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winter radishes

My neighbor has several hundred acres of prime deer and turkey hunting acres. Before the corn and soybeans are cut he sows Winter radishes as a cover crop. The seeds are sown via an airplane. The corn and beans are now all cut and the radishes are growing. The are long and white and I just had some. They are really good and not hot. Later in the year the deer like them. They will be up to my chest in late spring.

This is the way to plant your cover crop.

Lots of aerial seeding of cover crops here in Iowa, too, Shuteye. Winter rye as well as the forage (daikon) radishes. The radishes help to break up the hardpan as well as taking up certain nutrients and fixating them near the surface for the next season’s crop to utilize.

They won’t survive till the following spring, if you get freezing temperatures in your region, though. Once they get frozen here a time or two, the radishes turn to mush, but until then, the deer love both the tops and the roots. I’ve had them get bigger around than a pop can, and over 2’ long on my river bottom plot. I agree that they are pretty good eating, unless they get overly ripe, then they can have quite a bite to them.

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