Switchgrass

[dbltree]

Hi Dbltree,
I was wondering, could an established switchgrass field be harvested early summer for hay and still have enough growth potential to provide decent cover by the fall, given that it is harvested at a height greater than 8". How tall do you think it could get after that early harvest.
Thanks

NWSG is usually hayed mid to late summer, which allows time for some growth but unlikely it would reach 5-6' high

If I do some frost seeding of switchgrass (cave in rock) now and don't have the ability to get atrazine from a farmer, what are the odds it will do "ok"? Anyone have any luck with frost seeding and letting it grow with no chemicals? Will it just take more time to grow tall and thick? Or will it not take off hardly at all? Just curious if anyone has experience with this and what the results were. Obviously I know soil and rain will factor in to the equation as well.

Herbicide is not necessary to establish native grasses, it only helps speed up establishment. Usually mowing the first year will control weeds but obviously if mowed it will not reach full height, nor will it if it competes with weeds.

It just takes a little longer to get switchgrass to maximum height without herbicides but otherwise they aren't needed other then before planting to kill cool season grasses.

 

[Jbohn]

Paul- I have a plot I want to move in to cover. Last year I planted the ceral rye mix 4 acres worth , can I go a head and put my switch out and hammer it with round up in the spring. Will that kill the red clover . rye and oats so it doesnt crowd out the switch or should I wait. Thanks

 

[dbltree]

Paul- I have a plot I want to move in to cover. Last year I planted the ceral rye mix 4 acres worth , can I go a head and put my switch out and hammer it with round up in the spring. Will that kill the red clover . rye and oats so it doesnt crowd out the switch or should I wait. Thanks

Yep, just get it killed early and it should work fine :way:

 

[mswaldo]

How much Switch Grass to plant

I have an 80 acre area that i want to create more cover in. Right now it consists of a 10 acre hardwood stand, then working south a 15 acre grass area ( area 1 of 2 to create cover). South of that is another 30 acre hardwood stand. South of that is area 2 for creating cover, it is a 12 acre grass area and finally another 13 acre hardwood stand south of it. The hardwoods are not the thickest of cover, but TSI will be done.

My question after reading this very informative post is what to do with the 2 areas of grass. I want to plant CIR Switchgrass and will have 2 food plots of 4 acres each. It sounds like i shouldn't plant too much SG, but how much is too much. I have about 20 acres after the foodplots to do some improvements on. I am going to plant a screen along the road (red cedar, hybrid poplar, plum, and a couple others recommended in the brushpile on QDMA site.

What would you recommend on the 20 acres in this scenario? It was brome grass and is already mowed and will be burned when the snow melts. Do I spray again later in the year and prep for next spring?

Thanks

 

[dbltree]

First of all, switchgrass is most effective in large fields. 5 or more acres. I would encourage you to convert all of your open grass areas to switchgrass, unless you had future plans for tree plantings.

Now to prep for a switchgrass planting do the following:

Mow in August
Spray in September
Broadcast in February
Spray again in late April

Really, no point in burning since it's going to be mowed and sprayed in the late summer Good luck :way:

 

[SoDakarcher]

Dbltree,

In east central SD. Do you think I am late to frost see (overseed) a patch of switch that came in thin and could use a little fill. Was thinking maybe I would broadcast 4 or 5lbs per acre in the next week or so. Any thoughts? Always appreciate your opinions.

 

[dbltree]

Dbltree,

In east central SD. Do you think I am late to frost see (overseed) a patch of switch that came in thin and could use a little fill. Was thinking maybe I would broadcast 4 or 5lbs per acre in the next week or so. Any thoughts? Always appreciate your opinions.

No, anytime this month is usually ok, Mid February is optimum time to give 30 days exposure to cold wet chill but barring unusually warm, early spring weather you should be fine seeding now.

 

[mswaldo]

First of all, switchgrass is most effective in large fields. 5 or more acres. I would encourage you to convert all of your open grass areas to switchgrass, unless you had future plans for tree plantings

Thanks - I would like to plant it all to switchgrass. Next question. Is trying to plant 20 acres by hand (broadcast hand spreaders, spraying by hand, back packs and ATV) too big of a task or should it be drilled? and commercially sprayed?

Would you add anything to the Switchgrass or just do a pure stand? I want it mainly for deer cover, but would also like for the quail and pheasants to get around in it.

thanks again

 

[dbltree]

First of all, switchgrass is most effective in large fields. 5 or more acres. I would encourage you to convert all of your open grass areas to switchgrass, unless you had future plans for tree plantings

Thanks - I would like to plant it all to switchgrass. Next question. Is trying to plant 20 acres by hand (broadcast hand spreaders, spraying by hand, back packs and ATV) too big of a task or should it be drilled? and commercially sprayed?

Would you add anything to the Switchgrass or just do a pure stand? I want it mainly for deer cover, but would also like for the quail and pheasants to get around in it.

thanks again

20 acres is a big job by hand, I have done 6 acres but it was a major undertaking by hand. An ATV sprayer and spreader would make it doable however.

Contrary to what you may read, upland birds thrive in pure switch stands so not necessary to add other grasses and doing so would then require a native grass drill since the fluffy seeds are nearly impossible to broadcast.

We used our Land Pride pendulum spreader to dormant seed more switchgrass in February

We had a few inches of snow which allowed us to see the extremely tiny seeds...

and determine how wide of a swath that the seed was spreading which is not very far!

