Establishing Switchgrass

[bigmike]

Guys,
I've been looking around for info on how to establish a switch grass field without doing tillage or drilling. I have been successful in the past by frost seeding onto bare ground but the new area will be old pasture. What chemicals will i need to spray and when will i need to spray them? I'm hoping to put the seed on the ground in the next few weeks. Is this strategy an acceptable method of starting my switch?

 

[Bill]

I believe for best results it should have been burned down in the fall. Followed with a dose of atrazine or simazine and gly again in early April. I've always establish it on fall burnt or last years beans. So all I can do is speculate. If everything worked out just right with timing and the ability to hit it with gly and atrazine in the early spring it could work.

No til drilling after a late spring burn down will also work if you buy stratified seed.

If no one can give you better info than this, I would highly recommend calling John Osenbaugh at http://prairieseedfarms.com/. He's probably the most versed guy I know on switch and he loves to talk about it. :)

 

[Orlando]

What kind of grass do you have now? If cool season grass like fescue or brome you should be able to frost seed then hit it with gly at first green up. Then plan on hitting again with gly in fall after NWSG goes dormant.

 

[JFK52]

I think without adequate site preparation, all you are doing is wasting your time and money. I do not believe the switch grass will establish itself. I did no spraying once my prairie was in. Rather, I used a controlled burn in the spring to get rid of all the competition.

 

[Tree Spud]

Guys,
I've been looking around for info on how to establish a switch grass field without doing tillage or drilling. I have been successful in the past by frost seeding onto bare ground but the new area will be old pasture. What chemicals will i need to spray and when will i need to spray them? I'm hoping to put the seed on the ground in the next few weeks. Is this strategy an acceptable method of starting my switch?

In a perfect world, I would follow Bill's approach. Unfortunately my world never operates on perfect ...

Last Feb I hand seeded my CIR into and old wheat field that was covered with snow. In the spring some wheat did come up buts lots of SG also came up. Had plants 2-2.5' tall first year.

SG is a warm season grass, and I believe will usually not emerge until ground is 60-65 deg F. So any stuff that starts to green up after the frost leaves could be sprayed. This should get many of your cold season grasses and broad leafs which you can use Glysophate for..

I'll let the other experts comment on the above if I an off. The link below has some good SG info ...
Switch Grass Basics

 

[tynimiller]

In a perfect world, I would follow Bill's approach. Unfortunately my world never operates on perfect ...

Last Feb I hand seeded my CIR into and old wheat field that was covered with snow. In the spring some wheat did come up buts lots of SG also came up. Had plants 2-2.5' tall first year.

SG is a warm season grass, and I believe will usually not emerge until ground is 60-65 deg F. So any stuff that starts to green up after the frost leaves could be sprayed. This should get many of your cold season grasses and broad leafs which you can use Glysophate for..

I'll let the other experts comment on the above if I an off. The link below has some good SG info ...
Switch Grass Basics

Will be doing similar to an old fallow section in a bedding chunk like Spud outlined above. I did gly it last late September to stunt some growth and somewhat fall burn. I am going to go in and rake it back clean during winter non-snowy time frame and will be frost seeding onto that bed probably in early March-ish. We'll see how it does.

 

[Tree Spud]

Will be doing similar to an old fallow section in a bedding chunk like Spud outlined above. I did gly it last late September to stunt some growth and somewhat fall burn. I am going to go in and rake it back clean during winter non-snowy time frame and will be frost seeding onto that bed probably in early March-ish. We'll see how it does.

Just a suggestion, you may want to consider spreading in Feb when there is snow on the ground. As the snow melts, it will draw the SG into soil contact. An early planting also provides the wet cold dormancy period that required to help it break its dormancy.

 

[tynimiller]

Oh no doubt. We'll have snow through March. I was most likely gonna just do it whenever we get a snow after raking it which I'm doing this week as we have just a dusting present currently. So could seed it as early as this week even but doubt life allows way it is looking.

 

[Orlando]

I broadcast-frost seeded a couple acres in Feb on bean ground and got a great stand. Mowed weeds early first year then have done nothing else.
I drilled into 20 acres of brome CRP in March. Sprayed gly at first green up and had a fair kill on the brome. Then sprayed gly in fall and got a good kill. NWSG is really coming on now. I would have preferred to do a fall burn down, drill early spring then hit with gly again. But the CRP program did not give me that option.

 

[bigmike]

Thanks for your replies. All good ideas.

 

[buckdeer1]

Switch is a non bearded seed so it can be drilled or broadcasted usually.If ground is free enough of vegetation I like to broadcast before a snow and it will grow.On the old QDMA site there was a thread on comparing frost seeding and drilling in the spring and the growth rate was better when frost seeded.Part of this may be because you are basically stratifying the seed VS only a percentage of the seed drilled in the spring sprouts then some will stratify the next winter and sprout then.Another plus with switch is I think it stands up better to snow and grows in about all types of soil.I used cave in rock and blackwell but you can find what grows best in your area.In fact I have some to frost seed but since we are breaking a record for most days with no moisture that hasn't happened yet

 

[WTNUT]

What kind of grass do you have now? If cool season grass like fescue or brome you should be able to frost seed then hit it with gly at first green up. Then plan on hitting again with gly in fall after NWSG goes dormant.

Are you saying Gly does not kill or harm switchgrass?


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[WTNUT]

I too want to do a switchgrass field, BUT I can not burn the field ever. There is a natural gas well in the middle of it and I don’t really want to burn and run the risk of a big fire. So, can you have a SG field and not burn to establish or maintaine?


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[Mortenson]

Burning is the best, but mowing yearly or every other year is a decent alternative. My switchgrass won't be burned either. I believe Native Hunter has stated he only mows.

 

[Orlando]

Are you saying Gly does not kill or harm switchgrass?


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No. Gly will kill switch grass. But, if you have cool season grass like fescue or brome, it will green up first while the native warm season grasses remain dormant. So, the cool season can be sprayed and killed while the NWSG like switchgrass is still dormant and unaffected.