Miscanthus Gigantus....for bedding?

tynimiller

5 year old buck +
I was discussing switchgrass and such with a buddy and he started telling me of a friend of his farm where they literally planted 100's of rhizomes per acre, by year 4 the area was incredible he claimed. I asked him to get some pictures but has this crossed anyone's minds?

I mean I've had great luck with getting rhizome survival this year and I did nothing for weed control and they're doing great in their first year...

Thoughts?
 
I planted some in a switch field this spring hoping for what you are talking about. I have some planted in some switch screens that's 2-3 yrs old and doing decent.
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I think a field of MG would be hard to beat. I've thought of it just never took the the time.
Scott's look good for growing in switch grass which competes pretty hard for moisture, nutrients and grows tall blocking the sun.

Often thought if you started with a field of clover and scattered MG in 8 to 10 foot blocks it would be a magnet. It might actually be counter productive to hunting though. You may never get them to come out of it until the rut.

I'd love to see pictures of the place you describe. That has to look awesome!
 

I've watched this video from Maple River Farms a few times. Looks like a nice way to create bedding out in the middle of a field.
 
I think it could be awesome, a dry land swamp if you will. Just need to consider spacing, I would want natural regeneration to come up as well, perhaps with tighter MG spacing on the perimeter. Don't know anyone who has done it, I do know off some pheasant clubs who plant tall patches of hybrid sorghum and the deer run circles around the pheasant hunters, seem to love it for bedding
 
Maybe plant it in "islands" in a sea of switchgrass and put in some long winding plots could be really interesting.
 
Maybe plant it in "islands" in a sea of switchgrass and put in some long winding plots could be really interesting.
This is kind of what I did this last spring, we have some smaller Ash trees on the edge and in a switch planting that I hinged and planted MG in and around them. I don't have any pics from this summer but here's some from this spring.

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I have officially decided that if I can get an area prepped this next year after season but before spring green up I'm gonna try it on a spot about .5 acre to .75 acres in size to start. I'm also planting an area just North of this in switch/blue stem mix this next spring...should that fail by 2020 I'll start plugging MG in the ground throughout it as well.

Long term project but I'll track it all hopefully if I can.
 
I have officially decided that if I can get an area prepped this next year after season but before spring green up I'm gonna try it on a spot about .5 acre to .75 acres in size to start. I'm also planting an area just North of this in switch/blue stem mix this next spring...should that fail by 2020 I'll start plugging MG in the ground throughout it as well.

Long term project but I'll track it all hopefully if I can.

No need to prep prior to green up. After green up hit the area/s you want to plant with gly and Simazine. (Atrazine if you can get it) gly will kill green and simazine or atrazine will set weeds back preemergent. It my take another simazine treatment in the summer. Also 2-4,D will help with broadleaf post emerge and won't harm the MG.
 
I've been wanting to do this. Maybe you're giving a push to get started also.
I noticed. Maple river is now selling by the pound. Probably a good idea. He was always way over count when my orders arrived.
 
No need to prep prior to green up. After green up hit the area/s you want to plant with gly and Simazine. (Atrazine if you can get it) gly will kill green and simazine or atrazine will set weeds back preemergent. It my take another simazine treatment in the summer. Also 2-4,D will help with broadleaf post emerge and won't harm the MG.

Sorry this area is about a 7 year old fallow spot that has too many trees. I gotta get in there and cut a bunch of undesirable trees as to give the MG a better chance. So by prep I mean I just want to get in there asap and get the tree tops cut and out...maybe hinge a few but most will be stump cut and allow stumps to become mineral stumps if they will.
 
Sorry this area is about a 7 year old fallow spot that has too many trees. I gotta get in there and cut a bunch of undesirable trees as to give the MG a better chance. So by prep I mean I just want to get in there asap and get the tree tops cut and out...maybe hinge a few but most will be stump cut and allow stumps to become mineral stumps if they will.

Gotcha, thought you were talking about an existing clean field. MG at my place is always shorter in the shade. Junk tree removal sounds like a good idea.
 
There is a property I've been looking at where MG could useful like this. It is 100 acres in a long rectangle, wooded with a single large field down the middle. It would be nice to break that field up so it could hunt like a bigger property but I would not want to do that permanently with shrubs and trees. I would use the MG to break that field up into smaller chunks with 2 or 3 bedding areas. I could easily to convert it back to a field later.
 
