I’ve long been a fan of brassica forages for deer, such as Winter Greens and Tall Tine Tubers, so I was particularly excited when Whitetail Institute introduced its exclusive radish variety — WINA 412 — a few years ago. It’s a critical component in the new annual blend Ravish Radish. I had tried a few generic radishes and found that deer were attracted to them, but I was anxious to plant this new variety, the only radish created to appeal to and nourish white-tailed deer.
The results were impressive, as they have been with every Whitetail Institute product I’ve tested. Even before bow season opened, deer were flocking to my three test sites. After passing several bucks early in the archery season, I eased into a stand near one of the plots during midafternoon on the opening day of muzzleloader season. By sunset, I’d seen four bucks and squeezed the trigger on a heavy 9-pointer. The buck hunched and ran at the conical bullet’s impact, and I heard him fall down a small embankment into a creek bottom. I was definitely a believer in Ravish Radish. When you first plant some types of brassicas, whitetails might ignore them until a frost or several cold nights convert the starches in the plants into sugars. But after deer learn about those plants, they often begin eating them before freezing temperatures arrive. In fact, they’ll start munching on them almost as soon as they emerge from the soil in late summer and early fall. That learning curve for deer to eat new food doesn’t seem to hold true for radishes, or at least the special radishes in Whitetail Institute’s Ravish Radish blend. All of my test sites were hammered from the time the plants were just a few weeks old and measured only a few inches tall. There was not any waiting period for frosts to sweeten the plants and make them more attractive. Most food plot offerings have an optimum time for planting. For Ravish Radish and the company’s other brassica blends, such as Winter Greens and Tall Tine Tubers, that’s mainly July through September, depending on your location. You can plant them in July in far Northern states and Canada. In middle and Southern states, it’s best to wait until August or even September. The planting dates for each geographic location are included on the bag and whitetailinstitute.com. Within a week after seeding, you’ll see plants emerging, and days after that, deer will start feeding on the tender green foliage. Radishes are part of the mustard family. They are exceptionally popular among wildlife managers because they are simple to grow and offer high protein levels, and deer feed on them eagerly. But those plants also have other benefits. They are good for the soil, good for the environment and are highly praised by agronomists.
Radish Benefits According
to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Radishes have a number of
beneficial attributes, including rapid fall growth, high biomass production, a
well-developed taproot, excellent nutrient scavenging ability, competitiveness with
other plants and special pest resistance capabilities.” They offer deer forage
high in vitamin C, digestible fiber and selenium. Protein levels can exceed 30
to 35 percent. Each acre of Ravish Radish grown can produce more than 4 tons of
succulent green forage that’s highly digestible, so animals use more of it, and
it has more benefits than many other annuals.
Long Season of Productivity Although the radishes in Ravish Radish will attract deer
immediately, they are even more attractive when cold weather and frosts
increase the sugar content of the plants. Later in winter, after deer have
eaten down most of the green tops, they will continue to feed in radish plots, switching
to the large tubers. How hard deer hit a Ravish Radish plot will depend to some
extent on what other foods are available and their stage of palatability or
attractiveness. If your Imperial Whitetail Clover or Fusion plots are holding
up well, deer might continue to focus on that forage instead of the radishes
when they first emerge. Perhaps deer sense that those big-leafed annuals will
be taller and sweeter later in fall. But if your clover is struggling a bit from
drought or you don’t have enough other summer crops, such as Power Plant,
available, deer will turn readily to the young radish plants in August and
September, well before the first frosts. When the radish leaves have been eaten
down, deer will feast on the large root in the ground. Digging them up with their
hoofs, they’ll dine on tubers during winter, when other foods are scarce,
providing crucial energy during a difficult time. To a point, radish leaves
will also grow back after deer munch them down. The best strategy, however, is
to plant enough acreage so deer can’t mow down the entire plot. The goal is to
have them eat some plants to the ground but have enough others available that
they don’t obliterate the plot.
Buy the Best You
can buy generic radishes. But why would you want to save a few dollars on seed
and sacrifice the chance to grow the best forage possible to attract deer? Ravish
Radish contains the Whitetail Institute’s proprietary WINA 412 Radish, and it’s
only found in their product. These radishes were developed through years of painstaking
experimentation and are only marginally more expensive than the cheapest bargain-basement
seeds. The plants were developed to fit the nutritional needs and taste buds of
deer and grow taller, with more tender leaves than cheap generic varieties. They
were also tested on wild deer throughout all regions.
