Switchgrass

[Sligh1]

That TYPE of thing happens to me with ANY type of sprayer, disk, planter, spreader, etc- why I keep a variety of extra parts around AND I actually have 2 of everything (not expensive stuff)- my machinery looks like NOAH'S ARK, 2 of everything. Make sure you have a spare roller pump around too!
z
Last week, I broke a Fertilizer Cart and got that same cart with 13,000 lbs of fertilizer buried 2 feet deep in a soupy, soggy mess. I broke the hitch on my disk. My 200 gallon, 3 pt sprayer came off my 3 pt- fell down and cracked the bottom nozzels. I mudded in my 7000 planter, took a good hour to clean up and free things up. Flat tires, etc. I've learned to have 2 of EVERYTHING, keep a massive supply of tools, wire, pins, etc, etc in my tractor. I've also learned how to be McGyver and rig things up to finish a job, nurse it along just so I can finish.

 

[IQDM]

Fair warning to anyone who has attempted to kill cool season grasses with gly alone this spring...you may find you didn't get the job done....

Thanks Paul! I had dreams of finally being done with my spraying! :thrwrckang weather!

Fill your pumps with dsl fuel in the off season to help keep that from happening...

Thats a great tip! thanks :drink2:

 

[Central Iowa]

Ha, the exact same thing happened to me yesterday. Got in the field with 300 gallons of chemical only to find my pump is locked up. When I hit the pto it destroyed all my hoses.

I also learned to start with water and makes sure all is working before filling with chemical. Live and learn and hope you don't forget.

Also noticed decent growth on my going into the 4th year stand of switch Friday the 6th.

 

[spltbrow]

well after all my work i do see some switch starting to geminate in some areas. not as many as i had hoped but i should hopefully see more coming up in the next couple of weeks.
So far the oust seems to be working and everything is still looking pretty much dead from the gly i sprayed a while back.
Still keeping my fingures crossed for a come back on the switch!

 

[Sligh1]

well after all my work i do see some switch starting to geminate in some areas. not as many as i had hoped but i should hopefully see more coming up in the next couple of weeks.
So far the oust seems to be working and everything is still looking pretty much dead from the gly i sprayed a while back.
Still keeping my fingures crossed for a come back on the switch!

New switch always looks crummy, sparse and little as it STARTS GROWING on the 1st year- wait til August and it'll be totally different. Just wait my friend, it'll turn out awesome. what you're seeing is very normal.

 

[Qdmaer]

Anyone know what the succes rate of frostseeding switch into brushogged cornstalk ground trash? Put it on around 10lbs per acre and used simazine at dbltrees recomended rates. Thanks

 

[Sligh1]

Anyone know what the succes rate of frostseeding switch into brushogged cornstalk ground trash? Put it on around 10lbs per acre and used simazine at dbltrees recomended rates. Thanks

You've got 2 simple battles you probably can answer yourself. If your seed reached seedbed just fine and there's isn't too much trash to inhibit growth- you'll be fine. Simizine and atrazine need to make soil contact- trash ain't a good thing. Hopefully there ain't too much trash where your chems wouldn't get through. If you're good on those 2 levels, you'll have a great stand. If your simizine didn't get good/clear soil contact & it starts wearing off early as well- really wanna watch weeds and make sure it doesn't get taken over by foxtail, etc. Need plan B if your weeds start dominating

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Need plan B if your weeds start dominating

Our plan B if weeds start dominiating our first year switch (which it looks like they probably will ) is to spray 2-4d for the broadleave weeds and Paramount for the foxtail.

What stage should the switch be at before spraying 2-4d? I can't remember?

 

[Sligh1]

I think the 2-4d is able to be applied 3+ weeks after ur switch is going BUT by the time u'll need it in ur example u'll b well past that point and it's a non-issue- u'll b good.

 

[LoessHillsArcher]

Here are some pictures of one of the areas we seeded to switch this spring.

-burnt with fire March 4th
-seeded March 5th
-sprayed the 3qt Gly and 3 qts atrazine per acre on April 23rd... the gly has knocked back the cool season grasses but at spraying time the 4-8" tall grass didn't allow for great soil exposure for the atrazine and we've got some weed troubles... what we were told was correct, spraying just gly in the spring is going to more than likely lead to additional weed control (through mowing or herbicide) later on

Not the ideal seeding situation but just another example for others to see. At this point very little, if any switch is sprouted. I didn't even bother to look very hard.

