SoDakarcher
Member
Switch revival
My 3 year old field of neglected switch was treated with Oust and Glyphos this spring. The place was nuked. All the cool seasons looked dead and I ended up with a switch stand of around 30%. The survivors are all 4-5 ft tall with lots of seed production. I think there are enough plants there to fill in the next few years. What would be your chemical approach for next year to keep the cool seasons and broadleaves at bay? Glyphos early with atrazine???
Thanks again for your help!
My 3 year old field of neglected switch was treated with Oust and Glyphos this spring. The place was nuked. All the cool seasons looked dead and I ended up with a switch stand of around 30%. The survivors are all 4-5 ft tall with lots of seed production. I think there are enough plants there to fill in the next few years. What would be your chemical approach for next year to keep the cool seasons and broadleaves at bay? Glyphos early with atrazine???
Thanks again for your help!
Daver
PMA Member
No, not in my opinion. I have had the best success in years past by spraying right about now to get a good kill on brome, etc, and then once more in early Oct if there is any green there whatsoever.
In fact, I plan on spraying a couple of areas this weekend in preparation for next spring.
filadencia
New Member
I do not know what is the advantages of planting Switch grass and corn together. Can you explain more about it?
Daver
PMA Member
I should add that I would spray Roundup now through mid-September on mowed sod BUT I would wait a bit for it to green up if you just mowed it. The best kills I have had have followed this pattern:
1. Mow the brome/CRP short in mid-August'ish. (We actually mowed some in late-July and some more in mid-August and since it was essentially bone dry during that timeframe there was little, if any, green growth out there UNTIL we got a couple of rains in the last 10 days or so.)
2. Let the brome green up a bit. This can take just a few days when the rains are good OR a couple of weeks or more if it is dry. The rain last weekend really helped our cause on our farm to green up the mowed areas and we will be hitting them hard with Roundup this weekend and I am confident that we will get a great kill.
3. Then hit it hard with Roundup once in early-to-mid September and maybe a second dose after a couple of weeks if there is still some green there.
If you mow it AND spray it immediately, then in my experience your kill will be diminished. I have done it out of time constraint necessity before, but it is far better to give it a little growth chance and then cream it.
Also, since switch doesn't normally sprout until about May 10th'ish each year, you can also safely spray in say late April to kill any lingering "green" that you may have. So frost seed the switch in mid-to-late February and then spray one last time in mid-to-late April and that will not harm the switch seed. CAVEAT...a wierd, warm winter/spring like this year had everything off the normal sequence. If you sprayed Roundup in late April this year you probably would have killed the newly growing switch.
dbltree
Super Moderator
A friend of mine burns his switchgrass every year in mid April and he maintains an amazing stand of switch!
I had to do some drilling there so stopped the drill along side the switch to give an idea of height
It's easily head high in much of the stand
a dense thicket of cover from which I have witnessed mature bucks jump from their beds and run as I drove close to them on the trail
Most effective for bedding when planted on hilly ground (versus lowlands) and larger fields of at least 5 or more acres but certainly switchgrass is a positive habitat improvement on any open field ground on the average farm. I would however not rate it better then thick, brushy habitat so where shrubby/tree/conifer type habitat can be encouraged or planted, end results will usually be better.
Preparation is critical and fall is the time to prepare by killing any sod grasses by first mowing, waiting for re-growth and then spraying with up to 2 quarts of glyphosate per acre by mid October. If tough fescue is present add crop oil and 1-2 ounces of Oust/Spyder/SF75 or other generic equivalent to nuke any competing cool season grasses.
Frost seed mid winter to avoid problems with dormant seeding and spray again with gly and either atrazine or simazine around the end of April... :way:
I had to do some drilling there so stopped the drill along side the switch to give an idea of height
It's easily head high in much of the stand
a dense thicket of cover from which I have witnessed mature bucks jump from their beds and run as I drove close to them on the trail
Most effective for bedding when planted on hilly ground (versus lowlands) and larger fields of at least 5 or more acres but certainly switchgrass is a positive habitat improvement on any open field ground on the average farm. I would however not rate it better then thick, brushy habitat so where shrubby/tree/conifer type habitat can be encouraged or planted, end results will usually be better.
