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Questions on cedars and plowing up brome to let native weeds? grow?...

R

ryang

New Member
First Question for ya'all. Cedars...in the flood plain river bottom wide open brome area now but they flood pretty routinely in the spring...how long can cedars handle flooded conditions before perishing?

Second question....Areas of brome grass...brother would like to run the plow through then disc and let the "native dormant seed" grow. I'm thinking all we'll get is thistle and cocklebur. He thinks we'll get nice tall weed growth once we control the thistle, set us straight on this one!!
He's telling me it's a certified method for increasing habitat. I'm saying all he's doing is making more work.

Thanks for the help on this one (especially question two)!:way::drink2:
 
Cedars usually don't do well in wet areas but often trees like Norway spruce may.

Discing will encourage a flush of weeds...not usually NWSG....burning in late spring every year will be helpful in encouraging NWSG as will spraying with gly in mid April...;)
 
While it is true that native seed will stay dormant in the soil for a long time, it typically needs to remain undisturbed to come back. It will not outcompete the brome that is already there.

By simply disking without spraying and/or seeding will only cause a flush of junk weeds which will not benefit wildlife whatsoever...not to mention, that junk will be a lot tougher to manage in future years. If you want some natives, I would mow and spray the brome a couple times before disking...and then plant whatever mix floats your boat. If you want cover, plant switchgrass.
 
You need to just spray the sod and burn it off by mid-late april to get the true natives that you want. If the soil is worked, it will not be condusive to anything but annual weeds. Those native perennials in the seed bank just need some light to get going....DO NOT work it up if you are wanting NWSG in the seed bank to pop up.

If you are wanting annual weeds (which are great to have in some areas like that on the farm) then working the soil after spraying is the way to go.
 
JNRBRONC said:
I bet the regrowth after plowing/discing will be dominated by foxtail and giant rag weed.
Click to expand...

Half of my farm is in CRP and every year I rotate which three acres I am going to put into food plots. Every time I tear up brome I end up getting a pile of fox tail,velvet leaf, and other assorted weeds that I end up having to spray before planting. I am sure the "habitat" factor is better in these weeds than in brome but there is not much nutrition in either. Burning it off and drilling NWSG would give you the habitat you are looking for and choke out the less desirable weeds.
 
Thanks guys, Kind of what I thought. We're planting some additional Cave in Rock SW. this year. in some land that's already in round up beans. I'd really like to try broadcast frost seeding as we bought plenty of seed. Unfortunately the river may over run the bank and I'm worried the seed will be washed downstream???
 
Dbltree is right, your cedars probably will not do well in the bottomland you described, but if you can keep the deer off them and the competing grass down, norway spruce, black spruce, or balsam fir can grow in wet bottoms.

As for the bottomland grass I would try a CIR switchgrass frost seeding as late in the spring as you can but still get some frosting action. I would also add some prairie cordgrass plugs too if you can get them. They will tolerate serious flooding and are more likely to stay put during a flood.
 
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