Native Warm Season Grass

[tomt]

Dbltree,

I guess I will just let the ground be. It's not that rough.

How do you feel about seeding in mid-December? Is that too early?

It has pretty much been freezing here every night. I would think in 3-4 more weeks the ground will be frozen for good! Its just that right now we are actually dry and I could get in there in a few weeks if our weather continues the way it has been. My plan would be to use NRCS drill and just drop the seed on the ground. This drill they actually have set up where you pull one shaft, and it spits out the seed without actually going down into the ground or you can use it as a normal no-till.

Just would like to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[dbltree]

How do you feel about seeding in mid-December? Is that too early?

Actually you could dormant seed anytime from late November thru mid March and December should work fine for you.

I have found slightly lower germination rates with late fall seedings versus mid winter possibly just because of the fact seed is laying there for 2-3 extra months and a certain percentage is bound to end up being destroyed.

Beyond that, it wil do just fine and I have some that I sowed in late November myselfand a neighbor drilled his in a few years back in late November with a Truax No-till and it looks great now!

Keep us posted ...

 

[letemgrow]

I am in the process of scatter seeding some remanent stands of big blue, prairie cord grass, eastern gama grass and various wildflowers into fescue sod that I sprayed during the November warm up. The fescue is all turning yellow and the seed has been scattered already...very heavily so I will get some pics and keep a tally on the work for others to use.

I start with 30x30 foot sections, spray them and flag them, then go collect remanent stands from around the area and seed each 30x30 section from a different stand/area so I will have lots and lots of diversity within each species of native grass and who know, maybe start my own northern MO cultivars.

 

[dbltree]

I start with 30x30 foot sections, spray them and flag them, then go collect remanent stands from around the area and seed each 30x30 section from a different stand/area so I will have lots and lots of diversity within each species of native grass and who know, maybe start my own northern MO cultivars

Your a man after my own heart Phil! :way:

 

[tomt]

Thanks Guys,

I Just don't want my over-anxiousness to cause me to do something dumb like planting too early and thus not get a good germination. I have a lot of time and sweat in the prep of this land and I just want to continue to do what's best.

I think I will order my seed, and be ready to plant (my additional 10 acres) depending on what the weather does.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out. My existing 3-year old prairie, about 25 acres, which was put in by the local mill isn't really all that impressive. When that was put in I didn't know "squat" about prairies or grasses, good seed suppliers, or much of anything. I just want to Thank You all for the knowledge I have gained from reading on these forums and the QDMA forums. Wish I would I known about them sooner!!!! I am now "Obsessed with Prairies" .

Thanks again,

Tom T

 

[letemgrow]

Your a man after my own heart Phil! :way:

I only have 4 sections set up so far, but will start on at least that many more this spring. I will spray them this spring, summer and fall so the area will be free of weeds and rodents will not have a home that may eat a lot of the seeds.

One 30 foot section was seeded into remanent prairie cord grass along the creek along with western sunflower plants I grew from seed since spring, lead plant and blazing star.

I am hoping that the pcg will help stabilize the stream bank and be rhizomatous and spread out all along there to provide great winter cover right next to my food plots. :way:

2 more were put into big blue, pcg, rough blazing star, prairie blazing star, lead plant, rattlesnake master and purple prairie clover that is growing wild in Mercer County. I always have my eyes peeled when driving down the gravel roads and blacktops looking for new stuff to seed that is a remanent native.

The last one will be put into remanent eastern gama grass that was collected all across northern MO. I also sprayed 5 strips that are 100 yards long to plant the rest of the gama grass this fall/spring, side by side to select the most vigorous to plant on the cattle pastures for better cattle gains and wildlife habitat. Native legumes will be added at a later date and I am looking mostly at purple prairie clover and Illinois Bundleflower to fill the gaps. There are several native perennial sunflowers that I am planting also on selected sites to see how well they grow and how much forage they produce. Cattle love maximilliam sunflower and they can grow 6-8 feet tall so that would also be a great addition for wildlife and cattle.

 

[dbltree]

letemgrow has inspired me to plant some eastern gamagrass, something I have long wanted to do but never got around too.

One thing that I always thought was pretty cool about EGG is that deer will actually eat this warm season grass, something you probably won't see among the other native grasses.

EGG seed is like switchgrass in that it is very dormant and either needs to be dormant seeded or stratified by 6-8 weeks of wet chill. The seed is not unlike corn although a little smaller and can be planted using either a corn planter or drill.

Unlike switch however it must be planted an inch deep so cannot be simply broadcast.

Planting in wide rows would make sense for wildlife purposes but eventually it will spread via rhzomes plant seeds 3-4 per foot in 30-36" rows if using a planter.

EGG grows well on low wet areas including flood plains and has endured repeated long periods of flooding in test plantings where it was flooded purposely for long periods of time.

On the other hand it also endures severe droughts when other grasses wilt and go dormant so it's a pretty versitile warm season grass.

It grows in 1-4 foot clumps which is pretty large compared to other natives and can get 6-9' tall. It does love nitrogen and adding N will boost growth and production just like corn or any grass.

EGG is like corn and most corn herbicides such as atrazine, simazine and Dual MagnumII will work in the establishment year and it can even be established with a crop of corn.

Eastern Gamagrass root...

Flower

Leaf

Here are some great links if your interested in learning more about this unique warm season grass that can provide some awesome wildlife cover and be grazed or hayed to boot!