Preparation is critical and fall is the time to prepare by killing any sod grasses by first mowing, waiting for re-growth and then spraying with up to 2 quarts of glyphosate per acre by mid October. If tough fescue is present add crop oil and 1-2 ounces of Oust/Spyder/SF75 or other generic equivalent to nuke any competing cool season grasses.
Frost seed mid winter to avoid problems with dormant seeding and spray again with gly and either atrazine or simazine around the end of April... :way:
Husker Freak
New Member
Ok...I have just recently purchased a new acreage (5 acres) to live on and the back 3.5 acres is currently weeds and sunflowers, there is also just under an acre of brome grass.I want to be able to frost seed this winter. If i get everything shredded off in the next week is it worth spraying or is it to late in the year? It has been very dry here also and no rain forecasted for atleast 10 days. Should i wait and spray gly in late April to kill off new weed growth? Thanks in advance.
Husker Freak
New Member
Thanks for the advice guys. I will get it sprayed yet this fall. Buring is out the question due to proximity but thanks for the suggestion.
dbltree
Super Moderator
September 28th, 2012
Some years back my son and I began the arduous task of clearing an inaccessible field of locust trees, frost seeding switchgrass and killing the old pasture sod with a back pack sprayer, all of which had to be hauled in by hand up a steep bluff. I think I was in better shape back then!!
The landowner and I decided to take a look at the field that neither of us had been in for several years and were not disappointed!
Surrounded by timber the tall switch and mixed NWSG is a buck magnet!
A total of 6 acres was seeded and I hand scattered 1 acres worth of NWSG mix that did equally as well
This field needs to be burned soon to keep invasives from taking over
As we walked it wasn't long before a beautiful buck exploded from the head high switch and in a few jumps was swallowed up in the sea of grass
We found his bed...
and a number of other beds in the tall grass
as usual, not a doe was seen..the tall grass however is extreme;y attractive to mature bucks who prefer complete solitude outside of the rut
The beauty of dormant/frost seeding switchgrass is that ordinary small hand tools/equipment can be used.in this case a $30 bag seeder and a $100 backpack sprayer did the job, albeit a big one I admit!
Prepare for frost seeding switchgrass by mowing the sod the summer before (August), spray in September/October while grass is green and re-growing from being mowed with 2 quarts glyphosate and 1 quart crop oil per acre. 1 ounce of Oust XP can be added in the fall only! Broadcast 5-6#'s per are of switchgrass seed in mid winter (late January thru mid March), spray again with 1 quart gly and 2-3#'s of simazine or atrazine by May 1st....if weeds are a problem, clip 8-12" high the first summer.... :way:
Some years back my son and I began the arduous task of clearing an inaccessible field of locust trees, frost seeding switchgrass and killing the old pasture sod with a back pack sprayer, all of which had to be hauled in by hand up a steep bluff. I think I was in better shape back then!!
The landowner and I decided to take a look at the field that neither of us had been in for several years and were not disappointed!
Surrounded by timber the tall switch and mixed NWSG is a buck magnet!
A total of 6 acres was seeded and I hand scattered 1 acres worth of NWSG mix that did equally as well
This field needs to be burned soon to keep invasives from taking over
As we walked it wasn't long before a beautiful buck exploded from the head high switch and in a few jumps was swallowed up in the sea of grass
We found his bed...
and a number of other beds in the tall grass
as usual, not a doe was seen..the tall grass however is extreme;y attractive to mature bucks who prefer complete solitude outside of the rut
The beauty of dormant/frost seeding switchgrass is that ordinary small hand tools/equipment can be used.in this case a $30 bag seeder and a $100 backpack sprayer did the job, albeit a big one I admit!
