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Warm Season Grasses

W

WASHIA

Guest
Thought I would share my experience with the warm season grasses I planted this spring. I planted approximately 60 acres. 15 acres was put into CIR switch and the rest was CP25 mix (big blue with 2 extra pounds of CIR). Prior to the planting 30 acres was brome and the rest was corn stubble. I started in late August last year by mowing the brome and spraying 2 weeks later. In the spring I had the leftover dead grass burned off (all that would burn). I then sprayed the 15 acres with 2 quarts atrazine and 1 quart dual with a little round-up to make sure the brome was dead. I sprayed the CP-25 planting with Journey. Because of weather delays the planting was done over a 2 week period in May. PF did the planting and from what I could tell did an excellent job. I had 1 mowing done in July. The CIR has a lot of foxtail in it but if you look close the switch is in there. I will spray atrazine and dual again next spring so the CIR should dominate next year. The CP-25 mix is very weedy but you can see several forbs and grasses starting. The PF rep said he could see some big blue that was 8 - 10 inches tall in July. For those of you looking to plant grasses I would recommend reading all post by Dbltree regarding warm season grasses. Paul has been extremely helpful in this process. He responded to all my questions very quickly and gave me the confidence that I was doing the right thing. IW is very lucky to have him. I have included a few pictures of the process.


Started off by burning the dead grass in April.

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Planting was done in May and this is what it looks like in August.
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View from the neighbor’s fence. Deer should have no problem hiding during gun season.
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Picture of CIR in the foxtail. Hopefully there will be more switch than foxtail next year.
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Plot next to one side of the switch planting. (soybeans and a mix of oats/field peas/tyfon brassica/austrian winter peas) This was another idea I got from Dbltree!. Hopefully this will pull the deer out of the grass during shooting hours!
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Great post and I couldn't agree more. Paul helped us a lot as well over the last year and I can't wait to see my switch next year. If it does as good as the field I planted last year, 6-7' tall this year it will be awesome.

I didn't mow last year so I ended up spraying my brome again this spring but I think it cost about the same. I went fall spray:spring burn: spring spray then mow in July. I have foot high switch growing in most areas already.

Thanks again Paul!

Tim
 
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