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Who plants switchgrass?

Yep- get on their website and contact way in advance. They reduced some of their work force who did this and they are swamped. Nice part about switchgrass is you can use an agricultural no-till drill to plant it as well. So, if you find a farmer who has a drill to plant alfalfa or clover, it'll work for you. Make sure you get it in the ground while thaw/freezing is still taking place. February, early March. You can also find some habitat contractors that can do it. Most folks (habitat specialists), make what I feel is a mistake, in my opinion, of planting too late where too much of seed won't stratify and germinate. What part of state you in? There's also a Conservation Board that loans or rents out no-till drills in most counties SO it just might be a case of finding a tractor to use and renting it.
 
Do you think it is better to frost seed or drill? I know this is a big discussion but i am planning on frost seeding about 7 acres this year, and that seed is not cheap.
 
Drilling is better, IMO, but nothing wrong with frost seeding. The advantages of drilling is accurate, MUCH FASTER seeding that also cuts through trash. If I had clean bean ground and less than 5 acres, I'd hands down frost seed it. Anything over 5 acres, just gets to be a lot of time. You can generally seed a bit lighter while drilling. So- drilling has clear advantages BUT frost seeding sure is a viable option in many situations and I'll continue to do both.
 
I seem to have better results drilling by no means an expert my frost seedings have not turned out near as well as anything I drilled.​
 
I have great luck broadcasting NWSG in late winter. The difference I see is you get more visual growth the first season if they are drilled. By year 3, you cannot tell what was drilled and what was broadcast.
 
I successfully frost seeded an acre of it three years ago. Have 2 more acres worth of dead stuff prepared to do it again this winter!
 
I am looking to get some switchgrass planted on a farm and was wondering if you could go ahead and drill it in right now with the ground being soft still. Do you think this would work with the prospect of freezing/thawing ahead? I don't want to waste money but I'm thinking that drilling in switch might be affective with these current conditions allowing it to stratify in the next three months. Just a thought, someone who knows please advise!
 
If you have good conditions to get your tractor and drill out there, no reason at all you can't plant right now. I am going to plant mine the second Jan 10th comes with the end of deer season but if deer season was done right now, I'd be out there tomorrow planting my switch. Obviously you could wait til Feb, March but if you're crunched for time like I am, get it done now & it'll be great.
 
I have never used a drill before and it would be great if i could seed here real shortly. If we get some freezing temps will the drill go through any frost or does the ground have to be TOTALY thaw? It is going to get calder the beggining of this week but 40's at the end of the week. I still have to order seed.
 
spltbrow said:
I have never used a drill before and it would be great if i could seed here real shortly. If we get some freezing temps will the drill go through any frost or does the ground have to be TOTALY thaw? It is going to get calder the beggining of this week but 40's at the end of the week. I still have to order seed.
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I was talking to DT about this earlier... You can plant in whatever as long as it's not like 8" of snow or something silly. If the ground is hard or whatever, no problem. The drills don't really plant very deep anyways. A lot of seed winds up on the surface. As long as you're seeding before the freezing & thawing takes place (say like mid to late March) you'll be in great shape. I'm going to drill some in the second deer season is done and as long as it's not a muddy wet mess or a ton of snow, I'm going full steam.
 
Sligh1 said:
The drills don't really plant very deep anyways. A lot of seed winds up on the surface. QUOTE]

Will it matter if i have a lot of trash on the ground. I have some stuff that i mowed and there is a lot of thatch on top of the ground, thus the reason i decided to drill instead of frost seeding. Most of the 7 acres is somewhat clear due to me killing it last year.
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Also how hard is it to use a drill? I'm geussing not that difficult, but i am wandering with $800 of seed at stake if i should find someone to seed it for me.
My neighbor does habitat work so i was thinking about hireing him.
 
Drill will cut right through the trash. Obviously a ton of trash isn't good but still do-able. Part of problem with a lot of trash is spraying atrazine in April, wanting good soil contact. I have some areas with trash as well, if there's any chance of burning it off before I can seed it- I'll try but I am not counting on that. I'll likely just go really heavy on atrazine. But ya, I'd just drill right through the stuff.

NOT HARD to use a drill. Really, if you have someone that will set your seeding rate to what you want and depth to what you want (shallow)- just plug the hydraulics in, drop er down and you're golden. Only trouble I've had is I've rented drills that were all plugged up and poor maintenance but that's not real common. I'd just ask your guy to set the seed rate and depth at your desired level and rock & roll. have him spend 5-10 minutes with you on it. There may be some safety metal blocks that you'll need to know how to take off so drill can be lowered down- owner can show you fast. Other than that, I can't think of anything?!?!?? Oh... make sure your hydraulics match the male inputs coming from hoses on drill. Worst case is spending $10 on 2 of the right kind and switching out. Easy stuff.
 
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