PTT

[Boone]

If I was a hard ass DNR warden I would call that baiting.

I'm my cty in WI I believe you can bait til the end of the bow season, no more than 2 gal per 40. Pulling up some turnips I would think would be the same as shaking an apple tree to drop apples?

 

[kabic]

I'm my cty in WI I believe you can bait til the end of the bow season, no more than 2 gal per 40. Pulling up some turnips I would think would be the same as shaking an apple tree to drop apples?

I agree you would be good then.

 

[Greta&Gus]

I had a customer call a couple years ago, saying the turnips I sold him grew like crazy in Missouri. But he said the deer won't eat them. I said send me a picture. After he did, I told him to try planting them Aug 1st instead of May 1st!.......WTF?

View attachment 11819

I think you might be on to something in regards to the planting time. If turnips or any root/tuber plant gets too mature they can rot in the soil and not have the same drawing power.

PTT is hands down my favorite food plot for November. Clover might be the best all around plant but on our property nothing beats PTT for it's ability to grow and attract deer during the hunting season.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

I will tell you something else I may be on to, tannins and or tanic acid may play a role in a bitter taste in a guys turnips. Maybe that is why the deer are not pounding on them. Decaying leaves, a lot of them may be to blame.....

I know, fricken silly isnt it! But old BuckChaser thinks its happening to some guys!

 

[MoBuckChaser]

At one of our education classes I met a 60-70 year old guy that says tannins or tannic acid, can effect not only the taste of Brassicas, They can also have a adverse effect on plums, apples, berries, acorns, you name it. Is it true, I don't know for sure, but something is making some guys goodies taste good, and others taste off or not as desirable.

I hope I can find more info on the subject. It sounds possible? You think it is possible on that many things Stu?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

What type soils at your old places? Sandy Loam? Whats up here at your new garden?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Well, I'd have to pull up the soil survey data to get the names of the soil profiles. My old place was silt loam, Dane County WI...some darn good dirt. The wife's old place was near Opole/Holdingford, I never ran soil data there. The garden soil had been amended with cowshit for years and limed plenty...I'd call it loamy glacial till.

Garden soil here is right on the border of Alstad sandy loam and Cushing sandy loam.

The garden tastes better in the sandy loam than the silt loam? Hmmmmmm?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Darfur is pretty fine sand or sand loam I think. I do not know Basco or Kegonsa. Is that hill ground, lots of limestone in the area?

 

[bueller]

I wonder if it has something to do with the amount of "woody" browse the deer herd is accustom to eating. We hear the same thing about white pine and Norway spruce, some can grow with no browsing and others do nothing more than feed the deer with that candy.

In my area turnips are readily consumed but white pines are not browsed heavily.

 

[Maddog3355]

I have never had deer eat my ptt in November but from right about now until spring they use them until there gone. They are so cheap to plant and they grow good I will plant them or radishes every year along with cereal grains.

 

[swat1018]

Mo, have you ever heard this? I had an old timer in MO tell me to fertilize with sulfur to sweeten up brassica. Said it makes a big improvement on usage. I've never tried it, cause I can't plant enough how it is.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Mo, have you ever heard this? I had an old timer in MO tell me to fertilize with sulfur to sweeten up brassica. Said it makes a big improvement on usage. I've never tried it, cause I can't plant enough how it is.

We use a lot of sulfur, never knew it had anything to do with making Brassicas sweeter.

 

[shawnv]

We use a lot of sulfur, never knew it had anything to do with making Brassicas sweeter.

Just watched a video from the guy that owns Grandpa Ray's seed mixes and he said sulfer is a big component to making plots, not just Brassicas sweeter. He said 80% of us are deficient in it.

 

[Greta&Gus]

How does the sulfur change the soil?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

How does the sulfur change the soil?

