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suger beets, you tell me.

matt hougan

Junior Member
338
0
Dayton area
I have a lease near Salt Fork. There is about a half an acre meadow on top of the ridge near my tree stand. In April I want to spray the meadow with roundup. In May I want to go back and mow/burn the meadow. I scored a small disc that I think will turn the soil enough to broadcast some beet seeds. Anyone have any input on my hought process? A friend of mine has a beet field and you can hardly chase the deer out of the field.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
I know the Michigan guys swear by sugar beets... but I've never heard much about them around here. Are there any ag fields nearby that'll be planted to corn or beans? It's pretty hard to compete with standard ag fields, but maybe the beets could get it done. I don't know, man... Probably couldn't hurt anything to try it, though.
 

Darron

Junior Member
273
0
Dayton, Ohio
Sugar beats are a great draw, but they limited who can buy the round up ready variety. Basically the RR variety can only be purchased by companies I believe, the small guy like us planting food plots do not have access to the RR variety. They are a long season brassica, therefore, they must be planted in the spring. And guess what grows in the spring and summer? WEEDS! I personally won't plant them. Waste of time not being able to spray the weeds because the weeds will come, no matter how well you prepare the soil. With normal short season brassicas they mature in a 90 day time frame you can get away with planting in mid-late JUly because they grow so fast and will shade out most weeds. This is not the case with SB.

If you are wanting to plant brassicas try a mix of rape, turnips and radishes and plant around the middle of August. You will get great robust growth by October and good bulb growth as well.

Also, the winter rye/oat/clover mix I plant is hard to beat.
 

Buckmaster

Senior Member
14,362
191
Portage
I did purple top turnips a few years back. I was digging them up myself the size of tennis balls. They got sliced up an sauted in butter in the skillet.
 

swamp_donkey819

Junior Member
i use the crushed sugar beets and the juiced sugar beets from wildgame innovations, and the deer are diggin holes in the ground and chewing on the dead logs and pullin bark off trees. i know its not the actuall plant supposed to be made from it, if it is they sure do love it, went through to jugs of it already, not sure if that ll help ya, but figured id toss that in there