Switchgrass

[jmm46]

I just had the tree trimmers come through my powerlines and chew everything to the ground. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and frost seed switch grass into this area? It was all buckthorn. I plan on using skidsteer to scrape all chewed up branches off area, then come in and frost seed switch. Will this work? Should i spray tordon on everything first?? or do that in spring with the gly and atz??

 

[dbltree]

I just had the tree trimmers come through my powerlines and chew everything to the ground. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and frost seed switch grass into this area? It was all buckthorn. I plan on using skidsteer to scrape all chewed up branches off area, then come in and frost seed switch. Will this work? Should i spray tordon on everything first?? or do that in spring with the gly and atz??

Same situation on a clients farm in Missouri, not sure about spraying first as some of the herbicides have a carryover effect that can affect germination/growth of new switch seedlings (2-4D for instance)

You could spray a 50% strength glyphosate mix in the spring probably in early May in your area and then follow up with a Remedy/diesel mix the following late winter (dormant basal bark spray)

I do not know for a fact that Tordon or Remedy would be harmful to new switch seed/seedlings....just a suspicion so you might try and area and let us know if there is any effect on switchgrass establishment..always looking for a guinea pig...

 

[SWBUCKHNTR]

Here is a cp-25 mix with a little extra switch added in. Half of it was frost seeded the end of februaury 2012. The other half was planted on april 10th. In the first picture you can see how well the frost seeded switch came in even for a year with a severe drought. In the second picture you can basically see the line where the frost seeded area ends and the other starts. Both areas were planted into bean stubble and both were mowed three times. No chemicals on either one.

 

[dbltree]

Wow! Dramatic difference!! Thanks for sharing!:way:

 

[jmm46]

Same situation on a clients farm in Missouri, not sure about spraying first as some of the herbicides have a carryover effect that can affect germination/growth of new switch seedlings (2-4D for instance)

You could spray a 50% strength glyphosate mix in the spring probably in early May in your area and then follow up with a Remedy/diesel mix the following late winter (dormant basal bark spray)

I do not know for a fact that Tordon or Remedy would be harmful to new switch seed/seedlings....just a suspicion so you might try and area and let us know if there is any effect on switchgrass establishment..always looking for a guinea pig...

Sounds good, I will trial 1/4 of it with Tordon. I was just worried if I didn't spray anything on chewed up buckthorn it will come back 10x worse and wont allow switch to grow to fullest.
Thanks!!

 

[buckeyemc]

dbltree I'm in central Ohio and have ten acres ready to put in switch grass for deer cover. Should I use all cave in rock or mix with Indian and big bluestem. Would like to get best height possible to block view from road. Any other varieties I should look at and where is best place to order from?
What should I expect the first year?
Thanks for all your help

 

[dbltree]

dbltree I'm in central Ohio and have ten acres ready to put in switch grass for deer cover. Should I use all cave in rock or mix with Indian and big bluestem. Would like to get best height possible to block view from road. Any other varieties I should look at and where is best place to order from?
What should I expect the first year?
Thanks for all your help

There is a link to John Osenbaugh's Prairie Seed Farms to the left of this page, call his 800# to order seed. We are using a mix of 8#'s CIR and 2#'s Kanlow.

You can Big Bluestem but that changes everything...it's fluffy seed and can not be broadcast from conventional spreaders/seeders. Kanlow can get as tall as BB and much easier to plant.

Sometimes one can get away with as little as 5-6#'s per acre but we have been dormant seeding 10#'s for a little thicker stand.

Growth first year is usually poor unless you get great weed control by using atrazine, otherwise you'll have to clip weeds 8-12" high as needed which means your switchgrass will not be very tall.

2nd year it will be better and 3rd year full height of 5-7' (using the mix)

 

[gatzow]

what is an acceptable amount of snow depth that you can safely drop the seed on top of the snow for it to eventually work its way into the soil? I am in Wisconsin, we have about 6-9 inches of snow right now. If I put the seed out over the next week or two, will it eventually work its way down? any suggested depth where you should avoid?

 

[MNbuckhunter]

I was just going to ask the same question on snow depth being as we just got pounded with 12" of snow in west-central MN...

