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The quail zone

Amazing what a little roundup can do to fescue and quail habitat. Also jumped a fawn out of the wildflower photo when taking that pic.



 
Another plant I think that is HIGHLY undervalued for all around wildlife use are the perennial, native sunflowers. Deer pound it on my place, starts growing early as March and blooms profusely for pollinators. Not counting the highly nutritious seeds.

 
I bought a boomless sprayer for doing the same kind of projects on our farms a few years back. Its been working great to keep the cool season grass at bay. One thing I just tried last fall was after a hard freeze spraying some of my pollinator habitat that was planted 4yrs ago that had a lot of grass coming in it. Then as soon as I could in early April we burned it. I don't know yet if that was a good idea. My plan was to kill the grass and remove the duff with fire and have bare ground areas for weeds to come. Do you guys burn off those areas or just leave the dead duff?
 
Rutcon said:
I bought a boomless sprayer for doing the same kind of projects on our farms a few years back. Its been working great to keep the cool season grass at bay. One thing I just tried last fall was after a hard freeze spraying some of my pollinator habitat that was planted 4yrs ago that had a lot of grass coming in it. Then as soon as I could in early April we burned it. I don't know yet if that was a good idea. My plan was to kill the grass and remove the duff with fire and have bare ground areas for weeds to come. Do you guys burn off those areas or just leave the dead duff?
Click to expand...

Early November is the best time to get a good kill on fescue in my area. Also, the native's are dormant then so they are not touched.

Fall produces a great kill with roundup since the plants are drawing down for root reserves.
 
Just found this thread and thought I'd bring it back from the dead.

Daver, I'd love to know how things have gone with your quail habitat and how the population has responded over the past 6 years.

I have 12 acres I'm restoring to oak savanna and pollinator habitat. I'm gearing it toward pheasants and quail with the hope that most other species will benefit as well. Quail are all but gone from my area of Eastern Iowa but I'm hoping to hold a covey on my property. There's a pretty good amount of pheasants around already due to some pretty decent CRP in my area.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading this thread if anyone cares to add more to it.
 
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