Buckmasterflex

How many have had good luck with turnips? I tried them a few years ago and I don't know if I just got a wrong kind or planted to late or maybe my place already has so much other food, but the deer never really messed with them. Anyways I got new ground to hunt this last year and it doesn't really have any any accorns, no fruit trees and the nearest crop field is 3/4 a mile away and it's wheat. Im going to be planting a few plots this year and want to try turnips here any ideas, is there a certain kind of what?

hossdaniels

Depends somewhat on the year, but on my place I get the same results as you. I have clients 20 miles away in all directions that have them get hammered. Some deer like them, some do not. Also I think they are better in the north than the south, but some deer like them in the south too. It does take a good hard freeze to sweeten them up.

You might want to try daikon (aka tillage/trophy/groundhog) radishes or a forage rape, both are more palatable than turnips. All brassicas are reasonably close in preference, but these do a little better.

Buckmasterflex

I'm gonna be putting other stuff in as well I guess I'm just going to put a few rows of turnips in again just to see.

BarnesX.308

We've had them the last three years in northen Pennsylvania. They did great when we got them in early. We had the green about 2 feet high and bulbs the size of softballs. The deer ate them from the beginning. No need for a frost. In August they were chowing down. And there was so much tonage from the leaves, that it kept them fed through the season. They ate the bulbs as well.

Last year we got them in late due to rains keeping the tractor out of the field. They weren't that great. Ended up being more like radishes. The deer still ate them, but not as much food for them.

I'd say plant them soon if you are as far north as we are.

Soilman

The deer by me love turnips after everything else goes dormant in the fall. They will dig through the snow all winter to get at the bulbs. They do not touch them at all, and then the next week it looks like they were mowed down. They did the same for daikon radishes as regular old purple top turnips. As has been suggested, the deer by you may not prefer the brassicas to the other available feed.

ky wonder

turnips will not get any serious use untill after a hard killing frost that is when the sugars develop in the foilage, untill then they are a bitter

Hunt_N_Grunt

The last 2 years I planted Imperial Whitetail Winter Greens in a 1 acre plot in Michigan and all I can say is WOW! It is a brassica plot and has turnips in it.

The cost of seed and fertilizer was about $240.00 per yr.

BarnesX.308

That's what I read as well. But that's not what I experienced. The deer were eating the greens all summer. They were also eating some of the bulbs in the summer. And there was a 10 acre clover plot only 100 yards away, as well as a orchard and lush green clear cuts.

Here's our plot.