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Purple top turnip size

M

Madison county

Member
This year my food plot is looking REAL nice, planted on August 10th. The turnips are maybe 4" in diamiater. I have never had large turnips before due to late planting. How big of diamiater can they get and do the deer like them as well if they are larger in size?
 
I have had anywhere from golf ball size turnips all the way up to bigger than softballs, with most of them being in the tennis ball to baseball size. (Have we covered all of the sports yet? :D)

I don't recall ever detecting any preference by the deer based on their size though. In my experience though, they won'teat the bulbs too much for another 6 weeks or so. They might gnaw on the tops a little bit, but the deer won't hit them hard until they sugar up after a couple hard frosts.
 
We have had our plots anywhere from golf balls to volleyballs. The largest came in our first year when we planted in late June. Now we plant the first week in August to get baseballs. It took our deer three years to start eating the greens early but now they start using them in September. They will bite them off at the bulb and it looks like a conveyor belt going in their mouth. The bulbs usually get hit when the greens are gone.
 
They will eat the turnip edges if they have to. Just depends on how much food is in the area. I have had some turnips eaten already this year in MN.
 
I used to plant turnips and radishes around a rain in mid to late July, but I think they get too big especially if you fertilize well. I now try to plant in August.
 
I shot a doe last night in one of my plots (had to back out and find her today- coyotes found her first:( ) BUT- I wanted them stomp the larger bulb down and eat parts of it- mine are about softball size right now. not often I see them eating them this early- but a storm front was moving by and they were all out eating everything
 
When it's warm out you really can't leave them over night. Always make sure if you go hunting that you have the time for a search and find. If not don't go. It's really out of respect for the animal.
 
Planted turnips and beets the last weekend of August. Baseball size beets and turnips are as big as we have ever produced. Great growing year. Hammering the foliage now. Planted with 6-24-24-
 
Madison county said:
This year my food plot is looking REAL nice, planted on August 10th. The turnips are maybe 4" in diamiater. I have never had large turnips before due to late planting. How big of diamiater can they get and do the deer like them as well if they are larger in size?
Click to expand...

I have grown many turnips in my day with some getting very large as seen in the pictures below. The deer have crushed them regardless of size. I have seen anything from a ping pong ball to a basketball size turnip and have seen little preference to the deer come winter time!



 
I was thinking about this the other day. Last year I didn't get much in size, like golf balls and baseballs but the deer loved them. This year, I recently walked thru one plot and I couldn't believe how huge they were; like roll your ankle over softball plus. And, deer are still loving them. One thing that I'm pondering over is why the deer are eating these instead of clover and rye mix. Everytime I've been by this plot, I see them crunching on the brassicas that are right next to the clover. Might not be much for late season
 
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