Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Brassicas

How does everyone spread the top dressing of fertilizer after planting? I don’t want to damage the plants with a 4 wheeler but, would really not like to walk a 4 acre plot with a little hand spreader.

What’s best for the fertilizer now? I’ve seen 46-0-0 and others mention 34-0-0. I did 150#/acre when planting of 46-0-0 a month ago today.
It sounds like your either going to have to run some over or hand spread it....I know my atv spreader throws urea like 30 ft....so in theory you would only need to run a little bit over. Also are you top dressing for a reason and just wanting to? I feel like 150# at planting should be sufficient to get great plant growth. Also remember that if your not going to time it with a rain you will have to use treated. 46-0-0 is what i would say but really anything high in N will work. Good luck and be sure to take pics when you spread and then again a month later. Log it to see if its worth it in the future and post up your findings!
 
If it’s not needed because I already did it at planting I’m on board with that! I was going to check them tomorrow for the first time since planting and was going to hit it again while I was there in case it needed it. Being 2.5 hrs away makes you make hay when your close if need be.
 
How does everyone spread the top dressing of fertilizer after planting? I don’t want to damage the plants with a 4 wheeler but, would really not like to walk a 4 acre plot with a little hand spreader.

What’s best for the fertilizer now? I’ve seen 46-0-0 and others mention 34-0-0. I did 150#/acre when planting of 46-0-0 a month ago today.
It sounds like your either going to have to run some over or hand spread it....I know my atv spreader throws urea like 30 ft....so in theory you would only need to run a little bit over. Also are you top dressing for a reason and just wanting to? I feel like 150# at planting should be sufficient to get great plant growth. Also remember that if your not going to time it with a rain you will have to use treated. 46-0-0 is what i would say but really anything high in N will work. Good luck and be sure to take pics when you spread and then again a month later. Log it to see if its worth it in the future and post up your findings!
If it’s not needed because I already did it at planting I’m on board with that! I was going to check them tomorrow for the first time since planting and was going to hit it again while I was there in case it needed it. Being 2.5 hrs away makes you make hay when your close if need be.
no i get it, but your more than likely going to need treated urea. Im not saying its a bad idea to top dressing, but may not be needed. If there is a co op close by that sells treated then you could look at it and evaluate and then make your decision
 
Buddy has a buttonweed problem in his brassica plot(s). He was asking me about spraying. Post emergent spraying is not something I've ever had to do with brassicas. Anyone have any herbicide recommendations for him?
 
Buddy has a buttonweed problem in his brassica plot(s). He was asking me about spraying. Post emergent spraying is not something I've ever had to do with brassicas. Anyone have any herbicide recommendations for him?
No but I have mowed the buttonweed high and didn't hurt the brassicas.
 
Get out the button hook or machete, mower, or weed wiper. Saw some cheap wipers at RK once, not sure how good they'd be. This time of the season already, it's possible the weeds have already done most their damage. Unless summer keeps going and going.
 
I had a mild panic attack last week when the farmer cutting hay moved (really short) my entire Brassica mix plot. So I went out to over seed some quick yesterday and to my surprise it has exploded. Him mowing it gave it a jump start somehow.......but either way im pretty happy!

here is another plot I did that was 100% no till- just sprayed, mowed short and broadcast right before a heavy rain. planted first week of august

70136961_10100431360996664_7449682888729034752_n.jpg
 
I had a mild panic attack last week when the farmer cutting hay moved (really short) my entire Brassica mix plot. So I went out to over seed some quick yesterday and to my surprise it has exploded. Him mowing it gave it a jump start somehow.......but either way im pretty happy!

here is another plot I did that was 100% no till- just sprayed, mowed short and broadcast right before a heavy rain. planted first week of august

70136961_10100431360996664_7449682888729034752_n.jpg
That plot looks awesome. My turnips were quarter size last weekend, but doing well. Think I'll do the mow, spray no till method next year. I like the idea of keeping that organic on the surface to keep moisture.
 
