Fall Plot Help

[Totouchantler]

Recommendations for what I should plant here. It had the LC mix last year. I was a bit late to the party in prep for this fall but am now ready to plant. I'd like to plant a brassica mix over a heavier cereal grain mix. I love triticale and rye/wheat. As observed in the pics the plot is entirely screened by corn which I planted in April. The unplanted part is exactly 1.5 acres. Could you recommend seeding rates and varieties that allow me to use brassicas and grains? Thanks all.

Chris

 

[bbcoach]

Don't mix brassicas and cereal grains together. The brassicas will normally outcompete the grains and you won't get much grain growth. I would split the field in two and plant half in brassicas and half in grains. Your brassicas are late so your probably not going to get much bulb growth (60-90 days before your first frost). Brassicas at about 5 lbs per acre and grains at about 100 lbs per acre. Good Luck.

 

[wiscwhip]

Bb, just curious about you saying to not mix the brassicas and grains? Mixing Daikon forage radish with cereal grains is a staple of Paul Knox's LC mix. There should be no issue whatsoever mixing 5lbs of Groundhog radish and 100 to 112 lbs of cereal grains per acre, but it needs to be done NOW to see any type of decent growth on those radish. Rye will grow in a pickup bed under a topper, so I wouldn't worry about the brassica shading out the rye. Is this something you have had issues with in the past?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Should be no problem mixing Brassicas with WR.

I love that little spot in the picture. If it were mine, and I didnt have any white clover in the area. I would drill in 2 bu of WR on that 1.5 acres. Then pack it good. Come over the top and broadcast 8lbs of White dutch or Ladino clover or a mix of both, 2lbs of Vivant Brassica, 2lbs of GHFR, and 2lbs of Rape. Then pack it twice.

Come next spring, mow the WR off twice and then you will have a beautiful clover patch!

 

[bbcoach]

Here's a thread that Paul Knox provided on brassicas http://iowawhitetail.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15388 If you plant radishes in grains at a low rate you will be OK. If you plant Paul's mix with PTT, DER and Radishes at the rate he recommends the rape and turnip leaves will canopy over the grains and shade them out. I've planted grains with my brassicas and he is absolutely correct. That is why I recommended splitting the field in two halves and getting the most bang for your buck. Get a quality field of brassicas and a quality field of grains.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Splitting the field is fine, but I like to have the WR over the whole plot for spring feed and cover. Cover for weed suppression and building the soil.

 

[wiscwhip]

That makes sense at face value, but it still leaves you with basically bare dirt in half that plot for most of the spring.

That is my thought as well Mo. In the "brassica only" section, I don't care how much food the cereal grain provides this fall, as long as it germinates and roots this fall, which it will even with canopy, and takes off next spring to provide food and to cover that bare brassica patch. But neither way is right or wrong, just a different approach.

 

[Totouchantler]

Just so all know... My neighbors and I have had excellent outcomes bulb development wise planting brassica varieties much later then this late august date. I have had softball sized purple tops and and two foot GHFR after planting a week into september.

 

[yoderjac]

The key to mixing brassica with cereal and clover is rates. For example adding GHR to a WR/Clover mix at a rate of 2 lbs/ac works great. I mix PTT with CC and WR in a cover crop mix broadcast into standing beans. With low rates of PTT (around 2 lbs/ac) there is no issue with brassicas shading out the rest of the cover crop.

 

[wiscwhip]

Just so all know... My neighbors and I have had excellent outcomes bulb development wise planting brassica varieties much later then this late august date. I have had softball sized purple tops and and two foot GHFR after planting a week into september.

So you are not in Zone 4 or lower then, correct?

 

[Totouchantler]

wiscwhip.... I'm in zone 5b. What does PTT mean? (purple top turnip?), how about CC? WR? winter rye? Thanks.

 

[Totouchantler]

I should note. I'm less interested in a cover crop or food source for next spring and more interested in a long term fall / winter food source. I'll likely cover in early summer with buckwheat. Please help. Again I would like rate recommendations for cereal grains mixed with brassicas. I know some of you have made recommendations....just looking for more opinions after this latest writing. Thanks in advance!

 

[Totouchantler]

I know Im all over the place on this but what seeding rate per acre is appropriate for grains mixed with brassicas?
Is it a 100 # grains and 5 # brassicas?

Pauls Reccomendation for just brassicas (economic mix) is the following:
Purple Top Turnips 3#
Dwarf Essex Rape 2#
GroundHog Forage radish 5#

I wish to mix this with grains so do I tail off the above reccommendation? How much?

Chris

 

[wiscwhip]

Ptt = yes purple top turnips
CC = crimson clover
WR = yes winter rye

I had an overly long explanation typed up, but I deleted it in place of this one thought...........If you are truly just looking for a crop for fall attraction/winter feed for your deer, just plant that whole area to corn and don't harvest the section you are planning on planting to brassicas. There isn't a brassica in the world that is going to beat corn for a mid-January food source, especially in an area that gets snow. If that corn is on 30" wide rows, you can always walk the rows with a hand seeder and put down some rye and brassicas in between the rows for some added fall green food.

 

[yoderjac]

I know Im all over the place on this but what seeding rate per acre is appropriate for grains mixed with brassicas?
Is it a 100 # grains and 5 # brassicas?

Pauls Reccomendation for just brassicas (economic mix) is the following:
Purple Top Turnips 3#
Dwarf Essex Rape 2#
GroundHog Forage radish 5#

I wish to mix this with grains so do I tail off the above reccommendation? How much?

Chris

I would cut the total brassica down to around 2 lbs/ac max. You can keep the proportions between the types of brassica the same if you want.

 

[Totouchantler]

Wisc.... What was your longer winded response? I can't plant corn their this year.

 

[wiscwhip]

Short answer, just the fact that brassicas covered by inches of crusted, iced over snow that have been through numerous melt/freeze cycles throughout the winter do not make a good easily accessible food source, and I would think in Zone 5b you surely get that type of winter weather to some extent. Corn ears 3' above that crust does make good, easily accessible food.

 

[Buckly]

I know Im all over the place on this but what seeding rate per acre is appropriate for grains mixed with brassicas?
Is it a 100 # grains and 5 # brassicas?

Pauls Reccomendation for just brassicas (economic mix) is the following:
Purple Top Turnips 3#

Dwarf Essex Rape 2#
GroundHog Forage radish 5#

I wish to mix this with grains so do I tail off the above reccommendation? How m

Chris[/QUOTE

I don't think radish is considered brassica. I use the rate you posted. 100lbs grain and 5 lbs radish per acre but, you could easily go to 150lbs grain if you wanted too.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Given that you are at this point in time - summer-wise - corn or soybeans are out of the question. I'd plant 50lbs. each of oats, WR, WW, and 2 lbs. each of PTT and GFR on that 1 1/2 acres. Neil and Craig Dougherty are in central N.Y. and have pix of deer eating turnips and radishes in about 2 ft. of snow. The Dougherty's wrote the book " Grow 'Em Right " for managing deer, if you didn't know. The WW, WR and oats will provide green food early ( oats ) then after frost kills the oats, the WW and WR will be there all winter with the turnips and radishes to give good food and spring green-up chow as well.

 

[wiscwhip]

^^^ "I don't think radish is considered brassica." ^^^



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