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Oak Savannas

The smallest of these trees are in the 4' range with the tallest at about 10'. Switchgrass generally is around 6' so it won't be long before these oaks are towering over the switch. Not to mention, it will be 2 years before that switchgrass is at full height and thickness.
Not too sure if it would be a good idea to establish seedling oaks and natives at the same time tho.
 
Here are some pictures of my new oak savannah project. This is a small oak planting that I have seeded into switchgrass and will be hitting with gly and atrazine very soon. I can just picture a brute bedded under one of those oaks and one day lapping up the acorns that they produce. :rolleyes:
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The area in the pictures above is a small area that was planted into oaks 6 years ago or so... The oaks are doing fine, but there is never any deer using this area... Why? The answer is simple! There is no cover!
How do we fix this quickly and permanantly? Switchgrass...
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I will not be able to burn this oak savanna for many years because the trees are still very young. But with mowing and herbicides, I will be able to grow oaks and hold deer with thick cover at the same time!

Here is another Oak savanna... I converted this woods from a standard "not very thick / not very productive" woods
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I thinned the woods out by cutting mostly non oak species and then burned, prepped the ground and frost seeded.
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Today this is what the woods looks like
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I planted switchgrass in the more open part of the woods, and Little bluestem in the part of the woods that recieved less sunlight.
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The little bluestem did not come in as well as the switch grass, but that is due to the thicker canopy cover of oak trees above. The little bluestem is doing just fine as compared to nothing which was what was there before.
It sure is cool to stand back and look at a project once it has come full circle! Makes you feel pretty good :way:
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2 years ago I started yet another Oak savanna project...
This area was an old cow pasture that had been taken over by cool season grasses. When we took over the property I immediatly planted a large food plot here. However, as I grew as a manager and read fourm posts from you all, I quickly realized that cover is what I really needed in this spot!
This is what it looked like when I planted it in the spring of 2010.
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I sprayed round up and atrazine for weed control the first year. There were some weeds that came up but nothing too bad.
Spring of 2011...
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This spring I sprayed Oust xp at a very heavy rate 2oz per acre and I would say that it was too much! IMO I should have only gone with 1oz...
Compared to other switchgrass plantings where I only sprayed RU and atrazine, this stand seemed to be held back by the oust and had very slow growth in comparison to other stands.
In the end it didnt matter because it looks great now! and totally weed free to boot!
Just keep in mind that oust is very strong and I wouldnt be using it on SG unless the stand is well established (more than 2 years old) :way:
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In 2007 when we purchased our property, we made a list of things that we felt we were missing as far as key habitat elements.
The top 2 on the list were evergreen trees for thermal cover and Native Warm Season Grasses for fawing and bedding cover.
There were few evergreens and not one NWSG plant.
With only 130 acres to work with, and most of the property being low swampland, we had to be creative in coming up with areas to establish these elements.
We chose an area that had recently been logged and as well as a pond established. The bright red outlines this area...
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It is not advised to mix NWSG with evergreen plantings because normally fire is used as a tool to maintain the grasses. Burning is certainly not an option if spruce or pines are mixed in! However, there are still ways to maintain the grasses without burning, such as mowing and herbicides. having only 130 acres, we decided to try it and see if we can make it work!
This is what the area looked like when we started (after the pond was dug)
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In the fall right before the first snow, we transplanted a bunch of white spruce from a near by farm.
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Then the next spring we frost seeded NWSG in the entire area. We chose to go with Little Bluestem and Switchgrass due to their ability to hold up better in the harsh Wisconsin winters!
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Now 2 growing seasons later, this is what it looks like... The Little bluestem does not grow as tall, so we used that inbetween the trees, and used switch grass up on the hill where there were no trees planted.
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Little Bluestem is IMO the prettiest grass out there! I am more than pleased with how it came in and am very excited to see how these two habitat elements (NWSG/Spruce) work together to help make a home for the deer using my property!
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All I can say is WOW! Incredible habitat and amazing changes in your cover thanks to all your hard work!! Thanks so much for the great pictures and sharing what you have learned! :way:
 
All I can say is WOW!


Same here!! Looks fantastic and I agree on the little bluestem, the red color it gets in the fall is jaw dropping. :way:

Any plans for a few native wildflower patches IQDM...if so...what you are going to plant?
 
DT have you noticed any ill effects while using higher rates of oust xp on sg?

It depends on the soil....heavier clay soils can handle higher rates then light soils. So far I have not had negative results using 2 ounces of Oust XP in early April on established switchgrass.

I use one ounce of Oust the fall before a new switch seeding so higher rates would be safer applied in August for instance rather then October.

I appreciate you sharing your own results so others may want to use some caution as well, although it appears that in the end the switchgrass was an outstanding success! :way:
 
Same here!! Looks fantastic and I agree on the little bluestem, the red color it gets in the fall is jaw dropping. :way:

Any plans for a few native wildflower patches IQDM...if so...what you are going to plant?
I haven't really drawn any plans up yet... what would you recommend? How big of an area would be a minimum size? I'm thinking I could do a few odd corners here and there? or would it have to be bigger? (we might have to move this convo to the NWSG thread :way:)
 
I really want to make an oak savanna someday. I see pasture farms all the time that would be perfect candidates. So cool looking.
 
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