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Green up time

MK111

"Happy Hunting Grounds in the Sky"
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Went down and did some work down in my food plot. Had a old tower that the boys put up years ago and it fell over. It had to be in 2-3" water puddle. At least I got to try out my new Sorrel waterproof boots. They worked fine.
Everything is starting to green up. The Whitetail Inst. Forage oats Plus I planted may start growing again as is the secondary triticale plant that was in it. It's leafing out real good. If it continues to grow it'll be good spring deer and turkey graze.
Good to be out in the wilds again.
 
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Great to hear! We frost seeded more clover into our clover plots a couple weeks ago so hopefully that takes well and fills in all the gaps. Soon there will be velvet and fawns to look for on the trail cams!! Can't forget the longbeards too!!
 

hickslawns

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Took a walk through my woods today. Darn near stepped on a turkey. Literally. He scared the pee out of me. I had to go relieve myself. lol

Sadly, I believe he was injured as he wasn't running away and the wings weren't quite getting him where he needed them to. No gobbles, but there were some clucks.

Starting to see the slightest hint of green here and there.
 

bowhunter1023

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Not sure what was in your oat mix, but a lot of what comes back in annual fall plantings are filler seeds that grab the soil and really don't offer much in terms of nutrition. Not always the case, just throwing that out there.
 

jagermeister

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Not sure what was in your oat mix, but a lot of what comes back in annual fall plantings are filler seeds that grab the soil and really don't offer much in terms of nutrition. Not always the case, just throwing that out there.

The oats will come out of dormancy and continue growing in the spring. If left to grow, they'll eventually head-out and produce seed. I've left some of mine grow throughout the spring and summer and they get fairly tall. It's usually pretty attractive cover for ground nesting birds. Mine are always a mixture of winter rye and oats and I don't really take the time to distinguish between the two in the spring... So I don't know which is which.

**edit** I did a little research... Looks like oats are killed when temps are cold enough for long enough. Winter rye, like wheat, goes dormant in the winter... So what I've been seeing in my plots in the spring is most likely rye.
 
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MK111

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You got me on what's coming up. Whitetail Inst. says the special forage oats is winter hardy. The mix also has small amounts of winter wheat and triticale included. I suspect the triticale is a leafy plant and the deer last fall just mowed it off with the oats and wheat. The planting came up great and the deer eat it to the ground. I only planted 1/2 ac. in 2013 but putting out 1.5 ac. in 2014.
I was sorta disappointed in the Evolved Harvest 7 Card Stud turnip, radish, oats, chicory, triticale, chicory mix as I never really seen much activity in it. I quit hunting Oct. 27 after taking my buck so only watched a few evenings and the deer would walk through the turnips to go to the oats.
However when I looked up close couple weeks ago every leafy top was eaten off the 10,000's of turnips, radishes and chicory . So as it turned out there was tons of green graze there for the deer. I was a little surprised as I didn't see very many turnips eaten just a bite off the top. The deer surely didn't dig them up.
 

bowhunter1023

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Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye, so it has tender green sprouts much like winter wheat. Its not what would be traditionally considered a leafy green in the likes of brassicas.

I've grown world class radish and turnips the last few years and the deer barely touch them. Even this winter deer didn't eat them. I've been told it can take 2-3 years for them to really develop a taste for them and learn how to eat them. I stuck with them for 3 plantings and will no longer plant anything heavy in that class of plant.

A lot of mixes contain inert material which is listed on the bag. This is seed costing and weed seed intended to grow in the spring to hold the soil. So while the oats/rye may come back after going dormant, your plots will green up with less desirable plants depending on what's in your mix.
 

MK111

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Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye, so it has tender green sprouts much like winter wheat. Its not what would be traditionally considered a leafy green in the likes of brassicas.

I've grown world class radish and turnips the last few years and the deer barely touch them. Even this winter deer didn't eat them. I've been told it can take 2-3 years for them to really develop a taste for them and learn how to eat them. I stuck with them for 3 plantings and will no longer plant anything heavy in that class of plant.

A lot of mixes contain inert material which is listed on the bag. This is seed costing and weed seed intended to grow in the spring to hold the soil. So while the oats/rye may come back after going dormant, your plots will green up with less desirable plants depending on what's in your mix.

That's interesting comment of the radish as I was thinking on planting some Merit Groundhog radish you had shown in another due to long root to loosen up my soil. So now you say don't bother to plant it? Did the deer forage good on the tops to get enough benefit to planting?
 