Shepherd Farms

Eastern Gamagrass

Gamagrass Seed Company

EGG Range Map

Eastern Gamagrass Introductory Information

 

[letemgrow]

Another neat note about gama grass:

It has air passages in it's root systems that allow it to break clay hardpan from what I have read and that may be why it can handle being under water and wet situations better than others. There are also claims that the gama makes passages below the hard pan for other crops to follow later. Here is a cross section of a gama root.

Regrowth after 12 days from cutting.

Remnant Mercer County Gama plant I found and am collecting seeds off of.

 

[tomt]

Update on planting

Happy to say I got my 10 acres of ground planted this last week.
The ground was prepped all summer and seeded just before the snows here are starting up. It actually snowed 3" last night and another 10" is supposed to fall on Tuesday night. It will be interesting to see how a 12/3/09 dormant seeding fares. There are 3 fields I planted under a CREP contract, all around equal size.

The seeding was done using a Truax no till drill, but I simply used it in the up position, just "drop seeding". It did work nice as I feel I got a pretty even distribution of seed. I also overseeded by hand the center of each field in CIR switchgrass. Now, I'm just that more anxious for next summer to see how it turns out.

Picked up the NRCS planter,,,,,,,,,,

Mixed up my seed ahead of time and divided up so many buckets, per field, by size.

Added perlite to the seed as a carrier and "body".

One of the fields I planted. Ground was nice and frozen with a few flurries that day.

Another field I planted,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed !!!!!!!!!!

Tom

 

[dbltree]

12/3/09 dormant seeding

Thanks for sharing the great pictures and we will for sure be looking forward to hearing how your seeding turns out! :way:

 

[letemgrow]

Looks great TOMT!!!

 

[dbltree]

I snapped a couple pics of one of my mixed NWSG stands the other day, still standing despite some brutal winter weather this year. Heavy snow and ice along with high winds and do a number on native grasses but so far mine have held up.

This stand happens to have "evolved" into more Indiangrass then Big Bluestem after 15 years and that's something to be aware of in mixed stands. Just because you plant the "perfect mix in hopes of having a diverse stand doesn't mean it will stay that way.

Over time dominate tallgrasses can eventually take over a stand one tallgrass may eventually take over the entire stand. In this case the Indiangrass has even overpowered the normally dominate Cave In Rock switchgrass and continues to spread via windblown seed.

If anyone has pictures of their nativegrass stands this winter, please share and note the variety if you happen to know it. That gives others some better information on what might work best for them in their area.
If you don't know how to post pics, feel free to email them to me and I'll post them for you.

dbltree2000@yahoo.com

 

[letemgrow]

Indian and Switch are the most aggressive of the NWSG mixes from what I have seen, they do not stay "clumpy" for very long.

 

[tomt]

Grasses in the snow

I took a walk yesterday with the camera in hand. Per Dbltree's request, some pictures to show how the grasses are standing up to
the snow.

This shot, the grasses aren't too bad. That's also a small milo/sunflower plot in there. This is mostly Canada Wild Rye. As I've stated in earlier
posts, my grasses are just getting established with indian, big blue and switch hopefully coming in better this next year after I do a
springtime burn.

The picture above, you can see everything is pretty well covered or nocked down.

This area is standing pretty well. There is actually a little canary grass
and some weed, but heck, it's standing and offering some cover.

Another pic with with so so grasses standing. Happy to see some deer tracks.

A pic of a second food plot of milo and sunflowers. Again some deer track, showing signs that the deer are hanging around. From the deer tracks or sign, I'm pretty those critters are just bedding in my grasses and getting up at night to feed in my plots. I also have a little patch of standing corn and soybeans they are hitting pretty hard.
My neighbor across the road has a gorgeous stand of big bluestem, but darn near all his grass is already laying flat. That canada wild rye actually
stands up to the snow pretty well. Will be interesting to see if it starts to thin and vanish as it goes into it's 4th growing season this next year.
All for now,,,,,,,,
Tom T (anxious for spring) !!!!!!!

 

[letemgrow]

Looks great Tom!!

 

[tomt]

Letemgrow,
Didn't you or do you have prairie cordgrass planted?
I was maybe thinking of doing a little in a year or so. I have some canary
grass waterways and some flat wetter areas of canary I was thinking of playing with. Maybe add some switch to it???? Just thinking of future
projects to play with.
Wasn't sure how prairie cordgrass stood up to snows, etc.
Thanks,
Tom

 

[dbltree]

Wasn't sure how prairie cordgrass stood up to snows, etc

I can't answer for letemgrow but the wild PCG growing in ditches around my place is still standing despite blizzards we have had. I can't say what would happen in large open fields though?

 

[letemgrow]

I have it planted, but just started planting it on my farm this past year. I see it along the roadsides a lot and that is where I collect my seed from since it is 80-120 bucks a pound if you were to buy it and I like getting the local eco-type that is suited to my area. I will snap some pics of the PCG that is growing wild in the area. It stands as good as switch and adds diversity to boot.

When I was young and dumb, we used to do deer drives and PCG patches were a great place to jump pressured deer to sling some bullets at them. I jumped as many deer out of PCG as plum thickets so I would highly recommend that grass and anywhere RCG will grow, so will PCG. It will grow on dry sites, but does best on the wettest areas.

 

[tomt]

Too bad it is so expensive.
I just thought it would be neat to plant
some to add a little diversity. I still will probably try a little.
You guys are fortunate to have it occuring naturally.

Tom

 

[letemgrow]

This map says you may be able to collect some yourself from the area if it is legal to do so in WI anyways. :way: