The cool thing about planting turnips in your food plot is the deer love to eat both the leafy tops and the taproots (or the turnip).
What is the best turnip to plant for deer?
Purple Top Turnip
Purple Top Turnip a brassica family plant that deer love to consume. This nutritious turnip has the characteristic of growing with the globe exposed so deer have easy access to the entire plant in food plots. The plant and roots are nutritious and protein filled, readily consumed by deer.
Do deer eat mustard greens?
Chives (Allium odorum), mustard (Brassica rapa), calamint (Calamintia sylvatica) and most herbs are also odiferous plants that the deer will avoid.
What animals can eat turnips?
Beginning in the 1600s, turnips were grown extensively in England for winter feeding of sheep and cattle, as a pasture crop for pigs, and winter fodder for sows.
When should you plant turnip greens?
Set out turnip green plants 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost in spring and from late August to October for a fall crop in most areas. In zones 9 and 10 they can be planted throughout fall and winter. Like collards, kale, and other greens, turnip greens need to grow fast to produce nice, tender leaves.
What time of year do deer eat turnips?
The key factor to remember with turnips — while deer will begin eating them as early as germination, don’t expect peak consumption during the early season. In areas with quality food sources, deer typically don’t hit them very hard until mid-October to early November.
Do deer like radishes or turnips better?
The deer will eventually eat the turnip greens but the radishes are preferred. This has been my observation from the years we’ve been doing this.
What greens do deer like best?
Vegetables that deer seem to prefer include beans, lettuce, cabbage, and cole crops such as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
Do Deers eat collard greens?
Deer Greens is a 100% mixture of brassicas including rape, purple top turnip, collards and radish that provides an abundant high protein and energy rich diet for deer.
Will deer eat kale?
Do deer eat kale? Yes, they do, although not as their most favorite food source. Deer can cause undue damage to your kale plants, by eating them to the ground. Therefore, you need to stop deer from eating in your garden.
Will wild animals eat turnips?
Can Deer Eat Turnips? (And Do They Like Them?) Dear love eating turnips. They can eat every part of a turnip plant including the leafy tops and the tap roots. Deer love turnips because of their sweet sugary taste that is mostly found in the leaves of developed turnips.
Can animals eat turnip greens?
Turnip greens are safe for your dogs to eat as long as you wash them and steam them first. To help your dog digest them, steam the leaves and chop them up first.
Are turnips good for the soil?
Turnip in the Garden
Turnips are cold hardy root vegetables that help improve soil. Turnips are cold hardy root vegetables that help improve soil. Cover cropping is one of the best ways to improve garden soil.
Does frost hurt turnip greens?
Plants that can withstand temperatures from the mid 20’s to low 30’s include broccoli, turnips, radishes, cabbage and mustards. The foliage on these plants may be damaged a little by cold weather, but the plants should otherwise survive.
What fertilizer do you use for turnips?
Turnip gives a good response to organic fertilizers such as compost tea, blood and bone meal, and fish emulsion. If growing for greens, high nitrogen fertilizer will help produce deep, healthy green. A fertilizer that has high potassium will be better for the roots of the Turnip.
Do you plant turnip greens in rows?
4. Space Turnip Green Seeds. Space your seeds about 1 to 2 inches apart in rows spaced between 18 and 30 inches apart. Once the plants start to grow leaves, thin the plants in the row so that they are spaced about 3 to six inches apart, advises the University of Minnesota Extension.
Why won’t deer eat my turnips?
Deer wont eat turnips if you plant too much seed. The plants end up crowding each other out and they stop growing. Deer crave plants that are growing, and stemmy plants go to the bottom of the desired list. Gauge the size of your plots accurately, and err on the low side for seed planted if you are unsure.
Will deer dig up turnips?
Turnips and radishes provide excellent late-season food well into the winter long after their leaves are broken down. Deer will eat the tubers as long as they can get dig them out of the frozen ground.
Do deer eat turnips before frost?
These are some of the reasons why fall is the best season for growing turnips. The other explanation is that deer don’t tend to eat this root veggie in spring and summer. In fact, these animals prefer turnips to endure a little cold and get sweeter first before consuming them once winter arrives.
Why are deer not eating my food plot?
1. If deer aren’t eating soybeans, it usually means they don’t recognize them as a source of food (this happened at The Proving Grounds the first two years I planted beans here), or the quality of the forage is lower than other forage available in the area.
Can you have too many food plots?
It’s just the nature of whitetails, but if you have multiple food plots scattered across your property it could mean losing track of a buck as it adjusts to the upcoming rut. If that’s not bad enough, your green thumb could make bucks become hard to pattern.