TimberHawk
A good 3 year old buck
I have question about how to best get willow and dogwood established in large open areas of reed canary grass.
I have a 4+ acre section of my land that is almost exclusively reed canary grass and I'd like to turn it into a mix of bedding cover and browse. It's a relatively low area (not much standing water, but the water table is only 1-2' down) so I'm focusing on willow and dogwood. I tested the lazy way out last year with cuttings in four small areas. All cuttings were 12-16" and were shoved into the ground with only a few buds sticking out, usually around 2-3" above soil level. Soil moisture is not an issue at all but I knew I would need to fight the RGC to get sunlight down to the cuttings. I got all of the dead thatch off of the ground and sprayed the emerging RCG with clethodim (grass-specific herbicide) twice over the early spring & summer, hoping that would be enough for the cuttings to pop up far and fast enough to get established.
In short, I didn't have much luck. The RCG didn't completely die like I was expecting and in the few areas that it did die, I had sedge pop up and I think it shaded out the cuttings before they got tall enough. Some of the cuttings leafed out early in the season, but I didn't see any get above 6". Maybe I'm being to impatient too.
What is my best option considering how large the area is? I was thinking about trying some longer cuttings in hopes that the extra length would pop out of the sedge and/or RCG. Would that work? Or am I stuck with using a ground cover to beat everything back? I know that would work, but my brain and back starts to hurt just thinking of the work and money it would take to convert 4 acres. Maybe I could just do some 10x10' pockets to get some cover up?
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
I have a 4+ acre section of my land that is almost exclusively reed canary grass and I'd like to turn it into a mix of bedding cover and browse. It's a relatively low area (not much standing water, but the water table is only 1-2' down) so I'm focusing on willow and dogwood. I tested the lazy way out last year with cuttings in four small areas. All cuttings were 12-16" and were shoved into the ground with only a few buds sticking out, usually around 2-3" above soil level. Soil moisture is not an issue at all but I knew I would need to fight the RGC to get sunlight down to the cuttings. I got all of the dead thatch off of the ground and sprayed the emerging RCG with clethodim (grass-specific herbicide) twice over the early spring & summer, hoping that would be enough for the cuttings to pop up far and fast enough to get established.
In short, I didn't have much luck. The RCG didn't completely die like I was expecting and in the few areas that it did die, I had sedge pop up and I think it shaded out the cuttings before they got tall enough. Some of the cuttings leafed out early in the season, but I didn't see any get above 6". Maybe I'm being to impatient too.
What is my best option considering how large the area is? I was thinking about trying some longer cuttings in hopes that the extra length would pop out of the sedge and/or RCG. Would that work? Or am I stuck with using a ground cover to beat everything back? I know that would work, but my brain and back starts to hurt just thinking of the work and money it would take to convert 4 acres. Maybe I could just do some 10x10' pockets to get some cover up?
Thanks in advance for any guidance.