Winter Peas

[S.T.Fanatic]

I have a strip of winter wheat and winter barley that I am going to be doing a TNM brassica plot in the relatively near future. The plot where this strip is was seeded with a mix of many different seeds last summer/fall. In that mix were Icicle Winter Peas. Surprisingly with our winters a low percent of them made it through and the pods were filling in nicely while being supported by the winter cereal grains. My plan was to harvest those pods that proved to be winter hardy and plant them this fall with another pea mix in a different plot with hopes of even more plants making it through the winter. My thought process was that If I could get the peas to over winter and set pods I could essentially have the peas for two seasons (greens the first fall and pods for the second season) I would over seed a brassica the second summer for additional attraction/winter food source.

I had some time Saturday afternoon and wanted to check on the peas and possibly even harvest the seed if they were ready. To say the least the deer beet me to it. There were trails through the standing cereal going from pea plant to pea plant and not a single pod was to be found. They didn't touch them all spring or summer up until this point. The pods finally had filled out and just started to mature and BAM the deer were on them.

I'm going to plant them again and with the plot being larger than the single strip I hoping to get more of them through the season. I guess time will tell. I never thought I would need to consider fencing off a plot with our relatively low deer numbers and the thousands of acres of AG crops available but these peas seem to be quite the draw.

 

[j-bird]

We may be 100's of miles away.....but I know what your talking about! Between so much food being available and so few deer I can plant a 1/4 acre of basic ag soybeans and they will mature and grow and fill pods. I have had AWP survive the winter to the point I had to mow it and the wheat and rye in prep for my spring planted annuals.

if my deer go hungry....it's because they are stupid!

I will say I have started cutting back on plots and moving more towards cover projects with seasonal food sources and browse plants mixed in. Time will tell if it helps or not....but I'm tired of planting plots that I have to mow and plow under in the spring. I have done this twice now even on a small 1/2 to 3/4 acre corn plot.....pisses me off! Sometimes I think the damn squirrels and coons eat more of the corn than the deer do! And when I set my mind to it I can grow a mean corn plot!

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

We may be 100's of miles away.....but I know what your talking about! Between so much food being available and so few deer I can plant a 1/4 acre of basic ag soybeans and they will mature and grow and fill pods. I have had AWP survive the winter to the point I had to mow it and the wheat and rye in prep for my spring planted annuals.

if my deer go hungry....it's because they are stupid!

I will say I have started cutting back on plots and moving more towards cover projects with seasonal food sources and browse plants mixed in. Time will tell if it helps or not....but I'm tired of planting plots that I have to mow and plow under in the spring. I have done this twice now even on a small 1/2 to 3/4 acre corn plot.....pisses me off! Sometimes I think the damn squirrels and coons eat more of the corn than the deer do! And when I set my mind to it I can grow a mean corn plot!

This is exactly why I am building a crimper and moving toward a non traditional no till planting style. When I say no till I really mean surface broadcast and covers crimped. I doubt i'll be able to grow corn but as of now it looks like milo, peas, sunflowers, and soybeans work just fine. I can only imagine it will be even better when thatch is rolled over on top of the seed.