Q: Todd, I see all these brassica food plots that are knee high, some waist high. How in the world do you get them to grow that big without the deer cleaning them out just as soon as they get a couple inches tall?
A: There may be several things you’ll need to do to grow big brassicas. First you have to plant them early enough. An acre of brassicas can pump out amazing yield. The upper tier of states and in Canada, I would suggest planting brassicas around the second week in July, ideally when you have ample topsoil moisture or are expecting a rain event. You just need to make sure they don’t receive over about 90 days of growth or then they will bolt to flower and seed. The further south you go the later you can plant, but you want to make sure you give them about 75 to 90 days of growth (depending on the specific plant type) but no more.
Obviously Mother Nature comes into play and your soil and fertilizer amendments need to be sound. However, there’s also the other evident problem of too many mouths for the amount of food you have – which it sounds like you have. In an agricultural area you can observably plant less acreage because of the other prime food sources to back you up. If you live in the “big-woods” with a density of 20 deer or more p.s.m. and the only thing they have to eat is a couple acres of brassicas, the brassicas will be eaten to the dirt. So having a balanced food program with adequate acreage is important.
Choosing a seed that is meant to do this job is also important. A commodity brassica seed that produces plants meant to produce canola oil or produce tubers for salads is not what I want. I want a brassica meant to feed whitetails and perform well in a food plot situation. It just amazes me when people think they’re saving money by purchasing cheap seed. Most consumers only think about this when staring at a seed bag on a retailer’s shelf and they don’t think beyond that. A premium seed actually saves you money because it’s going to produce tons and tons more forage, is more attractive to your herd and it is better for them, it has probably also been treated with coating to increase germ rate and help it perform better throughout the growing process, and numerous other details that actually make it more economically sensible to choose a premium seed. I would suggest testing several until you find a couple that work for you.
Choosing the correct seed also means choosing the proper variety. If you want the best tops (greens), from my experience you want to stay away from the varieties that use their energy to produce tubers like turnips and radishes. While they also produce amazing tonnage, I usually get the best tops with rape. However, my absolute favorite is Deer Radish—the plants won’t get quite as big as the rape, but they seemingly turn palatable faster than our other brassicas. Obviously, for you this may exacerbate your problem (of eating them too quickly), so I would test a few different types—rape, daikon radishes, turnips, etc.
In my view, the most common mistake that affects the size of brassicas is planting them at too high of a rate. Some plant them as thick as the hairs on a dog’s back and wonder why they stay tiny. They crowd one another and fight for nutrients, sunlight and moisture and thus never reach their potential.
You also need to make sure you rotate your brassica crops. Over a couple years, even if you’re following the recommendations from a typical soil test, you can develop micronutrient issues. (Usually you need to test specifically for a micronutrients). Certain micronutrients will affect the way plants metabolize and utilize nutrients, sunlight and other important fine points for growth.
Besides fertilizing according to a soil test and working in lime to bring the pH close to neutral, I like to top-dress with a balanced fertilizer about 25 days after planting. Those huge, green leaves can suck a lot of nutrients from the soil and I want to make sure I’m giving them plenty. Oftentimes you’ll see your leaves turn burgundy or yellow while there’s still growing time left in the year, while it can be stress from other reasons, this is almost always an issue of the plants lacking certain nutrients.
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