Controlling reed canary grass?
- Thread starter mnjohn
- Start date
John-W-WI
Administrator
I'm honestly not sure it's possible. Other than planting trees/shrubs and shading it out??? That's tough too because they need a ground cover (fabric or plastic) so they can beat the reed canary! You can spray it, but the seedbank is endless. It will be 5' tall by fall after a heavy dose of round-up. Unfortunately I have battled the same thing.
I FINALLY have some spruce/pine/hybrids that are winning the battle. Some of them were planted in 2007! The tallest trees I've planted in there are now ~15' but they spent YEARS just trying to survive.
Wish I had better news.
-John
I FINALLY have some spruce/pine/hybrids that are winning the battle. Some of them were planted in 2007! The tallest trees I've planted in there are now ~15' but they spent YEARS just trying to survive.
Wish I had better news.
-John
bigeight
5 year old buck +
I have had good luck killing it. Wait till late summer, right before it turns brown and is storing up energy to overwinter. Then spray it. It will draw the chemicals down into the roots and get a much better kill. You can spray all you want spring and summer and will keep coming back.
Glyphosate mixed with Imazapyr work well :)
Glyphosate mixed with Imazapyr work well :)
mnjohn
5 year old buck +
What rates did you use ?
Steve Oehlenschlager
5 year old buck +
To really kill it you need to spray it with Gly about 3 times about 3 weeks apart. With its deep roots it is more like a bush. Other than that it will come back but a less everytime
We have some reed canary growing in one corner of our horse hay field.One yr we were short hay so we took a second cut in the better areas which of course included this spot.This was the latter half of august.It really set the reed back hard for several years.Maybe combining this with a spraying could do some real damage.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
In one of the areas on my buddies place we did 3 conifer "bedding" plantings into a large area of reed canary, we had good success with the following method. First step is to mow the area in early spring(we did it in early April), we rented a tow behind DR brush mower and pulled it with a 4 wheeler due to the fact that the area we were mowing/planting would get very wet at times. We mowed an area about 10 yards larger than we were going to plant the trees in(for a burn buffer). After it was mowed, we did a very careful burn in each of the locations we mowed. Following that, we would wait until the area greened-up and got about 3"-4" tall and then we sprayed each area with Rodeo(aquatic glyphosate) and Habitat(Imazapyr), I recall it being sprayed 3 or 4 times over that first summer. It was basically the same "cocktail" as bigeight used. Later that fall we planted bareroots, plugs and about 3 dozen container trees that my buddy picked up at an end of season auction at a local nursery for next to nothing. For maintenance, the area around the plantings was mowed each spring, and then sprayed with Select(clethodim) 3 to 4 times over the course of spring and summer for 4 years until the conifers and other shrub plantings got tall enough to compete on their own. It was a ton of work, but well worth the effort in the end, it holds deer year around and not only does, but he has seen some nice bucks(for our area at least) bedding in those areas as well.
D
dipper
Guest
Oust does a good number on it along with ghlyphosate
D
dipper
Guest
The fall before planting, and u spray it right over dormant established tree. Check the label for safe species.
D
dipper
Guest
Oh an use ghlyphosate without surfactant
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I need to get some pictures when I get home...
My method was to mow a strip the spring before and spray it about 3 or 4x with round up that summer.
The following spring put down black plastic, pin it tight,and use willow cuttings. Spruce are a struggle until they get above knee high.
I would leave the black plastic in place for many years. I removed some plastic after to years, and the willows still in plastic are far ahead in height.
In my opinion, you cannot beat rc, but just learn to work with it.
From what I see in my area, rc is as good of cover as most of the NWSG plantings. Just get some structure in the rc. Struture equals, felled trees, brush, willows, spruce or a dirt mound to break the wind.
My method was to mow a strip the spring before and spray it about 3 or 4x with round up that summer.
The following spring put down black plastic, pin it tight,and use willow cuttings. Spruce are a struggle until they get above knee high.
I would leave the black plastic in place for many years. I removed some plastic after to years, and the willows still in plastic are far ahead in height.
In my opinion, you cannot beat rc, but just learn to work with it.
From what I see in my area, rc is as good of cover as most of the NWSG plantings. Just get some structure in the rc. Struture equals, felled trees, brush, willows, spruce or a dirt mound to break the wind.
D
dipper
Guest
Why is no one else using oust? own stock in ghlyphosate? Haha
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Here are a couple of comparison pictures.
Picture number one. Willow cuttings were placed in black plastic that was about 6 or 7 feet wide about 5 years ago. The willows have reached over 6 feet in height and are somewhat bushy. The black plastic (actually silage bags) have kept the rc at bay
.
Adjacent to this, I removed the plastic after the second growing season. Less of the willows survived, they are less multi-stemmed, and about 18 inches shorter in height.
