What to plant early?

[Jake]

I will be doing some work on a friends place by lake Somerville over the next few days. We will clear a future oat field. I know it is early to plant for the fall, but we will have the small 5 acre plot totally cleared of all grass and dirt exposed. It would be really easy to just throw down some seeds and cover them up before we head out.

Is there anything that would attract deer that you could plant this early that would come up and not get eaten by army worms or other pests? We could always come back in mid October and replant, but would like to put something in the ground now, since it will be prepared. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[elgato]

Daikon radishes. Easy to grow highly attractive. Great for the soil. I started some in July deep in a drought and worked great. Start with 3 lbs/acre then you can add oats or wheat later right on top of radishes without terminating

[EastTexasMan]

Looking at the forecast it is calling for 2 weeks of rain. Even if you did plant oats right now, it would probably still come up and stay up. Typically right now the problem is you plant, get 1 rain then it doesn't rain for 2-3 weeks, but that doesn't seem to be the case over the next 15 day forecast

[JeffK]

Radish will do well and deer will nibble on this before a frost and earlier than other brassicas such as turnips. I would also add in cow peas which will do good until the first frost. You can plant oats as well but there is the possibility that army worms may wipe them out.

[panhandlehunter]

I tried radishes but my deer didn't touch them. I usually plant oats/wheat mid-September and haven't ever had an issue. We do get a bunch of rain here on the coast though.