Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Types of grasses for wet arteas?

R

rackhunter

Member
I am looking for suggestions on available grasses i can plant in low areas along timber edges for additional cover?
 
I would look at Cave in Rock switchgrass AND I would STRONGLY look at Eastern Gamagrass. Let me know if you need a dealer name. Eastern gamagrass will be about the best option out there for wet areas and CIR switchgrass will be a nice second best- if we're talking pretty wet ground. Eastern Gamagrass needs a regular corn planter to plant. Some folks might go with Canary grass BUT I would not plant that. good luck!
 
If it is very wet ground, like almost swamp ground, switch won't do very good there. Reeds Canary grass will do great there though. Not a popular grass like skip said, but it will be the best in the wet area's.
 
The ground is all located at the bottom of hill sides along creeks. The side hills currently have grass and cedars on them and I mowed and sprayed the bottom areas so i can have some addtional cover since their is no cedars or trees t=in these areas.
 
Does it flood? If it's really wet, I highly suggest Eastern gamagrass like I said. If it doesn't flood and just damp, CIR switch will do just fine.
 
Prairie Cord Grass is your BEST option if you want a NATIVE that will grow in wet areas. You can buy plugs to plant and it will spready from the rhizomes. It grows in drainages on upland soils too.

Eastern Gama is my favorite native grass tho and that area sounds like either of those two would do. Also, switch should grow in that area. If you know which grass is growing there now, that really helps figure out what you can plant to add more cover. Say its fescue, that would suggest that any of the native grasses I listed would work.
 
nannyslayer said:
If it is very wet ground, like almost swamp ground, switch won't do very good there. Reeds Canary grass will do great there though. Not a popular grass like skip said, but it will be the best in the wet area's.
Click to expand...


I have that crap and am trying to get rid of it....its a nuisance for a habitat manager.
 
Gama is a HIGHLY productive native that is like ice cream to cattle so be careful with it if you have cows on the farm or close by. It cannot take heavy grazing pressure for long periods....has to be flash grazed.

Here is a pic of a wild one I found growing with brome/fescue. I woud say it would produce a bit more tonnage per acre for cattleman huh? :D

untitled1.jpg
 
This is my Ford Escape parked behind 1 gama grass plant, just think if this was a 20 acre patch!! While walking through it, it sure seemed like a jungle plant more than a native....but it is. By spring, it will not still be standing though. Great pheasant cover for winter.

000_0383.jpg
 
These plants are 6 feet tall to the blades and 3 years old....they do very well on my soils. The seed heads are easily 8-9 feet tall.

100_1496.jpg
 
Here is a pic of prairie cord grass, I could not find any good pics of it on the web so I will have to take some of my own here shortly.

110128145406-large.jpg
 
nannyslayer said:
If it is very wet ground, like almost swamp ground, switch won't do very good there. Reeds Canary grass will do great there though. Not a popular grass like skip said, but it will be the best in the wet area's.
Click to expand...

That's about the worst advice I've ever heard. Reed canary grass is the most invasive grass we have in the US. It is short and provides little cover for deer, takes years to kill off once you discover that it's spreading everywhere and choking everything out, and offers zero nutritional value.

There are plenty of wetland plants you can use. Too many to name. Do a google search.
 
Sligh1 said:
Some folks might go with Canary grass!
Click to expand...
NOOOOOOO Sligh!! Don't even mention it! :thrwrck:lol ;) that stuff is more invasive than anything and it is flat as a pancake by december! I planted CIR in a pretty wet area last year and is seems to be doing ok so far. I would kill for some Prairie cordgrass! $75 a lb is just plain rediculous tho! Either way any native grass that grows in a wet area will be better than RCG. :way:
 
I was recommending against it. I bet it will get recommended to him, why I mentioned it. Agreed.
Still say Eastern Gamagrass is the ticket!
 
Sligh1 said:
I was recommending against it. I bet it will get recommended to him, why I mentioned it. Agreed.
Still say Eastern Gamagrass is the ticket!
Click to expand...


Eastern gama can grow in moist or dry soils...its is a great all around NWSG. :way:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom