated with messages about drowned brassicas or brassicas that failed to come up due to soil crusting.

Heavy summer rains on saturated soils continue to cause drowning problems in August just as it did with corn in May and there is little we can do about it except re-plant.

Heavy soils pounded by 2-3" rains followed by hot baking sun has also caused severe soil crsuting, something that prevents the tiny brassicas from emerging once they germinate.

This often happens with soybeans and farmers use a rotary hoe to loosen soils but brassicas are too fragile for this an the the how would finish off whatever was left of them.

One of my friends had brassicas drown

despite being on extremely fertile soil...there is nothing to show for our efforts

another friend was diasspointed to find his soils crusted over with only a smattering of emerged brassicas...note the cracked soil surface that only comes when the upper surface forms a dried crust.

It's getting late in the summer but one has several options...

Overseed more brassicas without tilling and hope for rains to germinate the seeds.

Leave it for now and overseed winter rye in another week (if there is at least some emerged brassicas to warrant "filling in" with rye)

Till it up and re-plant a cereal mix such as rye/peas and forage radish.

At this point I personally would opt to re-plant with cereals the end of August but each landowner will want to weight the pros and cons and decide if they have anything worth salvaging in their current brassica plot.

Brassicas can be planted all the way to Sept 1st but in most mid-west and northern states they won't have much growing time and a cereal grain mix will be more productive.

Forage radishes grow very fast and in 30 days can produce a lot of forage so they make a slightly better alternative where rape and turnip plantings have failed late in the summer...

 

[DE2IA]

This has me worried....mine were planted 8/7 in SE Iowa.....did anyone in that are have success? I haven't had a chance to check mine yet.

 

[KSQ2]

Yep...you can apply P&K anytime...

I'm assuming you mean I can top dress the granular type phosphorus I get at the feed store in bulk, right? If so, do I need to try and spread this before a rain, or will it last a while? Sorry, I'm a little naive with this stuff...

 

[letemgrow]

I'm assuming you mean I can top dress the granular type phosphorus I get at the feed store in bulk, right? If so, do I need to try and spread this before a rain, or will it last a while? Sorry, I'm a little naive with this stuff...

P&K will not evaporate off like N will. :way:

 

[KSQ2]

Thanks! I'll get some on it this week!

 

[risto2351]

Well Paul you were correct I had it all disked the day I talked to you and had it planted the next day.

Problem #1: All the rain they had last week missed me.
Don't know how but it did.

Problem #2: No rain forecasted for the next week.

After all the rain this summer I can not believe it.

 

[KSQ2]

Problem #1: All the rain they had last week missed me.
Don't know how but it did.

Problem #2: No rain forecasted for the next week.

Your not alone, I don't think mine will make it down here in Kansas, just looked at it last night. We need rain BAD!

 

[dtr]

I planted my brassicas around the first of August and did not have a cultipacker. I tilled my plots first and there was so much rain in the forecast I went ahead and broadcast the seed with my 4wheeler instead of waiting and cultipacking. That was a big mistake. The only areas I have that germinated well are in the tire tracks of my 4 wheeler. Everwhere else is very spotty! I never realized how critical culitpacking was but I know now! I'll never do that again.

I think I'm going to broadcast rye into these plots to fill in all the bare spots. Does that make sense Paul?

 

[dbltree]

You may be surprised...if there is eough soil moisture to germinate seed your better off sometimes with out rainfall until after they emerge.

Keep us posted on how they do?

 

[KSQ2]

It's been two weeks since we planted our brassicas the soil was powder dry at planting. We've had one decent rain on them five days after planting (1") and they have germinated. Now the plants are about a 1/2" tall and actually look pretty good considering the heat and lack of rain lately. How much longer will they make it w/o a good rain on them?

 

[dbltree]

I think I'm going to broadcast rye into these plots to fill in all the bare spots. Does that make sense Paul?

You bet! I overseed heavily grazed brassicas and thin spots with winter rye every year...works very well.

How much longer will they make it w/o a good rain on them?

Hard to say? Depends on the soil type and sub soil moisture...brassicas are like corn, they love water and nitrogen and without them they eventually start to suffer.

Hope you get some rain soon:way:

 

[KSQ2]

Hope you get some rain soon:way:

You and me both!

 

[dbltree]

August 27th 2010

I checked on the brassicas today, in the ground about 45 days now and looking great!

A few spots had some browning I believe from heavy rains a while back but for the most part they look healthy!

