Last year was my first year food plotting. beans did well and then I overseeded a Brassica mix along with radishes in August. Everything came up real well lots of forage and big tubers in the radish and turnips. we had our first few hard freezes in November. When things warmed up with some nice weather in December I noticed all the radishes turn to mush the turnips did not. I do not have a mass crop in my area so I looked at all the rotting radishes as a waste and wished I had more turnips as they fed the deer all winter long..so my question is should I skip on radishes in place of more turnips? I know a lot has been said about the radish tops being heavily utilized but I think I noticed more utilization of the kale which I include in the mix so I wouldn't be missing much there.
Radish?
- Thread starter Yarg
- Start date
bbcoach
5 year old buck +
If you aren't happy with the radishes then increase the PTT this season and see what happens. Food plotting isn't an exact science, what works for others may not work for you. If the deer ate the turnips, then by ALL means grow what they will eat. Good luck and keep us posted.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Deer favor different things in different regions. Maybe still plant some radishes - but go lighter on them and heavier on PTT and kale. Whatever they like !!
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Radish fills a different role than turnips. I look at it this way. If my radish tubers turn to mush, it is because my deer have found something better to eat which is great! Radishes grow mostly below the ground and provide much more organic tillage than turnips. Turnip tubers last much longer before decaying like radishes. Here is how deer relate to my radish and turnips:
Deer will begin eating my radish tops as soon as they emerge. They completely ignore turnip tops until a good hard frost unless there is nothing else available. If we have a poor mast crop, the radish forage disappears first. Next is the turnip tops which are followed by the radish tubers. Finally, the turnip tubers are eaten. As the mast crop (or other fall/winter foods) get better, I have less pressure on my brassica. In bountiful mast crop years not much gets eaten after the acorns fall.
I never know what our mast crop will be like. I look at it this way. Anything not eaten by deer (or eaten by deer and defecated back into the field) decomposes and improves my OM. Radish, because of the deep tuber, mines nutrients from depths untouched by turnips and many other crops and brings them up to the surface. Rotting radish tubers put OM down at more depth without tillage. They also don't require termination in the spring in my area like turnips. If I don't terminate turnips, they will bolt in the spring producing too much seed for a healthy crop.
So, I would say the use of radish really depends on your objective and what time period it is most important to cover from a deer food perspective, but I would also consider the soil benefits.
Thanks,
Jack
"Enrich" ... A brand of daikon radish
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
I believe daokon is used to penetrate & break-up compacted soils. As it decays, leaves a deep hole for water & air penetration.
I have used ground hog radish which i believe what Dbltree recommended for food source.
from what I understand all the Daikon radishes are of similar genetics pretty much the same same thing with different names.. groundhog, tillage, jackhammer
groundbreaker Etc
Boll Weevil
5 year old buck +
I don't plant radish anymore and if I ever do again it will be only for soil health with no expectation that deer will utilize. My deer simply won't touch them.
Gator
5 year old buck +
I agree with Jack about how deer relate to radishes around central Virginia. With that said, you don't live in VA so I wouldn't worry much about it. If the deer didn't seem to have more preference to the radish greens then other than a little nutrient scavenging I see no reason to plant them in your situation.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Radishes are brassica and members of the mustard family. There are two type, forage (tillage like daikon aka ground hog) & oil seed. Forage radishes were developed as cover crops because of their high biomass and soil enhancing capability.
I have used where I am limiting soil tillage to help the soil. Have had great luck with the deer responding well to them. Keep in mind i plant with PTT, clover, WR for a fall food source.
Here is a good article on them ...
Radishes as a cover crop
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
My deer hammer radish leafs. They won't eat a turnip top or root... so I like to plant radishes and have given up on turnips. Different strokes for different folks.
Semisane
5 year old buck +
That's my situation also. The deer walk around a mixed plot focusing on the radish leaves with an occasional munch on the oats and wheat.
Skelly
5 year old buck +
I hope your right on va deer preference for them. I’m adding Daikon to my mix this year for the first time. I’ve only been using clover, chicory and oats/ww. I’m hopeful it will help with my clay issues
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
The soil benefit are an important reason I use them but my deer took to them very quickly unlike PTT. My deer did not touch PTT for the first several seasons. It seems they need to "learn" they are a good food. We eventually had a poor mast crop year and deer had no choice but to eat the PTT. Since them they use them regularly.
Thanks,
Jack
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
If we only planted to appease what the deer would eat, imagine the predicament we would be in regarding the health of the land?
Tap
5 year old buck +
I just received this info from green Cover Seed about a new Radish. There were some pics attached but they didn't transfer to this post when I cut and pasted the info.