I've heard of guys planting different radishes you would get from a co-op and saying it's the same stuff as what you would get in say a brassica mix but I am wondering if that really is true. Most of the seed that manufacturers such as Whitetail Institute and Evolved do a lot of testing so you would think they have weeded out the undesirable seed in their mixes. Also, after watching several shows of GrowingDeer.tv they say the more prepared the ground is for meeting the nutrient requirements of the plants has a lot to do with how desirable the plants are to deer.
 
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bowhunter1023

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That's interesting comment of the radish as I was thinking on planting some Merit Groundhog radish you had shown in another due to long root to loosen up my soil. So now you say don't bother to plant it? Did the deer forage good on the tops to get enough benefit to planting?

I'm not saying don't bother planting it. I'm just saying my future plantings will have much less focus on brassicas/tubers/leafy greens and far more on tender green shoots, clovers, and legumes. My experience over the last 5-6 years is that deer in my area of the state/county are not attracted to brassicas and the like. I cannot answer as to why that is the case, but it truth enough to me to alter my planting strategies. As for foraging on the tops, they did some, but not enough to justify the amount of space I dedicated to them.
 
I'm not saying don't bother planting it. I'm just saying my future plantings will have much less focus on brassicas/tubers/leafy greens and far more on tender green shoots, clovers, and legumes. My experience over the last 5-6 years is that deer in my area of the state/county are not attracted to brassicas and the like. I cannot answer as to why that is the case, but it truth enough to me to alter my planting strategies. As for foraging on the tops, they did some, but not enough to justify the amount of space I dedicated to them.

That's the reason why we put our 2 hunting plots into clover this past summer. We aren't down much in December or after that so we wanted something that may attract from October to November.
 

MK111

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I'm not saying don't bother planting it. I'm just saying my future plantings will have much less focus on brassicas/tubers/leafy greens and far more on tender green shoots, clovers, and legumes. My experience over the last 5-6 years is that deer in my area of the state/county are not attracted to brassicas and the like. I cannot answer as to why that is the case, but it truth enough to me to alter my planting strategies. As for foraging on the tops, they did some, but not enough to justify the amount of space I dedicated to them.

OK. Understood. I guess my luck was that the 100 ac. farm ajoining me is 100% horse hay fields baled 2-3 times per year. Only one farm close to me even has crops planted on it.
Correct me in my thinking that my new crop planting drawed the deer to my property. As I would see up to 10 at one time and in 23 yrs. of owning the farm I never seen over 3 in a group at one time.
Just trying to draw the deer onto my property close to where I hunt. I'm limited as to where I can plant as my farm is hilly and broken up by 2 creeks and steep hill sides. I do have 2 patches on the West side that I don't hunt I can put in two 1/4 ac. plots and plan on doing to. The deer travel through there on a main N-S trail going to the neighbors. Every bit will help the overall deer herd.

I didn't have any luck with my 1/2 ac. clover plot I put in. But will give it a try again this year.

What is plantable is in pasture for my cattle. Have to keep my Ag. tax exemption in effect. I did take the 3.0 ac. pasture out of grass for the food plot. Wish I would have started 23 yrs. ago. How time flies. But up until 2012 I was just a handgun deer meat hunter.
 
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hickslawns

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I don't know many people who have had luck in first year clover. Seems to be the exception. Plant in fall and overseed into the spring seems to have been the best route. I don't know if I would give up on it yet. Clover is the best thing to plant for all year long deer benefit. Is it the best for a killing plot? Attractant? Hard to quantify if your clover is beneficial to the herd as you don't also see the benefits in bigger antlers or one swift change in the deer. It seems to help overall nutrition though which helps the does, fawns, and bucks.

I think the key on what Jesse said was "His property." Not many are going to argue: What works in some areas does not work in others. I just don't think I would throw in the towel on clover based on one fall planting. Brassica? Only thing I can tell you is the tonnage off brassica is unbelievable. Ours looked like it wasn't doing anything. Later we realized the deer were eating the tops off like crazy and we never saw them get big and green. Come fall, we had softball sized turnips and radishes looked like your forearm in this plot.
 

MK111

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Just came cross a picture of my Forage Oats dated 11-22-13.
Notice the leafy plant I mentioned before. It covered the whole 1/2 ac. only and got about 6" before cold weather set in and stopped growth. It's coming back this spring.
 

Bigslam51

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I frost seeded clover a couple weeks ago and its sprouting up now. I had clover planted last spring along with brassicas but this year I'm sticking with straight clover. Hopefully the turks like it:D
I might try something in the fall on another property I hunt, not sure what though.