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Post by cspot on Nov 6, 2014 18:51:04 GMT -5
Planning on planting corn next Spring as I always wanted to try it. Just wondering what varieties that everyone uses and any pitfalls that I should try to avoid. Does broadcasting work ok or do you need to plant in rows?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2014 20:03:21 GMT -5
Sweet corn or field corn?
If sweet corn, I have to recommend Ambrosia. Just have to be careful to plant only when the ground is very warm. Corn likes nitrogen, and it really needs it during germination and early growth.
Rumor says that crows can't or won't eat too much of the seed if it's broadcast. Not too sure if that is right or not, but I do mine in rows and then hill the rows as it starts to emerge.
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Post by cspot on Nov 6, 2014 20:11:08 GMT -5
Either one. Looking for something that won't break the bank either.
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Post by bushmaster on Nov 6, 2014 20:13:45 GMT -5
Coons will eat most of it before the deer get a chance! Turnips is the way to go!
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Post by cspot on Nov 6, 2014 21:01:05 GMT -5
I know the coons will work on it, but they also have the neighbors corn to eat as well. I know the deer hit the neighbors corn pretty well and it is 1/4 mile from any woods. If we kill a deer in the morning, it will usually have corn in its belly. I am also hoping by planting the corn around my clover/whatever annual plot that it would provide some security cover.
Are the deer eating your turnips yet? They haven't started eating mine at all yet other than the tops. Even the tops they really haven't eaten for a while.
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Post by bushmaster on Nov 6, 2014 21:50:50 GMT -5
They've been hammering them for a month now. All tops are eaten and about half of the turnips are dug up! They hit them a lot earlier this season. Last season they didn't touch them till the end of Nov. The ladino clover I planted along with them came in nice, so the plot is still viable.
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Post by davet on Nov 7, 2014 8:05:24 GMT -5
Yeah Bushy....a club I use to belong to planted turnips and the deer would not touch that plot until January. But they had corn fields and other food plots of clover to choose from until then. But when January came you thought the turnip pickers were out there in full force!!
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Post by bake545 on Nov 7, 2014 8:16:08 GMT -5
My deer have acre upon acre of crops to choose from and hit my turnips starting in Sept. I guess no one has told them they weren't supposed to hit them till January. Truthfully I wish they wouldn't.
I can't help you much with corn, only planted it once in a mix. Broadcasting seems to work fine for a plot though. How much do you plan to plant?
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Post by davet on Nov 7, 2014 8:21:15 GMT -5
My deer have acre upon acre of crops to choose from and hit my turnips starting in Sept. I guess no one has told them they weren't supposed to hit them till January. Truthfully I wish they wouldn't. I can't help you much with corn, only planted it once in a mix. Broadcasting seems to work fine for a plot though. How much do you plan to plant? Bake.....you either have some really smart deer.....or some really dumb deer. If you shoot the big 'un's every year, then they are really dumb 'cause the big 'un's are suppose to be the smart one's. However....how that correlates to when your turnips get eaten is beyond me. (Dumb vs. not so dumb *coffeespit*) I'm thinking you should apply for a million dollar Federal government grant to study such a phenomenon and see what kind of scientific evidence you can develop. Of course, you study should be inconclusive, and should allow for the need for more funding to carry it to a full conclusion. That way you will have a funding stream for at least ten years. Kids need a job?? *welcome*
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Post by cspot on Nov 7, 2014 8:57:07 GMT -5
How much do you plan to plant? Planning on planting around an acre or so.
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Post by cspot on Nov 7, 2014 8:58:58 GMT -5
This is the first year for Turnips for me, so it may be that the deer haven't really found them yet either as far as eating the turnip part. They have been eating the tops, but that was mostly earlier on. Also deer seem to have local preferences and what may get hammered in one area, may not get touched in another.
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Post by dougell on Nov 7, 2014 11:10:20 GMT -5
I live right in the middle of several corn fields.We had deer all over the place just before archery season started.The acorns started dropping about 1.5 miles away and I haven't seen a deer in about three weeks in any of my fields
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Post by dennyf on Nov 8, 2014 9:21:19 GMT -5
Very few oaks around my hunting area, but wow are there lots of corn fields in every direction.
Still lots of corn standing when I was up at camp last week, but they're "gettin' after it" as we speak. One dairy farmer up the road combines his for the grain and has about 2/3s of it off. Others in the area primarily grow it for sileage, so that's been gone for some time.
Not unusual in wet falls to still have lots of standing corn in deer season, since they can't get into the fields for harvesting and wait until the ground freezes.
Either way, deer have been in the corn for some time now and will be frequenting picked fields all fall and winter. Most of the farmers in the area don't do much until spring, as far as plowing picked fields, so the critters have them available all winter.
I think it's one of the reasons our turkeys do well even in bad winters.
Went up to camp one February during an especially rough winter and one big field down the road had over 75 birds in it. High spot of several acres where snow had blown off that part of the field. Other fields were a foot to two feet deep in drifted snow at the time.
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Post by blackbruin on Nov 8, 2014 10:11:03 GMT -5
havahart traps work great on coons all summer.... just saying...
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Post by dennyf on Nov 8, 2014 12:51:54 GMT -5
So do small electric fences, apparently? On a shortcut thru the boonies that we sometimes take to avoid Wellsboro, we noticed a wee electric two wire fence around a sweet corn patch. It puzzled my bud when we drove by it. Fence was about two feet hight w/two wires and a solar charger. He wondered WTH is was supposed to keep out. Coons, I figured. If they were having deer/bear problems, would've probably been "more fence".
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Post by cspot on Nov 8, 2014 14:13:41 GMT -5
3 strands of electric around a garden usually work well for deer, coon, groundhog etc. 1 strand about waist high and then the others about 3" and 8" off the ground.
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Post by Bill on Nov 8, 2014 20:57:27 GMT -5
If you're wanting corn for purposes of hunting over in the fall you're going to want to plant field corn, not sweet corn.
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Post by Dutch on Nov 9, 2014 17:16:50 GMT -5
Buddy of mine broadcast field corn a few years ago and had good success with it. He also broadcast brassicas into it later in the season, which also worked. Sometimes, it takes a bit for deer to get a hankering for brassicas. Don't go by the first year. I think next year, my one acre plot will be soybeans for the summer, then brassica for the fall. Must say, they are eating the forage radishes like crazy right now. Saw them bitten off at the top this morning, and pieces of them in different areas. The radishes help loosen and aerate the soil. The deer really seem to love them. Forage Radish
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