Brassicas in Cover Crop Mixes: A Grower's Guide to Every Species

0:05 So if anyone knows me or has stepped into my office, there's a few things that you see in there. There's some sports related things and there's a whole lot of purple which I'm surprised I can get away with working for a company out of Nebraska, but it's not the '90s anymore and Nebraska's not in the Big 12, so I think that helps out a little bit.

0:34 So the other day when Jaen was having an analogy about the species and the plants, I thought of my joke that I like to tell. Last night for a couple hours I just sat there thinking, well, where do all these species and different types of species work into a football scenario?

1:00 So your grasses, your legumes, those are going to be your star players. They're going to be your wide receivers, your quarterbacks, your running backs, a little bit taller too.

1:12 So then that brings me to the brascas, which we're going to be talking about today. Brascas are shorter growing, they don't get as tall. These are your interior linemen, these guys are in the dirt. They're breaking up plays, breaking up compaction. I don't think I've ever met a defensive lineman that smells good either, so they're releasing biofumigants, also known as glucosinates. So we'll get started on the brascas here.

1:47 Brascas also known as the mustard family are known for having their deep tap roots, which comes into play when you're breaking up the line of scrimmage. Also for nutrient cycling, if you guys do play football, some of the guards like to pull, so brascas are able to pull up different types of nutrients. They're also able to pick up on the offensive side pests and.

2:18 Pathogens or that pesky linebacker that's going to blitz you all night. So most have a low carbon and nitrogen ratio, so they're going to break down relatively fast. If you see all those guys they have knee braces on and they don't last too long in the NFL. They're also known as a great food source. They're small seeded anywhere from 100,000 to 175,000 seeds per pound, minus radishes which are about 25,000 seeds per pound. So for small cost they're adding a bunch of diversity to your mix, and we've talked about a lot about diversity for this event. So everyone on the football team has their job and what they're supposed to do. If you had a team full of brassicas or lineman you probably wouldn't be very good unless you played in the 60s and 70s where the power I formation was really popular, but that's not the case nowadays.

3:35 All right so for the first species we have African cabbage. This is an excellent weed suppression cover crop. It's also high in biochemicals, glucosinolates compounds to help control nematodes. It's going to have a more upright growing pattern which makes it a good snow catcher if that happens in your area, and not as much down here. But this one also has a high carbon and nitrogen ratio making breakdown a lot slower compared to your other brasas. And it can handle heat as well as moist soils compared to other brasas making it a good option for corn interseeding. As you can see on some of the maturity and the cold kill I'll have these on all the slides, brasicas, some brassicas are known to bolt and those that can cause problems later on in the season if you're not wanting for all those little seeds to volunteer. So this one cold kills about.

4:41 15° and those aren't hard fast numbers. It usually has to be like that for a couple days. The next species is an impact Forge colored. It's a cross between a Georgia southern collard as well as another leafy brassica, making it one of the best for grazing that we offer in the market.

5:05 It's going to have better heat tolerance, which means it can be planted any time of the year—spring, summer, or fall. Most of the time brassicas are going to be cool season, so a lot of them don't handle heat very well, but this is an exception.

5:20 Another plus of the impact Forge collards is it must vernalize to produce seed. So if you spring plant it, you don't have to worry about volunteer. If you do fall plant, you may worry about volunteer. Vernalization happens when it gets cold enough for the plant to go dormant and then gets warm back up to then grow again. It's also one of the highest.

5:48 Protein brassicas for a non-legume plant it has a high degree of digestibility. And again, if you want to spring plant to avoid it from seeding out, it's also known as a PPS—photoperiod sensitive plant—which means for it to go to seed it goes off a daylength hour. And that one has a cold kill around 5 degrees.

6:20 The next species is your Nitro radish. This is going to be like your typical oilseed radish, your daikon radish. It's going to have a deep taproot on it. It's also a PPS plant and it's best to plant radishes during the fall for rapid growth. But planting too early in the fall may allow them to seed out, so that could be a worry for you. And they also break down fast, releasing biochemicals as well and help control pest and nematode populations. So this is smart radish we'll revert back to.

