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Post by Dutch on Oct 11, 2015 20:15:27 GMT -5
They are usually thicker, but happy now.
The early dryness caused problems, apparently.
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Post by cspot on Dec 24, 2015 21:09:39 GMT -5
So what was your opinion of the soys/sunflowers that you planted? Would you do it again?
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Post by Dutch on Dec 25, 2015 7:30:55 GMT -5
YES!
What just shocked me is that these deer all but ignored the green bean plants, but when the beans ripened and dried, they wiped them out in 2 weeks!
This year, I will plant the beans, then hit them with Roundup for weed control, which lowered my yield. Hitting the beans with Roundup will clean up the plot, and prepare it for maybe a clover planting, which should be more weed free.
Now, where you have a lot of deer, they probably will eat the plants down, and maybe you won't get the beans.
I may look into a bean that has a shorter maturing date, which might allow me to sow some rye into the plot for over winter.
After the deer ate the beans, they hammered the brassica. My brassica plot wasn't the best this year, but got lots of large turnips. They pretty much every turnip they could get out of the ground. The Groundhog Radishes will always be a part of my brassica plantings as I feel they "drill" into the soil and help loosen it. The farmers here in the county are not planting the radishes as a cover crop over winter. Some darned large fields of them. I believe they are using them so they can loosen compacted soils for no till drilling of corn.
I also think my broadcasting some additional fertilizer on them later in the summer gave them a jump.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 25, 2015 7:33:27 GMT -5
Also, I would not bother with the forage beans as they are not Roundup Ready.
If I'm going to use Roundup, there is no point in planting the sunflowers as they will be killed. But, man, they slam sunflowers.
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Post by bushmaster on Dec 25, 2015 8:53:40 GMT -5
Nice plots Dutch. My plots at my club did outstanding this year. My turnips are the size of cannonballs. The deer are still hitting them nightly.
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Post by cspot on Dec 25, 2015 8:55:09 GMT -5
Sounds good. Still deciding what to plant next year. Probably going with corn but not 100 percent on that. Always wanted to do corn but never have so I think I am going to make it happen. Going to plow 1.5 acres of hayfield up in the spring. Collected soil yesterday for soil test so I will wait to see how it looks.
Do the deer eat the sunflowers in fall/winter at all or just when plants are young?
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Post by Dutch on Dec 25, 2015 9:24:22 GMT -5
I have seen tons of deer in a sunflower field that matured years ago.
I think if you have any large numbers of deer, they won't allow the sunflowers to mature.
I planted Power Plant last year, a waste, but the sorghum in that kept the deer off the sunflowers and we had some mature.
This year, they could easily find them and keep them trimmed. They kept trying to come back, but the deer eventually killed them. Just shows how particular a deer can be. Graze some beans in a whole field of beans, but kill every sunflower that came up. One thing with corn, if it's planted in rows, and matures, you can sow brassica into it later, and have a great stand.
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Post by cspot on Dec 28, 2015 20:39:15 GMT -5
Sending out some soil samples tomorrow to see what I need to add for the corn area. Hope it isn't too bad. Put lime on it 2 years ago.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 28, 2015 21:30:27 GMT -5
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Post by cspot on Dec 28, 2015 21:34:23 GMT -5
That is where I sent them. A little cheaper than PSU as well.
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Post by Dutch on Dec 28, 2015 21:36:30 GMT -5
Friend of mine plants soys. The deer hammer them over the summer, and he drills brassica into the "stubble" come late September.
He also broadcasts brassica into early maturing corn.
Interesting double cropping.
I sowed brassica into my beans thinking the deer would thin them. They didn't. It produced no brassica due to a lack of sunlight.
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Post by cspot on Jan 20, 2016 18:23:45 GMT -5
I am starting to lean towards planting sows and sunflowers instead of the corn. I have enough electric fence now that I could fence it off until later in the summer and then turn them loose on it. That would give the plants a pretty good head start on the deer.
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