Should brassicas do this . . .

ChattBuck

Senior Member
. . . Appears root growth is pushing a large portion of the plant and root out of the ground. Never planted them before. So I have no clue!
 

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Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Yup, you have perfectly happy and growing Daikon Radishes!! Good job!

Radish 12-20-15.jpg
Radish 1-10-16.jpg

And you have much more root than that below ground, with fine "hairs", pentrating deep and mining nutrients from deep into the soil. The beauty of these radishes is that (if you don't eat them) when they die, they will leave a hole in the ground, to allow more water to enter your subsoil. It will also breaking up compacted soil, plus leaving a lot of nutrient rich organic matter there for your next crop.

Keep an eye on when your deer start eating them. It took my deer 3 years, to learn to eat them.
 

Deer Fanatic

Cool ? Useless Billy Deer Guide
I grew them for several years. Then about 4-5 years in they came up great then turned yellow and died. Same thing the next year. Someone told me that a disease gets in the soil if you grow them in the same spot repeatedly.... not sure if that's true but I haven't planted them since.
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
It's true ..... brassica's shouldn't be planted more than 2 years in a row. Crop rotation is needed, but crop rotation is a good practice with anything.
 

ChattBuck

Senior Member
Yup, you have perfectly happy and growing Daikon Radishes!! Good job!



And you have much more root than that below ground, with fine "hairs", pentrating deep and mining nutrients from deep into the soil. The beauty of these radishes is that (if you don't eat them) when they die, they will leave a hole in the ground, to allow more water to enter your subsoil. It will also breaking up compacted soil, plus leaving a lot of nutrient rich organic matter there for your next crop.

Keep an eye on when your deer start eating them. It took my deer 3 years, to learn to eat them.


Thank you. Glad to know that's normal.

Hopeful they'll eat it this first year but after reading a lot of people mention same as you, that it took the deer several years to get acclimated to it as a food source I'm quite pessimistic. If they do I'm in luck as I've got 3 or so acres of them that are going gangbusters!
 
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Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
If you come to my secluded, quiet, safe house for supper and I am serving spaghetti, guess what you're having? You may have a choice to go eat at the neighbors, that are serving steak, but it might be too far, too crowded and nothing to drink there.

You may find that "other" conditions make it right for them to eat them this year. You'll find out soon, when the acorns are all gone.
 

Canuck5

Food Plot advisor extraordinaire !
Peak Utilization.JPG

Brassicas are just starting to enter their "preferred" time.
 

ChattBuck

Senior Member
If you come to my secluded, quiet, safe house for supper and I am serving spaghetti, guess what you're having? You may have a choice to go eat at the neighbors, that are serving steak, but it might be too far, too crowded and nothing to drink there.

You may find that "other" conditions make it right for them to eat them this year. You'll find out soon, when the acorns are all gone.

Up here in NW Ga we're not very agrarian. I don't know of anyone with any large food plots within several miles of me and there's not any large farms either.

When the acorns run out I'll likely have then only buffet in town. Others will have corn piles, but I'll have those too! Hoping that I end up as the hot spot come mid to late December.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you. Glad to know that's normal.

Hopeful they'll eat it this first year but after reading a lot of people mention same as you, that it took the deer several years to get acclimated to it as a food source I'm quite pessimistic. If they do I'm in luck as I've got 3 or so acres of them that are going gangbusters!
Deer seem to me to like most brassicas better late in the season after they've been hit by some hard frosts.
 

Triple C

Senior Member
Thank you. Glad to know that's normal.

Hopeful they'll eat it this first year but after reading a lot of people mention same as you, that it took the deer several years to get acclimated to it as a food source I'm quite pessimistic. If they do I'm in luck as I've got 3 or so acres of them that are going gangbusters!
I'd almost be willing to bet the farm that come mid-December, all you'll see are the tubers and hardly any of the greens. Then they'll start eating the tubers. One of my favorite brassica to plant.
 

ChattBuck

Senior Member
I'd almost be willing to bet the farm that come mid-December, all you'll see are the tubers and hardly any of the greens. Then they'll start eating the tubers. One of my favorite brassica to plant.

I sure hope so. I have 3-3.5 acres of them about two foot high. Plenty to go around.
 

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ChattBuck

Senior Member
Just curious...When did you plant the brassica?

First week of September with 200lbs of 15/15/15 per acre. Three weeks later hit with nitrogen. They've done really well. Have winter wheat in strips through the brassicas I didn't plant till first week of October.
 
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ChattBuck

Senior Member
Had two young does in the plot last night. They got to within 10 yards of me. They ate about 20% brassicas and the rest winter wheat. Definitely happy to see some consumption of the brassicas already. Gives me hope come December I'll be good to go.
 

Evergreen

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Pull one or two and throw it in a corn pile, on the plot they are planted in, when they figure out its food they love it, have better luck after a freeze but I didn't think that was supposed to affect diakon radish like other brassicas that need a freeze before deer will truly crave them
 
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