Turnips

[AndyW]

Can anyone advise when the best time is to plant turnips for the crop to be most appealing to deer come fall? I've read just a few too many success stories for me to ignore.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I like to plant them in Mid to Late August. I plant alot of Purple Top and Seven Top. One produces a bulb and vegetation while the other is nearly all vegetative.

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

AndyW- I planted purple top last year for the first time. For me it was a bust. The deer never hit them. I asked around and was told that it may take a few seasons for them to recognize them as a food source since they were not used to them in the first place. I had cams on one turnip patch and the pics showed them walking by them and maybe sniffing the ground but never eating them.

200 yards away I planted clover and grain rye with a mix of winter peas. The deer hammered the clover and rye and never touched the peas.

Turnips are inexpensive for sure but for someone with limited plot space I think I'll go with more of what worked.

On the other hand I know folks that put them out and had great luck. Who knows????

 

[Football Hunter]

AndyW- I planted purple top last year for the first time. For me it was a bust. The deer never hit them. I asked around and was told that it may take a few seasons for them to recognize them as a food source since they were not used to them in the first place. I had cams on one turnip patch and the pics showed them walking by them and maybe sniffing the ground but never eating them.

200 yards away I planted clover and grain rye with a mix of winter peas. The deer hammered the clover and rye and never touched the peas.

Turnips are inexpensive for sure but for someone with limited plot space I think I'll go with more of what worked.

On the other hand I know folks that put them out and had great luck. Who knows????

I agree,seen them take a while to hit them.

 

[Bayou Buck]

I planted some in early September last year and had a good crop. Its a good late winter forage. I would plant them in August if you have adequate rainfall. (I cooked up what the deer didnt eat!)

 

[usanglure]

The best thing about the turnips is you can eat them late dec or early jan when they are ready to die back anyway..

 

[muddyboots]

Dwarf Essex Rape workd better for me. I plant about first of August. Seems to do well around here.

 

[TNCharlie]

This is outside my area of expertise (actually I don't have an area expertise), but I read somewhere that the deer hit turnips best after frost. Maybe somebody can verify or refute that.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Now this is something I've never heard of...deer not hitting turnip greens. I wonder if this is a regional thing? More than anything, I suppose it's a reminder of just how much preferences vary from place to place.

Interesting.

 

[Andy S.]

I read somewhere that the deer hit turnips best after frost. Maybe somebody can verify or refute that.

This has been my experience in SW TN. When temps dip to freezing or below, turnips convert stored starches to sugars to protect their leaf tissues from freezing. The sugar lowers the temperature at which the plant sap will freeze by several degrees, thus increasing the chance of survival for the turnip plant. It has been my experience that deer generally prefer the flavor of the turnip greens with the additional sugar content (post freeze). This has traditionally been December time frame for us here, many years the last two weeks of December and beyond. Unless we hunt late season and second juvenile, we rarely see much deer activity in the turnips we have planted, and then most of it is at night. My .02

 

[Andy S.]

I suppose it's a reminder of just how much preferences vary from place to place.

Very true, yet something many people tend to easily forget. Deer can be very fickle creatures.

 

[richmanbarbeque]

In the past I have mixed in several seeds and not relied on one. Once I know that deer like a certain plant then I plant more of it. Mixing in turnups and DER with something else is a great way to break the deer in to what you want to plant, if they like it.