In my "larger" 5 acre switchgrass field that I planted last Spring, I've got it surrounded with a few rows of Norway and White Spruces. How cautious do I have to be when spraying around those trees with Gly and Oust this Spring? Should I use that combo or something different? Or should I not even get close to them? I mowed a few times last summer to keep the CSG's at bay but am hoping to use a herbicide this year, assuming I can safely do so. Thanks for any input or advice.
Ur trees should have no trouble especially if they have not budded out for spring. Oust is for trees so ur pretty safe. Roundup will kill trees only when budded out. Good plan is to be careful and not directly spray on trees as best u can.
How old the switchgrass? If its established, I'd prefer to mow around trees with big buffer of safe area & burn switch. But maybe others went over they earlier and u want to go herbicide route to clean up switch. Good luck! Time it all right!
How old the switchgrass? If its established, I'd prefer to mow around trees with big buffer of safe area & burn switch. But maybe others went over they earlier and u want to go herbicide route to clean up switch. Good luck! Time it all right!
dbltree
Super Moderator
Neither will harm conifers providing they are not candling, so spray early
Switchgrass field border
I am going to frost seed a 5 acre field of CIR switch this weekend. I have the field prepped as specified in this thread and plan on a spraying of Gly and Atrazine this spring.
Does it make any sense to frost seed clover on the borders of this field now. I can try to have the sprayer skip the border, but not sure how accurate that will be.
What does Atrazine do to clover that hasn't germinated?
If this is not a good idea, what should I do for a firebreak border if one is needed or should I just plant CIR right up to the edges?
thanks
I am going to frost seed a 5 acre field of CIR switch this weekend. I have the field prepped as specified in this thread and plan on a spraying of Gly and Atrazine this spring.
Does it make any sense to frost seed clover on the borders of this field now. I can try to have the sprayer skip the border, but not sure how accurate that will be.
What does Atrazine do to clover that hasn't germinated?
If this is not a good idea, what should I do for a firebreak border if one is needed or should I just plant CIR right up to the edges?
thanks
Daver
PMA Member
I am not sure about the effects of Atrazine on clover, but I personally would never plant switchgrass right up to the edge of a timber. You will need to burn switch every three years or so and unless you come by first and mow/disk your switch off near the timber, you are really asking for a hot fire in your timber.
I have purposely burned through a timber area before a couple of times and those were successful. But I would be very nervous about switch right next to timber because it would be hard to control your fire. It is also possible that your switch could catch on fire due to a neighbor, etc, and then you would not have the chance to break the fire before it entered the timber.
I would go with a 20'-25' ring of clover around the switch where it borders any timber.
dbltree
Super Moderator
We don't have the answer to that yet, but we have seeded 6# CIR and 2# Kanlow the past 2 years but since they are not mature yet we really don't know?
We purchase our seed from Osenbaugh's Prairie Seed Farms so give John a call for more information.
Daver
PMA Member
Since you really would not need a fire break year one, I suppose you could plant your switch this year, then check back after your guy sprays atrazine and then make your fine tuned clover plan from there.
In other words, go ahead with the switch now, save yourself a little money and don't plant right up to the edge of the timber AND instruct the sprayer to stay back 20 feet or so and if he misses it a little, no biggie, there will be no clover there yet anyway. Then kill the perimeter, where the clover will go, with gly in early Sept and again in early Oct, if necessary. Then frost seed clover into the perimeter area that you kill this summer OR sow rye and clover this fall and then mow the rye down next spring.
There are a few ways you could attack this.
Monday afternoon turned out to be a beautiful afternoon to head down to my farm and convert an old food plot into switch grass. The seed was purchased through dbltree's auction. Thanks for all your contributions here, Paul. All my critters thank you as well as I know my habitat continues to improve from reading through all your posts.
It might be a little hard to tell from the pic, but there is an existing switch filter strip along the timbered creek to the left of this retired bean field that I am looking to increase into better bedding areas.
Seeded a mix of Cave In Rock and Kanlow today. Bought a new Fimco spreader and was very impressed if anyone is looking for a good one. The snow around the edges of the field allowed me to see where I needed to turn around. I will till a fire break around it this spring and seperate it from the existing switch. When its all done I will have 6 fields of switch I will rotate burning, leaving me cover for birds all year.
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I Will Rotate Fields 1-3 And Fields 4-6 For Burning and Will Have Clover Fire Breaks Between Each Field And Plan To Put Strips Of Milo Or Sorghum Between them For Pheasants.
Pauls son Jesse drilled a cp 25 mix in fields 3 and 4 last fall, the rest are pure switch. I wanted to have some diversity and give the wildlife a spot that wasnt as thick as the switch can be.
Pauls son Jesse drilled a cp 25 mix in fields 3 and 4 last fall, the rest are pure switch. I wanted to have some diversity and give the wildlife a spot that wasnt as thick as the switch can be.
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Question for anyone that may have some insight. As of last weekend we had a good 12-16" of snow in the area I am going to frost seed CIR. It is on a gradual side hill. A top the hill is a 5 acre standing corn field with snow as much as 4' deep. How long should I wait to seed, I'm a little nervous about a quick warm up and having the seed washed away. If the temps stay like this the snow in the open areas and fields should be cut in half by the weekend.
Daver
PMA Member
If I am understanding that right, you have a A LOT, 4 feet worth, of unmelted snow "upstream" of where you intend to frost seed AND you are seeding on a slope. I cannot say anything from experience here as I don't think I have ever seen 4' deep snow, let alone seeded around it.
I would think though that you are running a pretty good risk of the seed getting carried away and/or pooled up from the melt off...which may be in June by the sounds of things for you guys! My vote would be to wait. I have successfully frost seeded both switch and clover into probably as much as 4"-5" of snow, but usually less than that, if any at all. I would not hesitate to go ahead though with 4"-5" or so, but I would be hesitant to go over that. Not only is switch seed fairly expensive, you may have to do it over again anyway and bare spots this year tend to be weed magnets and present yet another challenge.
spraying newly seeded switch
I just frost seeded 5 acres of CIR Switch over the weekend. Went real good. I am planning the next step which is the spraying. I re-read thru the how to at the beginning of the post, but wanted to make sure I spray when I am supposed to and what I am supposed to.
Do spray the Atrazene first? then a couple weeks after that spray the roundup. Or is is vice versa. What can I watch for to get the timing right?
thanks again for all the help!!!
I just frost seeded 5 acres of CIR Switch over the weekend. Went real good. I am planning the next step which is the spraying. I re-read thru the how to at the beginning of the post, but wanted to make sure I spray when I am supposed to and what I am supposed to.
Do spray the Atrazene first? then a couple weeks after that spray the roundup. Or is is vice versa. What can I watch for to get the timing right?
thanks again for all the help!!!