Giant Miscanthus?????

[j-bird]

I have 2 screens of MG on my place and I am always expanding....

I grew my initial screen from cuttings from Bill.

The road screen is 3 layers... First layer closest to the road is a woven wire fence that I planted honeysuckle on (it is nearly an evergreen here)
The second layer is transplanted eastern red cedars (I dig them up when they are 12 to 36" tall in the early spring and relocate them.
The 3 layer is the MG. It grows well, doesn't like wet feet or the shade. Pic is from jan 2021....i have extended it's length. The red cedar will eventually be topped to prevent issues with the power line over head.


The second screen is where I took rhizomes from the first screen. I simply dug a small hole and planted the rhizomes in early spring. It is now 2 years old. It separates my plot from a large ag field. It will fill in over time and create a single layered wall.


Have have "plans" to use more of it to help create screens near other plots and some of my shooting houses as well.

 

[Bill]

That didn't all come from a few cuttings???
you had to buy some.

 

[j-bird]

That didn't all come from a few cuttings???
you had to buy some.

I have not bought a single one! I used your cuttings to start my road screen, and I have since divided some of those originals to expand that screen as well as provide the screen in the other pic AND in another location I am working on. I have found that if you start with only a dozen to 2 dozen plants and use them as your "rhizome supply stock"..... you can get 100 to 200 rhizomes per "cluster" after a few years and expand from there. Every MG plant on my place owes its origins to those cuttings you sent to me...several years ago. Its all in my land tour thread.... Why buy stuff when with a little patience you can grow your own???

 

[Bill]

I have not bought a single one! I used your cuttings to start my road screen, and I have since divided some of those originals to expand that screen as well as provide the screen in the other pic AND in another location I am working on. I have found that if you start with only a dozen to 2 dozen plants and use them as your "rhizome supply stock"..... you can get 100 to 200 rhizomes per "cluster" after a few years and expand from there. Every MG plant on my place owes its origins to those cuttings you sent to me...several years ago. Its all in my land tour thread.... Why buy stuff when with a little patience you can grow your own???

That's amazing.

 

[j-bird]

That's amazing.

The only thing amazing about it, is how cheap I am! That was the plan all along. Start with 24, turn that into a couple hundred, and soon you have thousands at your disposal just sitting there in the ground ready when you are! I don't need to buy any....I just need a shovel and some determination. But yes, all the MG at my place (which isn't like acres or anything) all comes from those 2 dozen or so cuttings you sent me and I planted and then dug up one of them about 2 years ago and starting my actual screening projects.

 

[Booner21]

I have a small growing stock also started a few years ago. Anybody have advice on how to harvest them? I was thinking about cutting the top then burning burning them off to get rid of the trash. then taking a 3pt tiller set deep and running them over to break them up? Also have a skidder with a root grapple seemed to work okay digging them up but not breaking them up very well.

I had a large pile that was dug up and ran the tiller over them to break them upand they seemed to come up very well with no other work.


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[j-bird]

I have a small growing stock also started a few years ago. Anybody have advice on how to harvest them? I was thinking about cutting the top then burning burning them off to get rid of the trash. then taking a 3pt tiller set deep and running them over to break them up? Also have a skidder with a root grapple seemed to work okay digging them up but not breaking them up very well.

I had a large pile that was dug up and ran the tiller over them to break them upand they seemed to come up very well with no other work.


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When I did mine. I waited until early spring not long after the ground thawed. I burned the tops off and then dug the root ball by hand. I then took the root ball to the house and hit it with the hose to try to get rid of as much soil as possible. I then just started pulling the rhizomes off and tossed them into a container. I just used a pair hand hand pruners to cut where I needed. I try to keep the rhizomes as large and complete as possible and tossed out those that I didn't think would make it. I separated mine like I did because I wanted/needed to control the planted spacing. I was worried of planting them too close and stunting them. The root ball is pretty dense and a tiller may or may not work. The root ball may be too dense and stall the tiller, or you may chop up the rhizomes too small and them not have enough stored energy to survive. would be my concerns. I have never made cuttings - Bill can tell you how to do that. I can tell you how to grow cuttings as well. Again this is all on my land tour thread (if you want to dig).

 

[Brian662]

What method are you guys using to plant?

I was thinking I'd till the ground and then sink a sub soiler about 3-4" into the ground to create a furrow. Then walk by and drop the rhizomes in and kick dirt over the top of them.

Thoughts on this method?

 

[Booner21]

What method are you guys using to plant?

I was thinking I'd till the ground and then sink a sub soiler about 3-4" into the ground to create a furrow. Then walk by and drop the rhizomes in and kick dirt over the top of them.

Thoughts on this method?

That is exactly what we did worked very well. 2 man operation 1 drops in whole second covers with rake it went pretty quick.


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