Brassica's, rape

[shell waster]

first off,is rape a brassica, may sound stupid, but I have no experience with this forage. Second, when is the best time to plant if you want to have it round in bow season. Thanks. Oh yeah my geogrphic area where this will be planted is Cheboygan county.

[FREEPOP]

Yes rape is a brassica.

I'd plant it the begging to middle August. The deer won't like it tilit frosts and gets stinky.

[Luv2hunteup]

I'm 30 miles north of the bridge and plant rape every year. Ideal time is late July but only if we get moisture. Tyically there's none in the forecast until early August. Last year I planted August 8th and had rain by the 11th, great results.

200lbs/acre of 19-19-19 and 100lbs/acre of 46-0-0 works great in my soil conditions. There's a few pics of last year success in my gallery.

[Shop Rat]

I would plant sooner if possible. I planted my brassica already. 4 acres total. Some is planted Memorial and some in July. The early stuff is getting hit already. Everyone knows about frost curing, but also when the plants get 8-12 weeks old the bitterness goes away too. This is compounded with cold, but the deer may not wait for a frost.

If you mix with purple top turnips there will be something left when the rape is hit. Once the deer hit the rape it can be totally demolished quickly, unless you have lots of it. Buy your seed from a grainery or feed store and save alot of money. I use Millers feed south of Alpena. They sell each type in 1,2,5,10 pound bags. You can plant for half the money as mixed blends. The old "dwarf essex rape" is all you used to find. Now there are larger types that will produce more feed. I was told to try canola to get a 2 year brassica plot.

Canola,turnips,rape,swede,and rutabagas are all brassica.(I missed something)
If it says "forage turnips" It will have alot of leaf and minimal bulb.
I hope some of this info will help.

Love2hunteup, those plots are awesome. After my soil is improved, I hope to have results like your pictures.

[Split Toe]

Shop Rat,

My experience with Forage top Turnip was a little different. I used a seed mix from Frigid Forage and what I just found out was that the large bulbs were turnips. These things are almost the size of my fist.:bloos:

[Shop Rat]

split toe, the large bulbs are turnips. The most common ones are purple top.
The forage types of turnips are for grazing sheep. The energy of the plant goes into leaf growth and not the bulb. Some of them will not look much like a turnip, but more like rape. Look up "seven top" and "all top" turnips.

It is a good idea to grow both bulb turnips and forage turnips because when all the leaf is gone, the deer will dig the bulbs out of the ground.

The most impressive turnips I have grown are from Tecomate. They are called T-raptor. They are a hybred of rape and turnip.The mix is called "ultra forage". I planted memorial weekend for summer forage. The deer started eating heavily around the first of july and it lasted until November. Those do not have a big bulb, but lots of leaf production. If you mix a couple of pounds of purple tops with it the plot will last into December in Northern Mi.

[Split Toe]

Thanks shop rat, I will get some pictures posted.:)

[rmw]

Buy your seed from a grainery or feed store and save alot of money. I use Millers feed south of Alpena. They sell each type in 1,2,5,10 pound bags. You can plant for half the money as mixed blends.

Are they on 23 ? North of Ossineke ?

[Luv2hunteup]

Are they on 23 ? North of Ossineke ?

No, it's south of town on the west side just north of where F-41 ends at US-23.

[rmw]

No, it's south of town on the west side just north of where F-41 ends at US-23.
Thanks , Between them and the Timm farm I should have to haul less things up north .

[Shop Rat]

6701 North U.S. 23 Spruce, Mi 989-471-5523

The brassica that I forgot is Kale.

[Letmgro]

Go west out of Ossineke on Nicholson Hill rd (6 miles) to the Chuck Timm Farm.

There's more brassica blends planted (and growing beautifully) than you could ever imagine!