Switchgrass into corn stubble

[homegrownbucks]

I got a new piece of property last fall that had RR corn on a field, that is now corn stubble and trash. Would it do any good to frost seed CIR into that? If not, is there any prep (disk, mow??) I could do now that the snow is mostly melted to still frost seed this spring?

Thanks

 

[dbltree]

You might run a brush cutter over it to chop the stalks first but I wouldn't disc it and stir everything up...that will only encourage weed growth.

If you can borrow or rent a no-till prairiegrass drill from Pheasants Forever that would work better to cut thru the trash.

Broadcasting will work fine though, the tiny seed will sift down thru the stalks just fine. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[Crimson Arrows]

I had my 5 acres planted by frost seeding last February into corn stubble and for a first year stand it looks really good!

 

[homegrownbucks]

Did you use atrazine? I am planning on using it pre-emergent plus using roundup for the early weeds that show up. When should I use the atrazine?

 

[dbltree]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">When should I use the atrazine? </div></div>

Early April before weeds/grass emerge thru late April if using a burndown along with it. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[homegrownbucks]

Well I don't have anything to show for my SG plant as far as I can tell, now what?

I am thinking of waiting until it freezes a few times and the SG is done growing (oct-nov), spraying with round up, and either drilling some seed in next spring or rebroadcasting more seed over the top late fall or winter next spring.

Nothing much growing:

Grass weeds but no SG as far as I can tell:

 

[dbltree]

What all did you spray and when?

 

[Sligh1]

Doesn't look like nothing to me. I think you COULD have more switchgrass there than you realize. Sometimes the plantings don't have as much on top as other plantings. Yours MIGHT have put down more of a root system this year and could surprise you next year. I'm guessing you have more switch there than you think. I could be wrong though.
*IF it were me, I'd frost seed more switch in there, hit with heavy atrazine (maybe round-up too before switch germinates). Dbltree will have far better suggestions BUT that's what I'd do.
*Ok, I didn't read the timing of your sprayings. Yeah, that's going to be the million dollar question?

 

[SEIowaDeerslayer]

Did you use atrazine? I am planning on using it pre-emergent plus using roundup for the early weeds that show up. When should I use the atrazine?

If you used Roundup for the early weeds, you probably killed the switchgrass if it had germinated already. From what I've been told, all you have to do is frost seed, wait until early spring, hit the area with Atrazine, and you're good to go.

 

[homegrownbucks]

We sprayed a combo of roundup and princep in the last week of april, not sure of the exact date but it was before may 1 for sure. This is western wisconsin and at the time we sprayed, only a few weeds were starting to come up in the field (as it has been a cornfield prior)

I frost seeded the spot within a week of my original post in march, and we did have several freeze/thaw cycles after that.

 

[dbltree]

I did have several people from both MI and PA contact me to say they had known switchgrass coming up by that time frame which surprised even me.

It is possible that some that some or all got nuked at that time but I find it hard to believe there is NONE??

Extremely dormant seed can require over 30 days to stratify so possibly it didn't have quite enough time.

Anything is totally just guess work at this point but...if I was in your shoes I would clip weeds this summer. Frost seed in Febuary if possible and re-apply atrazine next spring.

I really hestitate to reccomend applying any glyphosate in case there is some switch in there.

It's easy to tell without mowing once the switch forms seed heads but mowing makes that difficult.

It's odd for sure because I have never seen switch fail to come up at ALL

 

[iowaqdm]

You'll be fine. Just keep the weeds mowed and you'll have a nice stand. You did everything right as far as seeding and spray times. Sometimes it seems like nothing is there and then it just explodes from the ground in August when the temps are consistantly high. I had a spot that looked like yours a couple years ago where in mid July it looked like nothing was there and by the end of August it was waist high. NWSG seedings require patience and some TLC the first couple years.

 

[homegrownbucks]

Well this did come up, the stuff I thought was junk blew up and now I have some switch that is 4 to 5 feet tall in spots! Overall it was a success, got a lot more planned for this spring.

 

[dbltree]

Looks like it finally took off! Thanks for sharing the pics..it'll be even better next year...:way: