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Post by smsmith on May 14, 2024 12:16:18 GMT -6
I seeded about 3/4 acre of collards at the neighbor's today. He'll cultipack or harrow later today. I sure hope it rains tomorrow, I'm interested to see how forage collards will do when planted this early. I will plant about 1/3 acre of collards and balansa on my crick plot next month too. If a spray and pray guy could get season long food planted this early and take advantage of spring moisture, it sure would be nice. Will collards handle a summer drought period pretty well...if they are established now? If so....I can see the value......tho I have read some folks did not see much use of collards by the deer. (not sure where I read that???). I frost seeded a small amount of collards in '21. Those that got established early on came thru the drought that year just fine. That's a very, very small scale trial though. Deer here aren't picky. They eat the hell out of every brassica I've grown (as well as clover,alfalfa, chicory, small burnet, rye, oats, everything) . Getting the plants to maturity before getting eaten is a larger challenge.
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Post by benmnwi on May 14, 2024 12:22:54 GMT -6
I seeded about 3/4 acre of collards at the neighbor's today. He'll cultipack or harrow later today. I sure hope it rains tomorrow, I'm interested to see how forage collards will do when planted this early. I will plant about 1/3 acre of collards and balansa on my crick plot next month too. If a spray and pray guy could get season long food planted this early and take advantage of spring moisture, it sure would be nice. Do you have any experience planting collards this early? I have part of a bag of seed sitting in my garage and I like the idea of an early planting if they could get established prior to the summer dry spells. I'm not sure though if they bolt and get stemmy like other brassicas that are planted early. I once planted a full season kale in june between my rows of pumpkins. That grew very stemmy and 6 feet tall, then dried out and was nearly worthless as a winter food.
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Post by smsmith on May 14, 2024 12:32:36 GMT -6
I seeded about 3/4 acre of collards at the neighbor's today. He'll cultipack or harrow later today. I sure hope it rains tomorrow, I'm interested to see how forage collards will do when planted this early. I will plant about 1/3 acre of collards and balansa on my crick plot next month too. If a spray and pray guy could get season long food planted this early and take advantage of spring moisture, it sure would be nice. Do you have any experience planting collards this early? I have part of a bag of seed sitting in my garage and I like the idea of an early planting if they could get established prior to the summer dry spells. I'm not sure though if they bolt and get stemmy like other brassicas that are planted early. I once planted a full season kale in june between my rows of pumpkins. That grew very stemmy and 6 feet tall, then dried out and was nearly worthless as a winter food. Very small scale experience as noted previously. Terrifictom planted a plot full of them around Memorial Day in NE WI one year and had good results. My understanding is that forage collards (like winter rye) require vernalization before they'll bolt and set seed. Could they become tall, woody, and unpalatable? Maybe. We're gonna find out if we get rain this year.
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Post by Foggy on May 14, 2024 15:23:58 GMT -6
Do you have any experience planting collards this early? I have part of a bag of seed sitting in my garage and I like the idea of an early planting if they could get established prior to the summer dry spells. I'm not sure though if they bolt and get stemmy like other brassicas that are planted early. I once planted a full season kale in june between my rows of pumpkins. That grew very stemmy and 6 feet tall, then dried out and was nearly worthless as a winter food. Very small scale experience as noted previously. Terrifictom planted a plot full of them around Memorial Day in NE WI one year and had good results. My understanding is that forage collards (like winter rye) require vernalization before they'll bolt and set seed. Could they become tall, woody, and unpalatable? Maybe. We're gonna find out if we get rain this year. Hoping Terrictom will weigh-in here on the fall palatability of collards with an early planting. I know he did allot of initial experimenting with collards and we were hoping for the holy grail of brassica. Not sure if Tom was who said the collards were "woody" or not quite as expected in fall (??). Somehow I got a negative vibe on the early collard planting......and just do not remember where or who said what.