Prepare for frost seeding switchgrass by mowing the sod the summer before (August), spray in September/October while grass is green and re-growing from being mowed with 2 quarts glyphosate and 1 quart crop oil per acre. 1 ounce of Oust XP can be added in the fall only! Broadcast 5-6#'s per are of switchgrass seed in mid winter (late January thru mid March), spray again with 1 quart gly and 2-3#'s of simazine or atrazine by May 1st....if weeds are a problem, clip 8-12" high the first summer.... :way:
dbltree
Super Moderator
October 13th, 2012
Where and when possible it's hard to beat planting RR soybeans ahead of a native grass planting, doing so insures that multiple herbicide applications throughout the summer will kill any perennial sod grasses and leave a clean surface for either broadcasting or drilling NWSG seed in winter or early spring.
More often then not however we are converting sod such as existing CRP where planting crops is not an option and in these cases it works best to mow the cool season grasses in August and then nuke the resulting re-growth in the fall with a healthy dose of glyphosate!
Fall is the ultimate time to kill grasses because they are putting on root reserves and will suck up and contact herbicide and take it straight to the kill zone....the roots! Because of the drought this year, re-growth was significantly slower as grasses went dormant but we finally received enough rain to get some growth and I have been busy spraying...
Re-growth does not have to be very tall but it is important to allow enough growth to have significant leaf area for the gly to make leaf contact....
Significant rainfall today and warm fall days ahead, will spur growth making this a perfect time to finish up fall spraying. If you didn't have time to mow, it still pays to get the area sprayed this fall and in all cases spray again in April before switchgrass (or any NWSG) begins to grow in early to mid May.... :way:
Where and when possible it's hard to beat planting RR soybeans ahead of a native grass planting, doing so insures that multiple herbicide applications throughout the summer will kill any perennial sod grasses and leave a clean surface for either broadcasting or drilling NWSG seed in winter or early spring.
More often then not however we are converting sod such as existing CRP where planting crops is not an option and in these cases it works best to mow the cool season grasses in August and then nuke the resulting re-growth in the fall with a healthy dose of glyphosate!
Fall is the ultimate time to kill grasses because they are putting on root reserves and will suck up and contact herbicide and take it straight to the kill zone....the roots! Because of the drought this year, re-growth was significantly slower as grasses went dormant but we finally received enough rain to get some growth and I have been busy spraying...
Re-growth does not have to be very tall but it is important to allow enough growth to have significant leaf area for the gly to make leaf contact....
Significant rainfall today and warm fall days ahead, will spur growth making this a perfect time to finish up fall spraying. If you didn't have time to mow, it still pays to get the area sprayed this fall and in all cases spray again in April before switchgrass (or any NWSG) begins to grow in early to mid May.... :way:
KSHUNTER
PMA Member
I enrolled my property in WHIP, and will be planting to native this winter. The feild is currently in RR Beans, so I should have the perfect seed bed. My question is the field is about 8.5 acres, would it be best to have all switch, all NWSG, or split the area. I have about a six acre food plot that is pretty much in the center of my proerty and surrounded by brush on three sides, the field to be planted will be the last thing to "enclose" the food plot.
I leaning towards putting it all in switch, partially for cover reasons, and partially to block the veiw from neighboring properties and the road witch is about 500 yards away.
I leaning towards putting it all in switch, partially for cover reasons, and partially to block the veiw from neighboring properties and the road witch is about 500 yards away.
dbltree
Super Moderator
I would plant at least some pure switch along the edge of the plot because of it's winter standability. Switchgrass is easy to broadcast on the soybean stubble but the fluffy NWSG will require the use of a special drill or NWSG seeder. Nice to add some diversity with a mix but also pretty pricey nowadays...
does anyone know of a good spreader that can be used with an ATV or a UTV that can apply the right amount of switchgrass seed? I have a Yamaha grizzly and a polaris ranger. I am going to be frost seeding a 10 acre field in March and would prefer a faster method if possible as compared to a hand seeder. I know spreaders are good for larger seed, but switch is so small, I was curious if bigger seeders would even work for this. Feedback is appreciated.