 

[dbltree]

-sprayed the 3qt Gly and 3 qts atrazine per acre on April 23rd... the gly has knocked back the cool season grasses but at spraying time the 4-8" tall grass didn't allow for great soil exposure for the atrazine and we've got some weed troubles... what we were told was correct, spraying just gly in the spring is going to more than likely lead to additional weed control (through mowing or herbicide) later on

Thanks for bringing that up Jordan...it's just a good reminder for others who will read this thread in years to come. Thanks for posting the pics and keep us apprised on progress this summer...:way:

 

[whitetail fanatic]

Paul, or anyone, I wanted to burn our 3rd year CIR SG a week or so ago but never had time to get to it. If I get the chance, in the next day or two, should I still burn it? Like most areas of the midwest, we have been very cool this spring and most of the sprouts coming from the bases of the clumps are 3"-4" tall, but lots of them are only 1" to 2" still. Would it do more harm than good to burn this late, especially to the plants that have about 4" of growth, or will the SG bounce back without any harm? Would you suggest buring yet this late?

thanks

 

[dbltree]

Paul, or anyone, I wanted to burn our 3rd year CIR SG a week or so ago but never had time to get to it. If I get the chance, in the next day or two, should I still burn it? Like most areas of the midwest, we have been very cool this spring and most of the sprouts coming from the bases of the clumps are 3"-4" tall, but lots of them are only 1" to 2" still. Would it do more harm than good to burn this late, especially to the plants that have about 4" of growth, or will the SG bounce back without any harm? Would you suggest buring yet this late?

thanks

You can still burn without harming the switch right now Wes but not as it gets into June and July when burning would have a negative effect on the NWSG

 

[whitetail fanatic]

You can still burn without harming the switch right now Wes but not as it gets into June and July when burning would have a negative effect on the NWSG

Thanks Paul! After your reassurance, I burned it this evening, and my only regret is that I didn't have my camera! I will try to get some pics of what it looks like it now, but below are a couple pics from last fall (November) and this spring (March). There were some cool season grasses and goldenrod starting to creep in a few spots, but still mostly it was weed free and pure CIR SG, now the few cool season grasses and weeds there were have been wiped clean, nothing but a bare black ground with clumps of SG ready to take off!:way: The SG had anywhere from 2 to 6" of growth coming from the clumps. Where it was thick SG, some of it had barely started to send up new shoots because of all the shading from the tall dead thatch. Anyone who has never witnessed switchgrass burning, all I can say is WOW, it's amazing! Never burn switchgrass without adequate fire breaks. I thought I had plenty, yet there was one time where the 20' to 30' tall flames almost jumped the entire fire break!

November

March

 

[spltbrow]

nice pics. Tha first one is pretty cool.

I cant wait to get the switch reestablished on my new property, your stand looks pretty good.

 

[whitetail fanatic]

nice pics. Tha first one is pretty cool.

I cant wait to get the switch reestablished on my new property, your stand looks pretty good.

Thanks, it would not have been possible without all the advice from Paul on how to get it established:way:

I forget which pics I've already posted here, but here's some more if you are interested. This was last fall again, on the 2nd year stand of CIR SG. This gives a better idea of how tall it was as I'm looking in from the outside edge. It was 5.5 to 6.0 feet tall and very thick

This next pic was this past winter when the heavy snows had it practically flattened. It's amazing how much of it stood back up in March after the snows melted as you can see in the pic from March in the previous post. I can't wait to see how it stands up this next winter, should be a lot stronger this year after it's 3rd year of growth and a good late spring burn.

.


Pics after Friday's burn will be next.

thanks

 

[whitetail fanatic]

Here's the CIR SG field we burned 2 days ago on Friday eve. The clumps of SG are clearly visible. Some already have green shoots coming back up after the burn.

I have no idea how small patches like this pic shows could escape such a fire

I had a 5 foot strip tilled around two sides, the other 2 sides bordered worked up food plots with bare ground. I also had about 10' mowed just inside the 5 foot tilled strip, and I should have done about 20' instead. There were times when the 5' grass was on fire at the edge of where I had mowed inside the tilled dirt, and the flames were shooting out across to the other side of the tilled dirt and 5 to 10 feet beyond that!! Thank God nothing caught fire when that happened. Some of those flames had to be 20' to 30' long.

 

[whitetail fanatic]

Here is next year's burn, the field in the upper left of the first pic below (and another field just over the rise and out of sight in this pic). This summer will be it's 2nd growing season.

Here's some closer up pics of the growth on the 2nd year CIR SG.

These plantings got much weedier last year than the field I planted the year before because heavy rains washed the residual herbicide away so it was less effective. In this pic you can see a lot of tiny foxtail seedlings coming, but I'm hoping the 2nd year SG will shade out the foxtail this year and it should not be much of a problem once the SG gets some height on it. The growth on the one larger SG plant in this pic is way ahead of all the others I saw in this field. You can see the others next to it that are about half it's height.

The 1st year CIR SG didn't stand up too well last winter, but in this pic you can see a SG plant and a foxtail plant from last year still standing.

 

[spltbrow]

pretty sweet looking place! looks like you are making good progress. Wish my stands looked that good.

 

[spltbrow]

I am hopeing that my switch is being slow to germinate in the 10 acre field i am trying to revitallize. I have spots that are comeing up but not near what i would like to see. The ground is still very dead due to the early application of gly and then burned a few weeks later and then applied oustxp (2 oz per acr). Still keeping my fingers crossed or i geuss i will end up frost seeding next year.