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Switchgrass

Open soil not only helps, but is key in my opinion, for successful frost seeding. (That whole seed to soil contact thing actually is important..).
 
For all the no-till craze (and I understand the benefits), I can tell you side-by side that switchgrass prep that incudes LIGHT/MINIMAL tillage will outperform doing nothing in a cool season grass conversion situation. (Yes there are situations and soil types that it doesn't make a difference).

I am not talking about discing down 6"+. I am talking about couple inches max, just roughing up the surface. The weeds that can come out of doing that are extremely easy to deal with. I think it does 2 things. It improves soil to seed contact and prevents run-off/seed dispersal as the roughness of the ground catches seed. (I frost seeded a farm this winter with zero tillage that had hillsides and I have way more switch towards bottom of hills than at top so it def moved downhill)

This is posted on page 73 of the thread but here is my case study. Red was a logging path that I roughed up to get rid of ruts. Yellow was not touched. This was a converted brome field that was fall killed. This is the following fall after year 1 of a frost seed. The whole field was planted at the same time the same way.

As you can see the strip that had light tillage (red arrow) had far better germination and was twice as tall as the untouched portion (yellow arrows).



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Quick question. I am converting some of my lawn to switch and I have sprayed 3 times in the last two months. Am I going to need to do anything else? Till, rough up the soil?

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Disappointed ! What I thought was great switch grass turns out was Foxtail. (First year ever trying to plant it) I frost seeded it, used pre herbicide kept mowed.

Sure looked like switch. Is it worth seeing what happens next year? Or start over.
 
I thought some I frost seeded winter of 2020 was nothing but foxtail but let it go this spring, applied oust and a good stand showed up this summer. I'd say leave it
 
iowathumper said:
Disappointed ! What I thought was great switch grass turns out was Foxtail. (First year ever trying to plant it) I frost seeded it, used pre herbicide kept mowed.

Sure looked like switch. Is it worth seeing what happens next year? Or start over.
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I hear ya bud...I still feel like switch is actually a mythological creature...i have maybe seen 3 switch plants...my plan is to smoke all the cool season stuff come october/november....spread more switch feb/march....kill all the spring stuff and see what happens then....my fear is in my area it got very dry early on and anything that may have germinated might have died, or its hiding in plain sight, so either way my plans will hopefully get me headed on the right path next year
 
Did a little preseason walk today making sure stands are ready. Here is this year's frost seeded switch. Mowed three times. Simazine before green up. Should I frost seed over the winter and spray and pray in the spring? Thanks in advance.
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Incredibly short on time this fall.... so went ahead and sent order into the co-op to burn down 14 acres of fescue with atrazine in preparations for drilling switch next year.
Anxious to have another section of cover in place.
 

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I am trying to deal with this now. ( I know it is hunting season so I am willing to forego it for habitat in the spot). I have mowed it down. There maybe switch there but it is hard to tell. Should I spray it or just drill it and frost seed and spray just before green up? How would you handle this?
Thanks in advance,
 

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Sligh1 said:
That’s frustrating!!!
go in and frost seed it this year. Eliminate the possibility of it being drilled too deep. That is a pretty common one. Frost seed a nice thick amount of seed…. Do 2 varieties (kanlow & CIR for example).
Other possibilities on why things fail beyond planting too deep…
1) seed that was not stored right at some point in process from harvest to seeding.
2) got wet enough to germinate & then it dried out from lack of rain. We did experience this in iowa in June this year.
3) with germinating & drying out…. Soil types impact this. Extremely good soils can tolerate this better. Mediocre soils don’t have tolerance for the dry conditions.
This year- if seed did germinate at that wet point in June & it did dry out- likely lost some or all of what germinated. I know I lost some seed this year to that big dry spell.
4) seed not stratified…. Need freeze/thaw cycle many times over. Some switch has thick hard seed coat that will not germinate without it. Lot of variables on why this is & when seed is or isn’t like that.

bottom line: probably one of above or possibly something else going on. Let’s get it frost seeded with 2 varieties in February next year. Do not give up.
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Skip, Should I do that in mine? I frost seeded, simazine/gly and mowed 4 times. I just mowed it again this weekend. Should I nuke it and turn the ground over? Any help would be great. Here is a pic.
 

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Can anyone tell me if this is Cave in Rock switchgrass? We planted around 12 acres and this dominates the fields.
 

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That would be a big bummer. We frost seeded then sprayed with Simazine, 2-4d, and glyphosate. The ground was brown until mid June. Between this and the foxtail, I am not sure if there is anything else in the fields.
 
hoytshooter03 said:
I am trying to deal with this now. ( I know it is hunting season so I am willing to forego it for habitat in the spot). I have mowed it down. There maybe switch there but it is hard to tell. Should I spray it or just drill it and frost seed and spray just before green up? How would you handle this?
Thanks in advance,
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Not sure what all that fine stemmed grass is but I have a TON in our fields as well. It grows like crazy in newly disced/tilled soil.
 
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