Thanks Omni. Curious—corn seems out of place. What is the reasoning? Does the bigger size help the flow or something?
Also, you mention one acre at a time, what is your thinking behind that vs doing all 5 acres at once.
Thanks!
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I meant the mixing of the seed and carrier. I mix one acre at a time really really well and pour in large seed hopper, then another acre. Then another. I plant it all at same time. Just the mixing.
The bluestem/indiangrass likes to stick together so you really have to mix it well among carrier. You can also get de chaffed seed but I’m not sure how much it helps. If you don’t mix it well it will clump together and not flow as well.
I use this article a lot on planting and fillers.
Seeding rates for native warm-season grass and forb mixtures (NWSG) have changed drastically over time. In the past, native grasses were planted without forbs at rates exceeding 10 lbs/ac. This may be ideal from a forage production standpoint, but this created dense stands of native grass with...
www.purdue.edu
Just know this is how I have done it, but lots of others have had great success their way. See Brian’s post above.
@Native Hunter has 50+ acres in natives. The owner here
@Bill has some good posts on switchgrass plantings.
I’m a big believer that you should do the very best you can with herbicide and planting the first time. Anytime I e tried to cut corners I get less than stellar results. If you kill the are 2-3 times with burndown herbice summer before, plant thick with rye, then kill it with roundup a few weeks before planting, plant, and spray imazapic 4oz/acre right before/after planting, you will get a great result.
I also plant only grass year one, then come back fall of same year and overseed the forbs. Lots plant them at same time, but I have had better luck doing it this way. The forbs need cold stratification so they do well with fall broadcast seeding into first year stand I planted in spring.