We set the opening on nearly the lowest setting and applied 10#'s of seed by traveling over the field twice, the second pass crossways to the first to insure even coverage.

All of this can be accomplished with a simple bag seeder in the exact same manner, set opening to barely let seeds flow thru and walk one way and then crossways to the first path. 1-3" of snow will allow you to see where you have been and get even coverage.

30 days of cold wet chill is helpful to insure stratification of hard dormant switchgrass seed making mid to late winter an ideal time to dormant seed switchgrass seed :way:

 

[Sligh1]

Whatcha think Paul..... Had some spotty Switchgrass germination BUT enough to have some sparse decent plants & because I blasted it with Atrazine, the area is pretty controlled for any junk in this circumstance (sparse due to drought & possibly some non-viable seed).....
The plants that were there did produce some decent seed heads. You think those plants themselves, sending out their seed would be enough to almost be equal to a frost seeding in those areas? (I know it's hard to explain & visualize without pics). Where I could simply go into those settings with a clean seed bed and only blast it with atrazine & round -up later & the new seeds would make it real thick? I'm thinking I'll overseed some more just in case BUT how do you feel about the effectiveness of existing plants frost seeding themselves if you also have the seed bed & a proper sprayer application? Sounds like common sense & no brainer to me but thought I'd ask a "semi obviously ?" Likely, instead of 10 lbs switch, I'll maybe do 3-4, thoughts?

 

[dbltree]

Yes, you should get some natural new growth but remember the seed is going to fall near the plant which doesn't allow it to "fill in" much. I would add a little additional seed to more evenly fill in the open areas Skip

 

[gatzow]

It has been a weird winter here in wisconsin. early snow, then a hard rain storm in January which sat in my field and froze with a thick 3-5 inch layer of ice. We just got a huge rain storm over the past week and my 10 acre field now has a solid 8-12 inches of water sitting on top of an ice layer covering over half of the field. Obviously I cannot frost seed with water covering most of the field.

My question is, if this were to happen next year after I plant the field, or in a few years, how will the switchgrass deal with all the water? The field normally is fairly wet after all of the snow melt, but it normally doesn't have this much standing water like this year. Will switchgrass be ok with some wet soil in march/april? It definitely dries out in spring but concerned with how it will react to the water for 1-2 months out of the year.
Pics below.

 

[dbltree]

Established switch has deep roots and can stand some flooding so probably fine but keep us posted.

 

[Scooter3148]

Hi Paul first time poster on this sight i follow you on outer sights . I have prepped my switchgrass plots last year with RR soybeans and they are pretty clean . Frost seeded cave in rock from Osenbaugh’s about 6 lbs /acre March 12 . They sent me some panoramic 2sl told me to spray at about 4 oz per acre by April 1st . after reading though the thread i am a little nervous about doing this . is this my best option or should i spray something else ? I don't have a license for atrazine thanks Scooter.

 

[dbltree]

Hi Paul first time poster on this sight i follow you on outer sights . I have prepped my switchgrass plots last year with RR soybeans and they are pretty clean . Frost seeded cave in rock from Osenbaugh’s about 6 lbs /acre March 12 . They sent me some panoramic 2sl told me to spray at about 4 oz per acre by April 1st . after reading though the thread i am a little nervous about doing this . is this my best option or should i spray something else ? I don't have a license for atrazine thanks Scooter.

4 oz is fairly safe on heavy clay soils but could be iffy on light sandy soils. If in doubt simply clip weeds off 8-12" high as needed the first year. Herbicides can speed up establishment but are by no means necessary for success.

 

[Scooter3148]

Spent my Easter morning spraying 4 oz of PANORAMIC on my frost seeded switch grass plot. Will keep you posted on how it turns out . left a small area untreated to see how that does compared to the rest of the plot . My next step will be to spray 5 quarts of round up around may 10th . Thanks for all the help along the way . Scooter

 

[Sligh1]

Spent my Easter morning spraying 4 oz of PANORAMIC on my frost seeded switch grass plot. Will keep you posted on how it turns out . left a small area untreated to see how that does compared to the rest of the plot . My next step will be to spray 5 quarts of round up around may 10th . Thanks for all the help along the way . Scooter

Not spraying Simizine Scooter? You should consider that if you can't get Atrazine. Really heavy rate, be a big help. DT- wouldn't you suggest something beyond just Panoramic, especially at such a low rate?

 

[Scooter3148]

thats what Osenbaugh’s recommended i put down when purchasing the cave in rock. but i am open to suggestions. They told me to use 4 oz panoramic by the 1st of April , then 5 quarts of round up around may 10th . this sound like a good plan ?

 

[dbltree]

thats what Osenbaugh’s recommended i put down when purchasing the cave in rock. but i am open to suggestions. They told me to use 4 oz panoramic by the 1st of April , then 5 quarts of round up around may 10th . this sound like a good plan ?

5 qts roundup???? More then1-2 qts per acre is completely wasted and I would spray May 5th just to be safe.

Keep us posted on how the 4 ounces Panoramic works out? I have used 2 ounces in split applications including with 2 quarts simazine but do to drought had no emergence so can't say if that is safe. No weeds though...

 

[Scooter3148]

ill go for the 2 quarts around the 1st of may . Will take some pictures along the way as the progress . I have clay soil here also ill keep you all posted .