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Post by smsmith on Sept 1, 2021 6:17:55 GMT -6
I wonder how a few pockets of these walking stick kale might work if they were protected for a few months? Maybe they’d work like a sign post? I wonder if they’d over winter? I remember researching that stuff a number of years ago. As I recall, it wouldn't survive a zone 4 or lower winter. Not sure about zone 5. Back then I tried finding a source of seed at a reasonable price and couldn't do it. That may be different now. It is definitely an interesting plant.
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Post by Foggy on Sept 4, 2021 21:14:32 GMT -6
Today I took my SIL on a short land tour.....and surveyed the plots. All are moving right along....with the previously tilled plots out shining the killed sod plots by a wide margin yet......but I do have good germination and growth in the sod. Anyway....thought I would show this 3/4 acre collards / radish plot that I tried to nuke before planting two weeks ago. the collards and some radish sprang back.....and I am really liking the looks of this plot now. Lots of deer tracks here and the growing is very evident. Those collards are pretty resilient. We are standing about 100 yards from that Redneck stand along the timberline.
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Post by sd51555 on Oct 18, 2021 6:29:18 GMT -6
My tiny patch was there one day, then it wasn’t.
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Post by terrifictom on Jan 8, 2022 21:33:39 GMT -6
Follow up: My one acre test plot grew great until it got invaded with sedge grass. They still grew but the sedge took a lot of the nutrients/fertilizer away. The deer browsed them lightly during the summer months as I had soybeans planted next to them. I planted a brassica mix in two plots in late July and I put some collards that I had left over in that mix. As my beans turned yellow the deer really started hitting my brassicas and collards. By late October my brassica plots were almost browsed off. The collards were heavily browsed but kept pushing out new growth even when night time temps dropped below freezing once in a while. I will definitely be planting collards again. A couple things I will do different will be if I plant in Spring I will spray and kill all weeds and grasses before planting. Besides fertilizing when planting I will give 2nd dose of fertilizer in mid July. On my brassica mix which I plant in late July I will increase the amount of Collards and decrease the amount of rape in the mix because of the collard's ability to keep growing after being heavily browsed. I also am tossing the idea to plant straight collards in mid to late July as the growth you get in 30 to 45 days is unbelievable. This would give more time to kill all weeds and grasses before planting and I would only have to fertilize at time of planting.
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Post by nhmountains on Jan 9, 2022 7:37:20 GMT -6
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Post by nhmountains on Jan 9, 2022 7:41:35 GMT -6
My brother had a button buck run into a plot this past fall and head directly to the section that had the collards on it. He said the little guy gorged himself non stop on them for 30 minutes. There were clover, turnips, radishes , winter rye and barley in that plot but, his preference was the collards. I’ve got 25 pounds of them ready for this year.
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Post by nhmountains on Jan 9, 2022 7:53:43 GMT -6
Follow up: My one acre test plot grew great until it got invaded with sedge grass. They still grew but the sedge took a lot of the nutrients/fertilizer away. The deer browsed them lightly during the summer months as I had soybeans planted next to them. I planted a brassica mix in two plots in late July and I put some collards that I had left over in that mix. As my beans turned yellow the deer really started hitting my brassicas and collards. By late October my brassica plots were almost browsed off. The collards were heavily browsed but kept pushing out new growth even when night time temps dropped below freezing once in a while. I will definitely be planting collards again. A couple things I will do different will be if I plant in Spring I will spray and kill all weeds and grasses before planting. Besides fertilizing when planting I will give 2nd dose of fertilizer in mid July. On my brassica mix which I plant in late July I will increase the amount of Collards and decrease the amount of rape in the mix because of the collard's ability to keep growing after being heavily browsed. I also am tossing the idea to plant straight collards in mid to late July as the growth you get in 30 to 45 days is unbelievable. This would give more time to kill all weeds and grasses before planting and I would only have to fertilize at time of planting. Tom, what varieties were in your brassicas beside the rape? Had they browsed turnips and radishes heavily at that point in late October?
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Post by terrifictom on Jan 9, 2022 9:00:26 GMT -6
Follow up: My one acre test plot grew great until it got invaded with sedge grass. They still grew but the sedge took a lot of the nutrients/fertilizer away. The deer browsed them lightly during the summer months as I had soybeans planted next to them. I planted a brassica mix in two plots in late July and I put some collards that I had left over in that mix. As my beans turned yellow the deer really started hitting my brassicas and collards. By late October my brassica plots were almost browsed off. The collards were heavily browsed but kept pushing out new growth even when night time temps dropped below freezing once in a while. I will definitely be planting collards again. A couple things I will do different will be if I plant in Spring I will spray and kill all weeds and grasses before planting. Besides fertilizing when planting I will give 2nd dose of fertilizer in mid July. On my brassica mix which I plant in late July I will increase the amount of Collards and decrease the amount of rape in the mix because of the collard's ability to keep growing after being heavily browsed. I also am tossing the idea to plant straight collards in mid to late July as the growth you get in 30 to 45 days is unbelievable. This would give more time to kill all weeds and grasses before planting and I would only have to fertilize at time of planting. Tom, what varieties were in your brassicas beside the rape? Had they browsed turnips and radishes heavily at that point in late October? Turnips, 2 types of rape and small amount of collards. I didn't use radish in my mix this past season as the deer would browse it off before it had a chance to grow. The started hitting the mix as soon as my beans started turning yellow, sometime in late September.
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Post by nhmountains on Jan 9, 2022 9:36:04 GMT -6
Tom, what varieties were in your brassicas beside the rape? Had they browsed turnips and radishes heavily at that point in late October? Turnips, 2 types of rape and small amount of collards. I didn't use radish in my mix this past season as the deer would browse it off before it had a chance to grow. The started hitting the mix as soon as my beans started turning yellow, sometime in late September. Have you found that they’re hitting them earlier each year? That’s what happened on my property in the past. This year I was able to get in additional plots and they hardly touched my main orchard until December. They hit the other three plots hard. They all had similar mixes.
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Post by terrifictom on Jan 9, 2022 9:41:17 GMT -6
Turnips, 2 types of rape and small amount of collards. I didn't use radish in my mix this past season as the deer would browse it off before it had a chance to grow. The started hitting the mix as soon as my beans started turning yellow, sometime in late September. Have you found that they’re hitting them earlier each year? That’s what happened on my property in the past. This year I was able to get in additional plots and they hardly touched my main orchard until December. They hit the other three plots hard. They all had similar mixes. After about the 3rd year of planting brassicas the deer started hammering on them early, especially the radish.
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Post by badgerfowl on Jan 9, 2022 9:46:14 GMT -6
In one of my plots they ate all the damn brassicas before the season even got going. We have too many deer. 😂
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Post by smsmith on Jan 9, 2022 10:04:40 GMT -6
I helped a neighbor put in an acre+ of brassicas on a "corner" plot for a few years. They generally got very little use. That was back before we had much of a deer herd. This year, we put in a about an acre on a new plot closer to his house. Deer were in there pretty much from the time the seed germinated. He would have had to fence the plot for the bulbs to get any size. There's a lot more deer around now.
Build the herd via adding food sources and you'll likely find your food sources utilized more readily/heavily. We are at the point of "enough" deer now.
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Post by Catscratch on Jan 9, 2022 10:40:31 GMT -6
They rarely touch turnips at my place but planting radishes is similar to sunflowers, they just keep them mowed down from the start. I look at the cattle industry and New Zealand a lot for deer appropriate grazing forages. So far it's hard to beat wheat and clovers. I do plan on trying brassicas again this coming yr as there is now 80 acres of wheat across the road that is going to be hard to compete with in my little plots.
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Post by terrifictom on Jan 31, 2022 14:56:53 GMT -6
I was up to land today to pull my traps that I had set for bobcat. No luck on bobcat but saw several heavy deer trails going thru my food plots. I looked to where they were going and it was to my straight planting of Collards. It looks like it was a fenced in cattle yard.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 4, 2022 14:23:23 GMT -6
Follow up: My one acre test plot grew great until it got invaded with sedge grass. They still grew but the sedge took a lot of the nutrients/fertilizer away. The deer browsed them lightly during the summer months as I had soybeans planted next to them. I planted a brassica mix in two plots in late July and I put some collards that I had left over in that mix. As my beans turned yellow the deer really started hitting my brassicas and collards. By late October my brassica plots were almost browsed off. The collards were heavily browsed but kept pushing out new growth even when night time temps dropped below freezing once in a while. I will definitely be planting collards again. A couple things I will do different will be if I plant in Spring I will spray and kill all weeds and grasses before planting. Besides fertilizing when planting I will give 2nd dose of fertilizer in mid July. On my brassica mix which I plant in late July I will increase the amount of Collards and decrease the amount of rape in the mix because of the collard's ability to keep growing after being heavily browsed. I also am tossing the idea to plant straight collards in mid to late July as the growth you get in 30 to 45 days is unbelievable. This would give more time to kill all weeds and grasses before planting and I would only have to fertilize at time of planting. 30-45 days of growth results in a nice, thick stand (assuming the deer don't browse them to the ground)?
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