 

[dbltree]

what is an acceptable amount of snow depth that you can safely drop the seed on top of the snow for it to eventually work its way into the soil? I am in Wisconsin, we have about 6-9 inches of snow right now. If I put the seed out over the next week or two, will it eventually work its way down? any suggested depth where you should avoid?

I prefer to seed with no more then 2-3" of snow, deep snow will carry seed when it melts so if possible wait until it get's down under 6"

 

[gatzow]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[jmm46]

I was informed that I shouldn't plant straight switch grass, because by year 3 it will be too thick and deer wont bed in it...I kindof laughed when I heard "to thick"....is there such a thing??

 

[goatman]

I was informed that I shouldn't plant straight switch grass, because by year 3 it will be too thick and deer wont bed in it...I kindof laughed when I heard "to thick"....is there such a thing??

Probably the same people from NRSC that tell my neighbor to burn in March.

 

[Daver]

I was informed that I shouldn't plant straight switch grass, because by year 3 it will be too thick and deer wont bed in it...I kindof laughed when I heard "to thick"....is there such a thing??

I know there are plenty of people with very thick stands of switch that would disagree with that idea.

 

[slice and dice]

Here is a cp-25 mix with a little extra switch added in. Half of it was frost seeded the end of februaury 2012. The other half was planted on april 10th. In the first picture you can see how well the frost seeded switch came in even for a year with a severe drought. In the second picture you can basically see the line where the frost seeded area ends and the other starts. Both areas were planted into bean stubble and both were mowed three times. No chemicals on either one.

Do you suppose the April seeding wasn't as good due to stratification?

 

[Daver]

Do you suppose the April seeding wasn't as good due to stratification?

IMO, yes and I would suspect that the rainfall, or lack thereof, that we received last year and possibly the very warm early spring may have jumped the February switch out there so nicely. In my area of SE Iowa we actually had decent soil moisture probably through mid-to-late May, then the faucet was turned off in terms of rainfall.

Since March and April were quite warm relatively last year, I could definitely see where a well done February frost seed operation would do far better comparatively with a regular planting in April.

FWIW, I frost seeded about 2 acres of switch this past Saturday on ground that had been sprayed last fall and then I burned it off Saturday and then broadcast right into the ashes. At this point I am feeling pretty good about things, we'll see how it develops.

 

[dbltree]

February 21st, 2013

Mid winter is the perfect time to dormant seed switchgrass seed and we've been busy gettin' it done!

We spread most of it with a Fimco broadcast spreader on our Polaris Ranger but regardless of what you use be aware that switch seed is very light and won't spread very far. We make narrow passes and then turn and go crossways to the first passes to insure even coverage.

6-10#'s of switchgrass seed per acre will do the trick and we have been seeding a mix of 8#'s Cave In Rock and 2#'s Kanlow. CIR is a tall, rank switchgrass well adapted to the hot humid midwest summers and Kanlow is a very tall switch better adapted to rich moist lowlands.

Switch seed is very tiny and like sugar will flow rapidly thru very small openings so on the Fimco we ended up setting it between 0 and 1 and ran 10-15 mph depending on field roughness.

Switchgrass seed, especially CIR is notorious for being very dormant seed which needs to be stratified via cold wet chill of mid winter rains and snow melt, this softens the seed hull which allows it to germinate in mid May when soil temps reach roughly 68-70 degrees.

Dormant seeding is easy and a $30 bag seeder will get the job done! :way:

 

[psw2168]

Hi Dbltree,
I was wondering, could an established switchgrass field be harvested early summer for hay and still have enough growth potential to provide decent cover by the fall, given that it is harvested at a height greater than 8". How tall do you think it could get after that early harvest.
Thanks

 

[boonerz]

If I do some frost seeding of switchgrass (cave in rock) now and don't have the ability to get atrazine from a farmer, what are the odds it will do "ok"? Anyone have any luck with frost seeding and letting it grow with no chemicals? Will it just take more time to grow tall and thick? Or will it not take off hardly at all? Just curious if anyone has experience with this and what the results were. Obviously I know soil and rain will factor in to the equation as well.

 

[bwese]

I have a great stand of cir that I frost seeded on top of 6" of snow and then glyposated in early may. That was it. I never mowed either. Maybe lucky but I'll take it.

I did do the year prior prep work of killing everything off prior to frost seeding the following feb.