7:02 Little bit, this looks like the '70s, '80s and '90s Nebraska corn husker lineman, that cornfed beef right there.

7:13 So the main difference between smart radish and Nitro radish is smart radish not only does it grow a deep tap root but it also has roots that grow out. The potential biomass above ground can reach up to 8,000 lb per acre with below ground reaching up to about 3,700 lb per acre.

7:36 It's best to plant radishes in late summer or fall since spring planting may lead the radishes to bolting or producing seed, and that one has a 20° cold kill as well. Usually for us here in southeast Kansas late January, but again that's weather permitting.

8:00 Up next is the nematode control radish. This specific radish was bred up to control nematodes—sugar beet cyst nematode and the Colombian root knot nematode that usually occurs in.

9:50 Sulfur over time. However the downside of this is once the whole plant gets eaten, the plant's pretty much done. It's a one and one species, but it can help add good diversity to your mix. And also another benefit is it must vernalize to go reproductive, so you can plant in the spring and not have to worry about it going to seed. About a 70 to 150 maturity days and about a 10 degree cold kill as well.

10:32 All right, up next is the Viant hybrid turnip. This is a cross between an Asian leaf vegetable and a purple top turnip. This one also has the vernalize to go to seed, and this one is bred specifically for regrowth. However, a little bit more expensive for that trait. Unlike purple top turnip, this can be grazed multiple times with that 70 to 150 maturity day.

11:06 The next spec is Bayou kale.

11:09 This is a hybrid between kale and forage rape. It can be used in late fall grazing, and due to a frost will actually sweeten the leaves and increase palatability for your ruminants. It also has a high feeding value equivalent to early spring grass and senses of high crude protein between 16 and 18%, up to 25% protein in some of the leaves. It's also going to be rich in vitamins—your A, C and B groups—as well as minerals such as your potassium, calcium, and this will also accumulate sulfur over time.

11:58 Here we get started into the mustards. These are going to be your defensive line and they were called the big nasty. So these ones are releasing those biochemicals. However, this Florida broadleaf mustard is going to be the most palatable of all the mustards, and it's going to be really good at weed control. It typically does have larger.

12:22 Leaves on it and you can use it in some grazing scenarios. It's not going to be the most palatable, but I'm sure if it's out there they're probably going to eat it. So in grazing scenarios it can also be used as a natural dewormer. So if you're having problems with that, you throw that in a cover crop mix.

12:50 Some of the mustards they have a 25 degree cold kill, so they're not going to survive too cold of winters. The white gold mustard is probably one of our fastest growing mustards. It's very good at weed competition. You can see blooms in about 30 days or so, which makes it a great choice for pollinator mixes or if you're wanting to get some insects in there and add some more diversity to your fields. And also helps improve fertility such as nitrogen and sulfur.

13:31 Indy gold, after yellow mustard, is probably going to be our second fastest flowering plant. Again, it's going to be

13:39 Good for a pollinator mix. And the Kodiak mustard is probably the third longest to bloom after all those. It's going to be a good choice for a longer growing season, but it's best just to pair all those up again. Diversity and you're kind of hitting all the short, middle, and long-term flowering stages.

14:05 And then here we got winter camelina. This is going to be your nose guard. This guy's going to hang in there even if it drops to five degrees. This is probably our most winter hardy brassica that we offer. The cold tolerance can get up to, again like I said, negative five. It can be grown anywhere cereal grain is grown. It produces a small rosette in the fall and then can grow more upright after winter dormancy. This plant also helps with nutrient scavenging for nitrogen and phosphorus.

14:47 And here we have arugula. It's not only known for being eaten in a salad. You can also use it in a cover crop. It's a dense, low-growing brassica which makes it great for weed suppression. And you can actually smell the brassicum again in it if you can taste it or if you can eat it. And it can be spring planted and will continue to grow green all the way into late fall.