Gotcha, thought you were talking about an existing clean field. MG at my place is always shorter in the shade. Junk tree removal sounds like a good idea.

Yeah none of them are bigger than my calf for most part and are a mixture of locust, young walnuts, some other scrub stuff I am not sure of. There is a couple oaks I may leave depending where they are located and how they look. Few young cedars may get saved too...

There is a property I've been looking at where MG could useful like this. It is 100 acres in a long rectangle, wooded with a single large field down the middle. It would be nice to break that field up so it could hunt like a bigger property but I would not want to do that permanently with shrubs and trees. I would use the MG to break that field up into smaller chunks with 2 or 3 bedding areas. I could easily to convert it back to a field later.

Only issue I can see is the amount of time it'd take unless you plant some larger MG in pots. I've always been told even if cared for greatly year 3 is really first year you truly begin to see what it is going to be as it thickens up. But the awesome thing I love about MG is the ability to split it and plant it and honestly utilize what you have to plant elsewhere really endlessly.
 
I also think rows of MG would be a great way to break larger areas up to help create more bedding areas and hold more deer.
 
I did just that this spring. I put them in two rows of S and C shapes in a established CIR field. The S and C's are wrapped around cedars that I planted in S and C's. It is only a half acre spot but I think it will be a even better bedding spot in a couple years.

My miscantus I planted this spring in rows and had good weed control on have flowered. I think that is a good sign that they did well this year. They have a lot of stems 10-12 in many cases and would guess many are 10"and more in width. The height of many are 6-7'.
 
Yep three years is the golden number. But let's face it, that's nothing. Pine seedlings sleep, creep then leap. So after three years a conifer seedling is 2 to 3 feet tall. MG is 10 to 12 feet tall. Switchgrass, which I have 60 acres of is slim in year 1, a bit more in year 2 and shines in year 3 at 5 to 7 feet.

Each has its place and nothing beats trees. But I'm not living long enough for trees to really benifit my hunting.

I wish I would have went all in with MG 11 years ago. I'd be way ahead things now.
 
Sounds like a way to build deer habitat quickly and in a way to 100% control layout for hunting and access!!!!!
 
I also think rows of MG would be a great way to break larger areas up to help create more bedding areas and hold more deer.
I did just that this spring. I put them in two rows of S and C shapes in a established CIR field. The S and C's are wrapped around cedars that I planted in S and C's. It is only a half acre spot but I think it will be a even better bedding spot in a couple years.

My miscantus I planted this spring in rows and had good weed control on have flowered. I think that is a good sign that they did well this year. They have a lot of stems 10-12 in many cases and would guess many are 10"and more in width. The height of many are 6-7'.

You both brought up great points. Dealing with small acreage like I do, thinking of ways of molding compartments and such really help the property feel larger to the deer and hunt larger for myself. I'm thinking about making a perimeter border of MG, but than on the interior apply a loose "X" pattern in the middle of it and than randomly place a few inside each "X" nooks. This will essentially turn this .5 acre to .75 acre into a spot that will "feel" like 4 separate bedrooms. I'll probably plant the center of the "X" tight for hard division there and than loosen moving out towards a hard edge perimeter. (If the spot feels too tight for an "X" I'll probably do a "Y" and have 3 "bedrooms" instead of 4)

I'm gonna then shove a serious amounts of native shrubs from state nursery bought cheap of either a mix or 2-3 kinds from this list: serviceberry, American Plum, chokeberry, buttonbush (on pond side), elderberry, ninebark, spicebush (especially on the South side where less light will occur). These will encircle the bedding, providing another "edge" for openings through MG I leave and perhaps great scraping and rub lines on the exteriors.

Then along the East side of this spot is an old fence row...but nothing but sass, sumac and some misc trees are in it. A few young oaks as well, but I'm going to plant more oaks along this line as this line in the long term future is very easy to access and could be a killer rut stand overlooking the bedding edge.
 
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I will say this subject has sent my mind into "what if" mode.

I currently have a "X" project in some natural weeds with some switch out of cedars, but the MG would grow much faster. I also liek the idea of mixing in some shrubs to maybe define edges or even travel paths. The MG can certainly be used for screens for deer and people and help make that smaller area feel so much larger. Then snake in a winding clover or fall annual plot with small "orchards" along the way and you could build a personal deer island where the deer may just never leave. Just realize that the cover closest to the food will be taken by does and bucks prefer an elevated view further away.....so you may just build a doe factory, but even then....the boys will come looking when the time is right.
 
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