Planting deadline
- Thread starter JohnL48
- Start date
j-bird
Moderator
most brassica require 60 to 90 days to reach their peak size. So you need to look at when you typically get your first god frost and work backwards from there. I try to have at least 60 days of growing season for them to provide ample food supply - less than that and they won;t produce much of a tuber for you and your deer for later in the winter. With targeting 60 days I tend to get results like this. These are not huge - but again this is targeting 60 days......if you can get closer to 90 - they get even bigger!
JohnL48
A good 3 year old buck
Our first Frost is typically first week in October. Last yr I planted early right before a rain. I think around July 7th. The tubers came in great but started to rot before deer season
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j-bird
Moderator
So using that information (and why record keeping can be so important) - that tells me you need to push planting off a little later....maybe more toward the end of July. This will still give you roughly 60 days of growing and NOT get them too mature where they start to rot. I know I plant mine in the July/Aug time frame and they do OK. My deer don't really hammer them anyway, but I still plant them for cheap winter food insurance.
P&Y Manager
Yearling... With promise
Last week of July and first week of August seems to be the sweet spot in this part of the country. But if work is keeping you away from the fields, better late than never. Even if you only give them 40-45 days, you'll still get some nice green tonnage but the tubers will be much smaller. If you get into the 30 days or less time frame, then don't waste your money on brassica seed - put in some cereal grain and call it a year.
phil@thesidehill
5 year old buck +
i'm in NE PA and my brassica mix of choice is modeled on Lick Creek's. PTT, DER, GHFR. I'm a little south of you, but i'm also in an area of higher elevation that is generally colder than the surrounding area. I have planted that brassica mix as early as July 7th and as late as August 8th. The early side saw the radishes start to bolt before bow season opened, but the other two components were pretty much good to go....some of the PTT began to rot out a little later into October. I had some pretty huge tubers and lots of green top growth though. The later side the tubers didnt amount to much...hot dog sized radish and golf ball sized turnips...but sufficient green top growth. I really like to shoot anywhere in the July 12th to July 20th window....but if i cant get them in during that window...i still feel pretty good about July 21st to August 1st. Of course weather conditions can make any of these date ranges mean nothing.