Timing Timing
is an important topic when planting radishes. Perhaps more than any other type
of food plot forage, radishes and other brassicas need to be planted during a
specific time frame. This window of opportunity for the best results ranges
from July to September, depending on your geographic location. Plant radishes
too early and they will look good for a while, but the summer heat and long
hours of daylight will often make the crops mature and flower or simply wilt
and dry out from the heat and lack of rain. Take it from someone who tried this
experiment and paid the price; I basically wasted a crop that withered before
deer became seriously interested in it, because they had plenty of clover,
chicory and Power Plant available. Don’t make my mistake. On the other hand,
don’t wait too long. If you plant too late, the plants won’t have sufficient
time to become large and offer the tremendous amount of forage they can
produce. This is the lesser mistake, as the plants will still grow and attract
deer. But do you want 4-inch leaves or leaves longer than a foot? I know which
I prefer. The researchers at Whitetail Institute carefully test various planting
dates and recommend specific ones for each state. In some cases, they even
break that down further depending on where you live, as climate can vary from
region to region. Follow the guidelines, and plant inside the window of dates.
You won’t regret it.
Planting and Managing Radishes The first step, as with any food plot planting, is to do
a soil test and apply fertilizer as needed. Also add lime if required to bring the
pH up to at least 6.0. Kill existing vegetation with glyphosate, and then till
or disk the ground repeatedly until you get a firm, smooth seedbed. Cultipack
or use a weighted fence-type drag to smooth the seedbed. Broadcast the seeds,
and cultipack again, or simply spread the seeds and leave them alone if you
used a drag to smooth the plot. The seeds are tiny, so barely cover them with 1/8
to ¼ inch of soil. They’ll sprout within days. If rain is predicted, you can
simply spread them on top and get good germination. After the plants have
reached 4 to 8 inches tall, add about 80 to 100 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer,
such as 34-0-0, 43-0-0 or a similar mix per acre to enhance growth and tonnage
of forage production.
Mixtures You
can also mix Ravish Radish with other types of plants, such as oats, peas or
annual clovers, and get a terrific food plot. Ravish Radish can also be used as
a topper to increase the appeal of an existing plot by adding variety and more
additional tonnage of forage.
Additional Benefits Besides providing high-quality nutrition for deer, radishes have other
benefits for the land and environment. One is the ability to aerate the ground
and improve the soil, making it better for future plantings. Many plots suffer
from hard, compacted soil. Plant roots can’t penetrate deeply enough to obtain sufficient
moisture and nutrients to thrive. They are basically living off the first few
inches of ground and struggling to spread their roots through the extremely
hard dirt below that. Planting Ravish Radish can dramatically improve that. These
plants grow a large, deep taproot that will break up or drill through that hardpan
and aerate the soil when the root decays. This allows moisture to penetrate and
the roots of future crops to use nutrients farther down in the soil. It also
decreases rain runoff and improves soil drainage. Another feature of radishes
is the ability to scavenge nutrients from deep in the soil and leave them at
higher, more accessible levels for future crops, reducing fertilizer costs.
When the tap root decays in spring, it also adds valuable organic matter to the
soil. According to the USDA, “Radishes provide excellent nitrogen scavenging
potential, and the tap roots are excellent at penetrating tillage pans and
dense soil layers. An acre of radishes can scavenge 40 pounds or more of
residual nitrogen from the soil. The roots help to penetrate and sustain
healthy organisms to restore soil structure.” Ravish Radish offers another
benefit for food plotters: weed control. These plants grow so fast with such a
large leaf canopy and deep roots that they choke out most unwanted weeds and grasses
in a plot, preparing it for a future planting of a different crop the next
year. A Michigan study showed that growing radishes reduced weeds by 4,000
pounds per acre compared to fields left fallow. The USDA also points to another
biological benefit of radishes. “An additional special feature of radishes and
other brassicas is that they produce compounds called glucosinolates, which are
toxic to soil-borne pests and pathogens. Biotoxins produced by brassicas when
they decompose are toxic against many pests including insects, nematodes and
weeds.” Radishes are a great high-protein food source, a terrific soil enhancer,
a valuable tool for combating weeds and controlling harmful pests. Those qualities
make radishes one of the best plants you can turn to for attracting deer and
nourishing them through fall and winter. I know I’ll be putting in several
plots of Ravish Radish this year, and hopefully a buck that will top that heavy
9-pointer will decide to pay those plots a visit.
