Turnips by hand (question)
Whitetail Deer
Turnips need to be planted on freshly worked ground. You do not want seed below 1/4 inch deep. Works best to spread them on the top soil and then compress them in. We use the packer wheels on our drill and one of us walks behind it with a hand seeder. Hard to do and not go noticed!
Anything that throws a bulb, you need to use caution not to overseed. This is why i recommend a product like restore mix. I love to mix annual clover seed with brassicas that throw bulbs. They help increase the amount of seed being spun per area and will help prevent that too thick of stand, where you will not get a large bulb but instead short fodder.
I've made the mistake of spreading turnip seed too heavily...doen't work.
Turnip seed is tiny. Tough to nit over do it. Is this public land? Why hide it on private land?
I recommend for all people seeding down less than a 1/4 acre kill plots or spots to premix something with your seed your planting. I prefer larger particles as well like cat litter, urea (since its white) or low salt fertilizers. When one is using a hand seeder, you can see where your seed is flying. You'd be surprised how far some of these seeders throw seed. You want good coverage.
So, if your talking carrots, turnips or any bulb products, there is a reason gardeners thin these out. If your looking for maximum bulb growth, you need to make sure you don't have seed too thick. If you do, then you will get more forage growth. So, thats not always bad, if you want the digestible energy in the fall but if you want winter supplementation you want large bulbs to maximize digestible energy per acre.
a good way to hand seed turnip, clover, other tiny seeds, is to mix a small amount with a large amount of "filler" ... pelletized lime or just dry crumbled dirt.... decide how much seed you want to put down in an area, mix in a peck bucket with about 2 gallons of soil (mix well) and hand broadcast lightly over the area, 2,3,4 times til it's all gone... gives a fairly even distribution... "hiding" a foodplot? good luck with that...
What is best time to plant turnips?
just spray your area, and get a good weed free start, broadcast them by hand, you will do fine, take a 5 gallon bucket and fill it half full with fine(I mean fine) dirt or sand, and mix in your turnip seed, grab a handful, walk and toss. works great in freshly tilled dirt or on top of compact dirt(just need rain in the forecast for the latter)
Never thought of hiding a plot. Now I am thinking of camo corn marketing potential. :)
The old timers said "July 25 wet or dry". Seems to work in Illinois. Good luck.
"July 25 wet or dry" for what.
That many "old timers" talked about planting turnips?
Must have been a pretty boring township.
"the 25th of July wet or dry" that is what was thought to be the optimum time for sowing turnips for human consumption, I seriously doubt 50 years ago very few turnips were sowed for deer plots. Now very few are sowed for human consumption. we plant some every year to eat and I find that I like late august/early September the best, grow fast and don't have a chance to get "woody" on the inside.
One of the best garden/small plot tools is the Hoss wheel how. I got the 2 wheel version with all the attachments, minus the discer and seeder. I'm buying the seeder next year. I had already bought a Chapin and I used it on sweet corn, but seeds kept getting caught behind the plate, so I have a lot of gaps in my rows. But I might have fixed it so I'm going to try the radish plate when I plant in 2 weeks. But I'm definitely replacing that seeder with the Hoss one for my hoe. This has been a tough tool and I have pretty much dirt/clay soil.
writer, yes "old timers" (in my home area) talked a lot about mundane things like sowing turnips, planting cabbage and beans, harvesting potatoes, liming and fertilizing hayfields, breeding cattle and hogs, butchering beeves, scalding hogs, salting meat, cutting timber, and spraying thistles... that's how they ate, that's how they paid the bills. sounds boring but when your family's livelihood depends on it, the interest level rises.
you might find some useful info on hiding/camoflaging small woodlond agricultural plots in "High Times" magazine, as well ;-)
LOL on the High Times. I may have read that article in college...but I've probably forgotten. :-)
I've used the "25th of july " rule for years and the deer seem to like them just fine .
If you wait to late you get tops (small tops) and no bulbs ..... guess what .......... the bulbs are a GREAT late season food source ...... deer dont just eat the tops .
as in most things ..... old timers know a lot more about growing crops and turnips than the deer porn food plot advice website.
an added bonus is that on the way to your stand you can pull a turnip or two for that "natural scent" snack .............. I cant even begin to guess how many deer I have watched eat the turnip peelings I dropped from my stand
We are on the subject of turnips but i wanted to chime in that even though most would have a hard time identifying purple top rutabaga from purple top turnips....the rutabaga will produce a larger bulb and have a slightly higher sugar content.....which lead the herd last winter preferring the rutabaga over the many choices that they had in the cold wisconsin winter.
You will need another couple weeks to maturity for the rutabaga vs the turnips. You will also spend about $5 more per acre but deer do prefer them.
