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Winter GreensI have had some success with brassicas in the past when planted in the spring and some limited success with fall plantings. I planted the Winter Greens at the same time and in the same field as I planted the Ultimate Forage Oats so the planting conditions were exactly the same. The summer months had been very dry so disking the hayfield turned out to be a difficult task and our three point hitch disks broke in the process. I had to use our old pull behind disks, which will soon be missing more disks than they have working. I disked the field on August 8th, 15th, 31st and September 4th. The ground was so hard that I had to reduce the size of the plot that I wanted to plant. The plot ended up being about 200 by 15 yards wide. In the end of August we also applied lime and 12-12-12 fertilizer. I forgot to write down exactly how much lime I use, but I try to get close to a half ton lime per acre. On September 4th we sowed the Winter Greens and rode over them with our four-wheeler to get the seed into contact with the dirt. Rain was minimal and sporadic over the next couple of weeks and the Winter Greens never shot out of the ground with the gusto that I hoped for. Over the next month the highest brassica grew to about two inches at the most. Although they didn’t grow nearly as high as I wanted the deer did spend time eating in the plot, so they did provide some nutrition. The forage oats that I planted next to them received much more attention and drew deer for a longer period. After this experience I am blaming the relatively poor performance on the dry conditions and also the late date that I planted them. One plot that I had more fall success with had been planted on August 11th. This plot grew to about six inches that fall. The other plot was planted on September 4th and didn’t grow as well as the plot planted on August 11th. When I plant brassicas again in the fall I will try to get them planted in early August. For comparison sake, I planted brassicas in the spring two years prior and they exploded out of the ground and reached heights well over one foot. The downside was that the deer cleaned the small plots up in August.
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