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Best radishes for food plot

What radishes are you all planting in your food plot and when are you planting them thanks Lewis

Daikon or "Ground Hog" radish work well and seem to be pretty much bullet-proof to grow. I plant about 7-8 weeks prior to expected first frost date. In Indiana that's roughly mid August. I don't want to plant too early and have them get overly mature. The deer love to eat the tops and the roots both. Radish are not a plot that lasts deep into winter. A few hard, extended freezes and the tops are gone, followed quickly by the roots rotting. Turnips OTOH, will last a bit longer into winter.

Lewis,

I no longer plant turnips because of the heavy use deer give my Mossy Oak Winter Bulbs and Sugar Beets.

And I hate to pay for name brand stuff, but deer dig these up when I plant them.

Thanks I have grown daikon before and I keep hearing about forage radishes which I have never tried.Lewis

variety is usually best, I always add some Daikon to the mix

Planting Daikon radish is a good way to keep the deer on it in October and off your later season plantings, like rape and turnip. Gives the latter two time to mature a bit longer as the deer will stay on those radish greens heavy until first frost when the other become more taste attractive. Plus radish grows well in sub par soil.

Daikon, trophy, tillage, forage, etc. They’re basically all the same thing, as far as your food plot is concerned. Sticksender covered it pretty well. I plant my brassicas mix around August 1st in central Iowa. A couple of additional benefits to the radishes are that they help break up the hardpan in your plot, plus they pull certain minerals from deeper in the soil and fixate them close to the surface after they freeze and rot, which will benefit the next crop that you plant there the following spring.

All the Radish varieties are very similar. I researched it trying to find a longer GDU- growing day unit. They were almost identical. Turnips vary greatly from 50-60 GDU to 120+ . We have a lot of ground prevent planted due to moisture and wanted something to plant soon but still be growing when we get a frost.

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