That plot looks awesome. My turnips were quarter size last weekend, but doing well. Think I'll do the mow, spray no till method next year. I like the idea of keeping that organic on the surface to keep moisture.

FYI, I have done the same in previous years with fair to even very good success. This year...my first planting of brassicas was just about a 100% failure. While I wasn't getting any rain on them at that time...I think the real blocker was that I had too much thatch present and even though I drug the areas so as to shake the little seeds down through the duff, I don't think I got my seed on the soil well enough.

All that to say this...whatever you do, you HAVE to get those seeds onto the soil. If you have too much thatch, or any other factor that limits the seed from making good soil contact, you are asking for trouble. In the future, whether by burning or whatever method, I have to have less duff present than what I did this year. I had mowed, waited a week or two and then sprayed, but the duff from mowing really hadn't broken down much by the time I broadcast my seed and there was plenty of it. I suppose I should have mowed way earlier, let it decay more, mowed again and then sprayed...I probably would have had much less duff to contend with.

I have since replanted brassicas in those areas and did so via conventional tillage and they are up and looking decent when last seen.
 
FYI, I have done the same in previous years with fair to even very good success. This year...my first planting of brassicas was just about a 100% failure. While I wasn't getting any rain on them at that time...I think the real blocker was that I had too much thatch present and even though I drug the areas so as to shake the little seeds down through the duff, I don't think I got my seed on the soil well enough.

All that to say this...whatever you do, you HAVE to get those seeds onto the soil. If you have too much thatch, or any other factor that limits the seed from making good soil contact, you are asking for trouble. In the future, whether by burning or whatever method, I have to have less duff present than what I did this year. I had mowed, waited a week or two and then sprayed, but the duff from mowing really hadn't broken down much by the time I broadcast my seed and there was plenty of it. I suppose I should have mowed way earlier, let it decay more, mowed again and then sprayed...I probably would have had much less duff to contend with.

I have since replanted brassicas in those areas and did so via conventional tillage and they are up and looking decent when last seen.
I wonder if you have sprayed, let it die, then seed, then mow to cover if your results would have been different. My plan from here on out is to seed, spray, pack/roll. then possibly use treated urea. But im also talking about doing this into say rye from the previous year not crp, if that make sense....This year i did one small plot of mow, wait a week, spray, wait two weeks, burn, spread and harrow...it germinated pretty well....i underseeded it a bit but I also got rain on it that evening which i believe was crucial....I will post pics the next time im out there
 
I wonder if you have sprayed, let it die, then seed, then mow to cover if your results would have been different. My plan from here on out is to seed, spray, pack/roll. then possibly use treated urea. But im also talking about doing this into say rye from the previous year not crp, if that make sense....This year i did one small plot of mow, wait a week, spray, wait two weeks, burn, spread and harrow...it germinated pretty well....i underseeded it a bit but I also got rain on it that evening which i believe was crucial....I will post pics the next time im out there

One time a few years back, I did pretty similar to the bolded section above with at least fair to good results. I broadcast brassica seeds into still standing, but medium height(calf to knee high let's say) grass. (I had mowed it a week or two earlier.) So I spread the seed, then mowed, then sprayed and it worked halfway decent. But...there was not a heavy layer of duff/thatch present when I spread the seed into the standing grass. I remember thinking that the soil was fairly bare underneath the over growth.

So, in that scenario, I feel confident saying that a lot of the seed made it to the soil, which was largely bare. When I then mowed it, I created thatch, and plenty of it, but the seed was already on the soil below. It wasn't the prettiest looking patch, but it definitely fed deer that year. Back to your sequence...I would say it would depend on how dense the standing(after having been sprayed) weeds would have been. If so dense as to block the seed from getting through from above, then I think there would be disappointment/seeding failure. However, if the tiny seeds can make it down to the soil, I think that would be fine, even good to very good.

