Chicory Varieties

[S.T.Fanatic]

I did a search through most of the content on here related to chicory. As it seems most of you favor your clover over chicory. My deer like chicory but they favor it in one plot over the other. In one plot I bought oasis from Welters and they hammer it. The other plot i bought a VNS seed through Albert Lea Seed and it doesn't seem to get the usage.

What varieties are you planting?

 

[j-bird]

Have you seen that the deer seem to like it at different times of the year? I have chicory mixed in with lots of my clover and it is pretty much ignored until the early fall. Then almost over night it's like the deer specifically seek it out and in a few weeks it's entirely gone.....like it was never there! To be honest I have never paid much attention to the variety of it. I know Jim Ward plants entire plots (like staging plots) of chicory. Some folks don;t like mixing chicory in with clover because it can complicate herbicide applications.

 

[bueller]

I've yet to give chicory a solid try. Maybe one day.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I planted the oasis a couple of years ago in the fall with radishes and rye and ladino. The radishes were to thick so it pretty much shaded out all the rye and clover so I frost seeded clover the following spring. What I did notice was that the deer would walk around the plot and eat every chicory leaf they could find. I love the stuff but am wondering what variety would be preferred.

The next time i plant it i'm going to get what I believe is called forage feast from Welters.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Have you seen that the deer seem to like it at different times of the year? I have chicory mixed in with lots of my clover and it is pretty much ignored until the early fall. Then almost over night it's like the deer specifically seek it out and in a few weeks it's entirely gone.....like it was never there! To be honest I have never paid much attention to the variety of it. I know Jim Ward plants entire plots (like staging plots) of chicory. Some folks don;t like mixing chicory in with clover because it can complicate herbicide applications.

There was a video a couple of years back with Steve B. He said what he does with the chicory close to the archery opener is put down a little lime and fertilizer on the chicory close to the stand (if your hunting over it) and it really helps to bring the deer in close.

I love the stuff. The only reason I plant clover is to feed the chicory. There are varieties of clover that is more gly resistant than others that I may look into planting with it as chicory is unharmed by it unless you spray the crap out of it. Another gly resistant legume that I want to try is sainfoin but I have read others have had a hard time getting it established. This way If I felt like spraying a dose of gly wouldn't be a problem. I find though that mowing twice a year takes care of most of the weeds. I dont care if it looks like a picture out of a hunting mag.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I think beside being drought tolerant, chicory is a good mineral miner. I remember reading that somewhere, and if that's the case, and bucks eat it, it would be supplying minerals just like a lick would. Maybe help build antlers ??

 

[Phil]

I did a search through most of the content on here related to chicory. As it seems most of you favor your clover over chicory. My deer like chicory but they favor it in one plot over the other. In one plot I bought oasis from Welters and they hammer it. The other plot i bought a VNS seed through Albert Lea Seed and it doesn't seem to get the usage.

What varieties are you planting?

Oasis is the only variety i have tried from welters. I am very impressed with the usage, so planted even more on my property. I feel like it gets hit just as hard as my kopu 2 and alice, if not better.

 

[Eggman]

Great looking plot Phil!

 

[Native Hunter]

Three proven chicory varieties here - Wina, Commander and Antler.

They hammer it all year long from spring until late fall.