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Post by smsmith on May 14, 2024 17:16:05 GMT -6
Very small scale experience as noted previously. Terrifictom planted a plot full of them around Memorial Day in NE WI one year and had good results. My understanding is that forage collards (like winter rye) require vernalization before they'll bolt and set seed. Could they become tall, woody, and unpalatable? Maybe. We're gonna find out if we get rain this year. Hoping Terrictom will weigh-in here on the fall palatability of collards with an early planting. I know he did allot of initial experimenting with collards and we were hoping for the holy grail of brassica. Not sure if Tom was who said the collards were "woody" or not quite as expected in fall (??). Somehow I got a negative vibe on the early collard planting......and just do not remember where or who said what. Tom posted his results on the Impact Forage Collard thread. It's a few threads down from this one on my phone
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Post by terrifictom on May 14, 2024 17:22:02 GMT -6
I seeded about 3/4 acre of collards at the neighbor's today. He'll cultipack or harrow later today. I sure hope it rains tomorrow, I'm interested to see how forage collards will do when planted this early. I will plant about 1/3 acre of collards and balansa on my crick plot next month too. If a spray and pray guy could get season long food planted this early and take advantage of spring moisture, it sure would be nice. Will collards handle a summer drought period pretty well...if they are established now? If so....I can see the value......tho I have read some folks did not see much use of collards by the deer. (not sure where I read that???). In my test deer will browse on collards year round, just that in summertime there is a lot of other food available for them also.
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Post by terrifictom on May 18, 2024 17:13:39 GMT -6
Picked up my soybean seed today. Going up to land tomorrow to disc plots and hopefully plant next weekend. ![](https://i.ibb.co/wLrknLH/20240518-093233.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/98Gw44q/20240518-093240.jpg)
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Post by benmnwi on May 18, 2024 20:33:35 GMT -6
I have a sandy section of my plot that usually struggles with corn and beans. This year I decided to try something new there. I read that grain sorghum and cow peas like heat and possibly dry areas, so I mixed them together and planted them. It should be a good test on this little 1/8 acre corner of my field.
The cow peas germinated really fast, so they are off to the races already. They are growing faster than the soybeans I planted nearby. I used a pre-emergent herbicide that was good for everything, so I’m hoping that will keep this section somewhat weed free. Time will tell I guess.
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Post by Bwoods11 on May 21, 2024 16:35:36 GMT -6
My soybeans on sand are getting a great drink of water 💦!!
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Post by Sandbur on May 22, 2024 4:28:25 GMT -6
![](https://i.ibb.co/ScTf4LK/1908543-E-ABC6-4109-A39-B-0-FAC4-D5-F6-AF0.jpg) The corn is starting to come up, but I think they are still cleaning up some of the corn from 2023. They also head to the alfalfa on the other side of the house.
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Post by Sandbur on May 22, 2024 4:29:15 GMT -6
![](https://i.ibb.co/ScTf4LK/1908543-E-ABC6-4109-A39-B-0-FAC4-D5-F6-AF0.jpg) The corn is starting to come up, but I think they are still cleaning up some of the corn from 2023. They also head to the alfalfa on the other side of the house. This appears to be a group of yearlings( last years fawns).
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Post by smsmith on May 24, 2024 13:37:40 GMT -6
Given all the rain this year, vegetation is going to be beyond lush. My understanding is that the one time it's "proven" for salt/minerals to be beneficial to wild deer is during high rain fall years with lush vegetation. Something to do with water intake increasing salt/minerals being excreted more heavily? At any rate...I threw out a couple trace mineral blocks the other day ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) Now, if the bears will just leave them alone.
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Post by Sandbur on May 24, 2024 15:18:31 GMT -6
Given all the rain this year, vegetation is going to be beyond lush. My understanding is that the one time it's "proven" for salt/minerals to be beneficial to wild deer is during high rain fall years with lush vegetation. Something to do with water intake increasing salt/minerals being excreted more heavily? At any rate...I threw out a couple trace mineral blocks the other day ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) Now, if the bears will just leave them alone. I put out a sheep protein/ mineral block early this spring and it has lots of use. It is now legal to use them in our area, but the protein blocks need to be gone well before deer season.
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Post by badgerfowl on May 25, 2024 20:45:06 GMT -6
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Post by terrifictom on May 26, 2024 18:29:34 GMT -6
Got my beans in Thursday. Ground was pretty wet, made planting difficult and more time consuming. Plenty of rain after planting with more than an inch of rain today. Sure isn't like last year.
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