I have also in the past used spring planted buckwheat to suppress weeds/grass, prepare for later in the summer brassica seeding and feed whatever deer/turkey/bees/etc with the buckwheat and I think that is about the ideal "prep" planting for a later that summer no till brassica seeding. Buckwheat is cheap and easy to grow, helps the soil, etc, and is naturally dying off just about when you would want to broadcast your brassicas...AND...the structure of buckwheat plant is such that there is a lot of bare ground underneath those plants and the duff created by mowing it down over your brassica seed is much less than whatever grass and weeds come up on their own. I am trying to get better at no till, still without a no till drill that is, and I know I am planning on using the buckwheat strategy again next year.
 
One time a few years back, I did pretty similar to the bolded section above with at least fair to good results. I broadcast brassica seeds into still standing, but medium height(calf to knee high let's say) grass. (I had mowed it a week or two earlier.) So I spread the seed, then mowed, then sprayed and it worked halfway decent. But...there was not a heavy layer of duff/thatch present when I spread the seed into the standing grass. I remember thinking that the soil was fairly bare underneath the over growth.

So, in that scenario, I feel confident saying that a lot of the seed made it to the soil, which was largely bare. When I then mowed it, I created thatch, and plenty of it, but the seed was already on the soil below. It wasn't the prettiest looking patch, but it definitely fed deer that year. Back to your sequence...I would say it would depend on how dense the standing(after having been sprayed) weeds would have been. If so dense as to block the seed from getting through from above, then I think there would be disappointment/seeding failure. However, if the tiny seeds can make it down to the soil, I think that would be fine, even good to very good.

I have also in the past used spring planted buckwheat to suppress weeds/grass, prepare for later in the summer brassica seeding and feed whatever deer/turkey/bees/etc with the buckwheat and I think that is about the ideal "prep" planting for a later that summer no till brassica seeding. Buckwheat is cheap and easy to grow, helps the soil, etc, and is naturally dying off just about when you would want to broadcast your brassicas...AND...the structure of buckwheat plant is such that there is a lot of bare ground underneath those plants and the duff created by mowing it down over your brassica seed is much less than whatever grass and weeds come up on their own. I am trying to get better at no till, still without a no till drill that is, and I know I am planning on using the buckwheat strategy again next year.
So next spring I was think about putting down some rye and then killing it later in the year but maybe ill try buckwheat. I watched a you tube video where he used buckwheat. Ill need to do some research on seeding rate but I will definitely try it!
 
So next spring I was think about putting down some rye and then killing it later in the year but maybe ill try buckwheat. I watched a you tube video where he used buckwheat. Ill need to do some research on seeding rate but I will definitely try it!

Spring planted rye v. Spring planted buckwheat? Buckwheat all the way imo.
 
Definitely agree with the clover idea in front of brassicas, but even if you were planning on a no till, without a drill, scenario?
I think you could treat it like your grass scenario you detailed above, but with better success because you are fixing a lot of nitrogen and when clover dries down there is far less duff/thatch than grass. Clover really shrinks down a lot.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
I think you could treat it like your grass scenario you detailed above, but with better success because you are fixing a lot of nitrogen and when clover dries down there is far less duff/thatch than grass. Clover really shrinks down a lot.

Definitely, there is a nitrogen kick from the clover that would help any following crop, including brassicas. But although I cannot remember doing this previously, I would imagine that the clover, even after being sprayed to kill it, may be dense enough to prevent the brassica seed from getting to the soil...in a no till, no drill approach. I suppose the key would be to have sprayed(killing it) far enough in advance of the brassica seeding so you are going into dead and well shriveled clover.

Hmmm...I might have to try this next year...as I have a couple of clover fields now that I could convert over next summer.
 
I just found out that I had about a 95% failure on my brassica's this year. I had a guy convince me to use a new blend from a up and coming company. I have had 7" of rain since I planted on the 11th of August (Kansas) and my plots look like they have mange. Should I light disk and plant Turnips or should I plant Cereal Rye or should I do both. I don't want both of these plots bare this fall? Please give me your suggestions. I am gonna plant something on Sunday. Thanks.
 
Top Bottom