I hear Daikon Radishes will get hit in Alabama. Here in west Alabama as well as my home area of southwest Alabama I have never had deer touch them. I have planted turnips, rape, and kale. I never saw deer in them, no pics, and they all matured. I enjoyed the turnips though. I am not sure if my sugar beets died, or were consumed though. Any thoughts?

Soil test, acidity in the soil is reflected in the taste of the plant. Get the soil sweet and you will have better luck

Deer hammer radishes and turnips on our place.

Deer love brassicas, its just a matter of them getting used to them. They stink and taste bitter until the first frost. Then the sugar travels fromn roots to leaves. Until they do start eating them you might only throw a handfull of seeds in each plot. Brassicas provide lots of forage. When they do start eating them
they will destroy them. I planted them in Troy area and had great success.

This was last year at our place in Bibb co. Bow season they were 1ft high, this pic was taken around thanksgiving after they got a frost on em

X2. Biggest complaint I used to to get from customers who bought Biologic from me was that the deer wouldn't touch them. Once deer get used to them and the first frost hit they get hooked on them. Like the earlier post said the sugar travels from roots to leaves with first frost. I notice they'll turn purple a little. When I first planted them they wouldn't touch them until used to them. Now I have to include brassicas every Fall along with oats, clover, radish & sugar beets.

Can this happen within the first year of planting brassicas?

This has been my experience also.

I suggest you buy a small bag of Biologic Maximum, some kale and some turnips. Put a hand full of seeds in each of your plots until they are hooked. I love Biologic Maximum, yes folks po po buying branded seeds. Im telling you the MaXimum grows over 3 ft tall and as big around as a 55 gal barrel. It provides so much forage and the deer love it. Its a kick watching a deer try to eat a leaf as big as a banana leaf when they have no hands to push it in their mouth.I planted plots on Maximum and clover surrounded woth a ban of winter oats. THe clover grew huge under the brassicas. Provide forage for the deer all year and youll see a big difference in activety. Planting wheat and oats doesnt feed a herd, thats justa kill plot. I planted to feed them and they stayed close to the food.

Biologic is good stuff. I was a distributor for them for many years. I used to suggest my customers plant one third Deer Radish, one third Maximum, & one third Winter Bulbs & Sugar Beets. Ultimate attraction that leaves something on the table for deer all season long. Deer will dig up the green top bulbs in Winter Bulbs and Sugar Beets. Deer Radish will bust through hard pan soil, helps reduce weeds, and is attractive to deer. They'll eat the whole thing. And as already said Maximum is a producer.

I planted them for 5 straight years and they never ate any. How long does it take?

This ^^^^

Y'all got deer that won't eat turnips? That's crazy.

Maybe their picky eaters.

Hopefully it's not a matter of them preferring the corn pile 100 feet away.

Furflyin and Ben2, the only time I had them not eat it was poor soil ph or soil that stayed wet. Curious what ya'lls soil condition was? I have had a harder time getting them started in sandy soil but usually a year at worse. How does clover grow in these plots??

My Ph in south Alabama was usually around 6.5 with 300 lbs of 13-13-13 or as soil sample called. The turnips grew huge and dark green. Like I say I had sugar beets there one week about the size of a dollar bill leaves and then the next they were all gone. I assumed they were eaten by deer or hogs came in. Like I say, even in January the PTT was still big and even yellowed by then. The deer were killing my clover, rye, wheat, and oats side. I ate a good mess of them before they turned color and they tasted good with some corn bread. I will try a couple lbs this year in a new lease and see what happens.

The soil in my food plots on our farm are pH adjusted and heavily fertilized. I don't spare any expense on them. They get limed every other year and fertilized during the summer and fall. We have good sandy loam soil too.

I planted Diakon radishes with the turnip greens 2 years in a row. They ate the Radish greens down to the ground but never touched the turnip greens. They will also eat Rape here, but absolutely won't touch turnip greens.

Odd!! The only way to know is just ask one and then they usually just look at you strange.

Rape is like Austrian Peas for me. Usually doesn't make it mid November.

The deer here don't eat the winter peas either. Yes I'm serious. I can understand not eating turnip greens but the pea thing is perplexing. I don't know if it's a product of our extremely low deer density or what. We have way more food to go around than we have deer to eat it so maybe they only eat what is preferred. I can understand turnip greens not being preferred but not the peas. I have had winter peas bloom and make peas each year than I planted them. I planted 2 acres of winter peas in our hay field a few years ago. I drilled them in and had a great stand of them. Our hay fields are pampered. Deer just walked right through them.

They love cereal grains. I plant my own mix of wheat, Rye and Oats and they love those. Last year was the first year I had planted Buck Forage Oats and they kept them eaten down.