Green Cover Seed is proud to introduce you to the newest cover crop innovation
The SMART RADISH is a totally new radish that was bred specifically for the cover crop and soil health market. This is not a Daikon, vegetable, or oil seed radish but is a totally new plant from top to bottom. Bred by Mr. Adrian Russel with Plant Research New Zealand under contract to New Zealand's Norwest Seed and being marketed in the United States by Green Cover Seed, this exciting new radish has some great new features that can be seen below. The first two containers of Smart Radish in North America are due in to Green Cover Seed this week so if you would like to take a look at this new cover crop, just give us a call!
Priced at $1.95/lb and with 27,000 seeds/lb, this is an affordable radish to put in your mixes for this summer and early fall! DNA and PVP protected
SMART RADISH Trial Report from Pasture Genetics Australia
NOTE: These radish were early spring planted for sheep forage, thus the references to flowering and seed pod production which woulld not be seen from a summer planting.
"From what we have observed, there is a significant benefit to using Smart radish over Tillage radish. Firstly, the maturity difference at Penfield is about 3 weeks in onset of flowering, but I also observed the flowering window of Smart seems to be longer again. Smart also showed a lot more herbage production and leaf matter being produced throughout the entirety of the season. Even when the Smart radish was starting to produce seed pods, the bottom leaf area still remained significantly great than that of Lunch Tillage. While no measurements were taken, dry matter estimates would indicate there was a lot more on the Smart radish. The bulb formation to Smart was also quite different, you could really see the ‘pull down’ bulb effect of the Smart, as indicated in the photos attached. The Smart had very little to none of the bulb growing out of the ground, while the Tillage had prominent bulb formation above the soil. This also lead to the Tillage pulling out with the weight of the crop as it lodged with the heavy weight of the seed pods filling, the Smart however stood tall and lodged significantly less. In an area where we grazed both Smart and Tillage after they had flowered and podded we found very good stock acceptance in all leaf and the fine stems. The hard main stems were not palatable but they preferentially grazed the radish over leafy forage cereal plots and ryegrass based blends. I would not say it was more or less palatable than Tillage, however there were certainly no acceptance issues. Overall, I think Smart would be a superior variety to Tillage in nearly all situation’s for our local growers. We will be continuing to trial Smart next year, it will go across multiple external sites nationally, and will be put into specific inter-row cover crop trials with varying times of sowing in our neighbors almond plantation."
Green Cover Seed is proud to introduce you to the newest cover crop innovation
The SMART RADISH is a totally new radish that was bred specifically for the cover crop and soil health market. This is not a Daikon, vegetable, or oil seed radish but is a totally new plant from top to bottom. Bred by Mr. Adrian Russel with Plant Research New Zealand under contract to New Zealand's Norwest Seed and being marketed in the United States by Green Cover Seed, this exciting new radish has some great new features that can be seen below. The first two containers of Smart Radish in North America are due in to Green Cover Seed this week so if you would like to take a look at this new cover crop, just give us a call!
Priced at $1.95/lb and with 27,000 seeds/lb, this is an affordable radish to put in your mixes for this summer and early fall! DNA and PVP protected
SMART RADISH Trial Report from Pasture Genetics Australia
NOTE: These radish were early spring planted for sheep forage, thus the references to flowering and seed pod production which woulld not be seen from a summer planting.
"From what we have observed, there is a significant benefit to using Smart radish over Tillage radish. Firstly, the maturity difference at Penfield is about 3 weeks in onset of flowering, but I also observed the flowering window of Smart seems to be longer again. Smart also showed a lot more herbage production and leaf matter being produced throughout the entirety of the season. Even when the Smart radish was starting to produce seed pods, the bottom leaf area still remained significantly great than that of Lunch Tillage. While no measurements were taken, dry matter estimates would indicate there was a lot more on the Smart radish. The bulb formation to Smart was also quite different, you could really see the ‘pull down’ bulb effect of the Smart, as indicated in the photos attached. The Smart had very little to none of the bulb growing out of the ground, while the Tillage had prominent bulb formation above the soil. This also lead to the Tillage pulling out with the weight of the crop as it lodged with the heavy weight of the seed pods filling, the Smart however stood tall and lodged significantly less. In an area where we grazed both Smart and Tillage after they had flowered and podded we found very good stock acceptance in all leaf and the fine stems. The hard main stems were not palatable but they preferentially grazed the radish over leafy forage cereal plots and ryegrass based blends. I would not say it was more or less palatable than Tillage, however there were certainly no acceptance issues. Overall, I think Smart would be a superior variety to Tillage in nearly all situation’s for our local growers. We will be continuing to trial Smart next year, it will go across multiple external sites nationally, and will be put into specific inter-row cover crop trials with varying times of sowing in our neighbors almond plantation."