This is an example of how healthy, properly planted brassicas shade eveything else out and make it nearly impossible to grow clovers and other crops with them unless planting rates are cut severely.

Now here's where it gets interesting....I sowed 5#'s of a mix of turnips and rape and 5#'s of GroundHog Forage radish in all the plots and fertilized with 400#'s of triple 19 in this case (nearly 80# each actual NPK)

As I walkd thru the plots I soon noticed that nearly every single GHFR had been heavily grazed!

Now obviously at the heavy rates planted the whole patch is a solid mass of brassicas but deer have stepped thru the plot carefully choosing the GHFR over the other brassicas!

The GHFR plants are all tall and healthy and growing well and providing a tremendous amount of forage

It's easy to see that the other forage brassicas have not been touched at this point

Another interesting aspect is that in some cases they have begun to eat the radish roots...in August no less!

I would really like to hear from other landowners across the country who may be trying forage radish this year to see how deer on your property react to them. As one can see....these radish plants have not seen a frost and with lush white clover plots next to them, deer are hardly starving for feed.

Post up your own results or lack of it but this is the second year in a row that deer have begun pounding the GroundHog forage radishes here in SE Iowa well before cold weather. :way:

 

[HannibalBowhunter]

I checked on my brassicas today which weren't planted until August 13. I notice that in both plots the GHFR were noticeably taller and seemed to have a higher germination rate than than the other brassicas in the mix (rape, turnips, and hybrid forage brassica). Is this typical?

 

[dbltree]

I checked on my brassicas today which weren't planted until August 13. I notice that in both plots the GHFR were noticeably taller and seemed to have a higher germination rate than than the other brassicas in the mix (rape, turnips, and hybrid forage brassica). Is this typical?

I wouldn't say it is typical because the brassicas pictures are all about the same height but one place where I planted the mix in clay soils not quite dry enough the GHFR did better. The other brassicas were not strong enough to break thru the crust but the radishes did and of course are taller and thicker then the others.

Couple thoughts for those who have had brassica failures...

In several cases severe soil crusting prevented the tiny brassica seeds from emerging, they germinate but cannot break thru the crusted soil surface.

Soil crusting occures on heavy clay type soils when the soil is worked a little on the wet side, and then it dries in the summer sun or gets heavy hard rains followed by hot sun. The clay bakes like a brick and seals the soil surface and small brassica seedlings cannot break thru...they germinate and then die just under the surface.

The weather is something we have no control over and sometimes it's "now or never" and we end up planting in less then ideal conditions that often end up failures when planting brassicas.

Those with light sandy soils don't have soil crusting problems but have to deal with drought and brassicas suffer quickly without sufficient rainfall.

Brassicas also don't like poor PH situations so don't guess...soil test first and know where you stand before planting your crops.

The good thing is that winter rye will thrive in each one of those situations....it's rare that soil crusting will stop the tough rye seeds from breaking thru, only extreme drought will effect rye and rye also grows in low PH situations.

If you brassicas failed...pick up some winter rye and you'll still have a great food plot to get your thru this fall!

 

[dbltree]

While planting the cereal grains I tilled right up close to the brassica plantings in the strip plots and I noticed the tiller uprooted a few of the GroundHog Forage radishes in places and at least revealed some in others.

I had already put in a 12 hour day so didn't go hunting for the biggest baddest radish root but just quickly snapped a few pics along the edge.

Many are as bigger or bigger then a hammer handle!

Some day I'll take a tape measure and something for reference but these give you some idea of the size of these things in 50 days of growing.

They still have an easy 45 days to grow but you can see they have already eaten most of the foliage off this plant!

Deer have been attacking them with a vengence so perhaps few will survive that long but for now there are still plenty in this field.

These had 200#'s of urea and 400#'s of 6-24-24 in addition to plowing under clover and rye so they are well fed and doing a great job of attracting and holding whitetails as summer turns to fall... :way:

 

[scottonbuck]

Looks awesome. I just hope my Brassicas are able to take off with flying colors after last month of heavy rains. Last nights rain mixed with all this sunshine we have had lately might be the ticket.

 

[waylonb19]

Yeah my acre of brassicas failed to this yr. I planted before a rain and thought it would be perfect. Only problem is we had 2" of rain a day after I planted..then another 2" the day after that. I believe it either burried my seed to deep or just crusted over and they couldn't come up. Planning on planting it into rye. Is it to late to plant Ground hog radish also? I assume I could get away with planting it still since I just planted some a week ago. Just wanted your thoughts. Just plant it into Rye? Or throw some GHR into the mix?