I don't know about changing the soil, but there is a lot of soil around the country that is deficient of sulfur. Plants never used to have a problem with all the pollution (sulfur dioxide) in the atmosphere. Plants could take it in through leaf tissue, that could/would satisfy the plants sulfur needs. Now that the country has cleaned up all the air pollution, it has left you no choice, but to add sulfur to your ground if you are deficient. Then the plants can take it up as a sulfate Ion. Soil test is the best way to find out how much Sulfur one would need to add for your specific crop. Turnips use about 40lbs of actual sulfur per acre. If your turnip leaves start turning red or have red streaks in them, good sign you are short of sulfur. The lack of sulfur can and will retard the protein synthesis that takes place inside your turnip plant and most other plants.

Maybe more the plant lacks in sulfur, the worse the taste? Maybe a combination of these things make the turnip less desirable?

Whip might know more about this subject. What you say whip?

 

[bueller]

I don't think sulfur is the answer. Sulfur tends to be low in sandy soils yet brassicas are a big attractant in these areas.

 

[j-bird]

All I will add to the conversation is the PPT are relatively cheap insurance for your deer. Even if the deer don't eat them they are good for the soil as well. My deer don't eat much in the way of brasscia as a whole, but will eat the radish before the PTT, 99% of it just rots in the ground on my place. But I also have standing corn or beans around as well with lots of ag. As much as I hate to see effort wasted I continue to plant braccisa simply as a cheap form of insurance to ensure the deer have something to eat. Just like home or car insurance you have it for those "just in case" times. I see planting brassica for deer in the same vein in my area.

 

[shawnv]

I think in many of the areas like you mention bueller there is a lack of high quality forage so they will eat brassicas regardless. At my place other forages are not lacking so they won't touch it. I'm going to have to do a new soil test and look at the sulfur more closely.

http://www.grandparayoutdoors.com/single-post/2016/01/02/Why-wont-deer-eat-your-brassicas

 

[bueller]

I think in many of the areas like you mention bueller there is a lack of high quality forage so they will eat brassicas regardless. At my place other forages are not lacking so they won't touch it. I'm going to have to do a new soil test and look at the sulfur more closely.

http://www.grandparayoutdoors.com/single-post/2016/01/02/Why-wont-deer-eat-your-brassicas

I think that is the key. In many areas deer don't "need" brassicas in their diet. I think "taste" is a very small factor in this. How do oak branches taste to you? Yet the deer seek them out.

 

[wiscwhip]

I don't know about changing the soil, but there is a lot of soil around the country that is deficient of sulfur. Plants never used to have a problem with all the pollution (sulfur dioxide) in the atmosphere. Plants could take it in through leaf tissue, that could/would satisfy the plants sulfur needs. Now that the country has cleaned up all the air pollution, it has left you no choice, but to add sulfur to your ground if you are deficient. Then the plants can take it up as a sulfate Ion. Soil test is the best way to find out how much Sulfur one would need to add for your specific crop. Turnips use about 40lbs of actual sulfur per acre. If your turnip leaves start turning red or have red streaks in them, good sign you are short of sulfur. The lack of sulfur can and will retard the protein synthesis that takes place inside your turnip plant and most other plants.

Maybe more the plant lacks in sulfur, the worse the taste? Maybe a combination of these things make the turnip less desirable?

Whip might know more about this subject. What you say whip?

Sorry been busy as $h!t at work and am just now getting caught up on posts, lol! Mobuck hit one thing on the head for sure, with the whole sulfur dioxide in the air thing. Once the whole "acid rain" thing got dealt with, sufficient levels of sulfur are no longer present in the air for uptake by plants. As far as "taste" and sulfur deficiency/excess, I can not speak specifically to that, but I can offer the following. The red streaks Mo speaks of can be caused by the fact that a sulfur deficient plant can have reduced chlorophyll production, as sulfur alongside nitrogen is a necessary nutrient for proper chlorophyll production. As far as affecting "taste", sulfur is also an essential building block for amino acids, plant proteins, and the helps with the formation and activation of enzymes and vitamins within the plant tissue, so could that affect "taste", highly likely IMO............