Harvesting Native Grasses

[H20fwler]

I know everyone is crazy busy this time of year with hunting and farming but thought I would share this.

The last five years or so I’ve been harvesting and planting my own native grasses, very small scale.
With the price of seed for native grasses it just made sense to me to use my own established plants for seed.
I just cut the heads off Indian/switch/big and little bluestem this time of year and strip the heads of seed by hand into a gallon freezer bags. It really doesn’t take that long at all to get a few bags full.
It can be saved and planted in, or broadcast on a day with a little wind whenever you have time.

I have started a few nice screens and strips this way just over seeding this time of year into whatever else is growing in the place I want it.
The largest I’ve done is maybe 200 yards X 20 yards.
Within a couple years it comes up nice with very little time and effort on my part.

Have done the same with coneflower heads just rubbing the seeds into a plastic bag.

 

[jsasker007]

Good idea! I'm going to give this a try. I have a spot that I cleared during the winter and it came back this year with the tallest stuff I have growing on the edges of the swamp(no idea what it is) and I want a lot more of that growing all over on the edges of the vast swamp that surrounds my property. thanks

 

[Telemark]

I do the same thing with clover and vetch. It doesn't help all that much, but it's free and something to do while walking the dog. I've moved a lot of comfrey as well. And I've taken a lot of cuttings from the best tasting wild raspberries I find. Last year I did several dozen dogwood cuttings that were a huge success. There is something really rewarding about it even though it takes a long time to see the results.

 

[omicron1792]

I do the same with my very favorite grass, bushy bluestem. It is crazy expensive so any time I see it I do the same as you and add it to my mixes I seed. One place I bird hunt has a solid field of it, my buddies think I’m crazy when I’m over there harvesting some seeds!


I also do the same with the liatris I have growing on my place.

Stock photos, not mine.

 

[H20fwler]

I’ll post a couple more pics to show how easy it is to do.
You can cut the heads off or even easier just grab a handful of the stems under the head and strip the seed right off into the bag. Easy peasy. The second way you don’t get quite all the seed but it’s faster.

Indian grass, I’ve got a few different kinds don’t know the proper names but they have red, yellow and grayish heads about 6’-7’ tall.


Bluestem


Switch, I’ve got different varieties of that too


Coneflower, I rub the seeds out of those with my thumb


My seed mix


Literally after five minutes in the pasture. A stuffed full gallon bag of native grass and flower seed.


A small patch I broadcasted three years ago in front corner of the little woods. It reseeds itself now and gets better looking every year.


If you look up native grass seed on Amazon or Ebay they are getting crazy money for “500” count little packets of seeds?
You can get millions yourself from your own plants or just stop along the road and harvest seeds from native grasses you like in the ditch for free.

I just like the look of native grasses and my wife loves the coneflower’s, as do our bees.
I would rather look at natives that provide cover and food for wildlife and are fantastic for the soil biomass, than a bunch orchard grass or weeds.
I love it when the Indian grasses bolt in early fall. Lets me know hunting season is almost here.

 

[Bill]

I can't drive the side by side past a switchgrass seed head and not strip it by hand as I drive by only to drop it somewhere else. Not as sophisticated as your process but it makes me feel good.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I think Indian Grass is my favorite native. I appreciate the way it looks in the field and I will often strip the head walking by and drop it aways away.

 

[H20fwler]

I do the same with my very favorite grass, bushy bluestem. It is crazy expensive so any time I see it I do the same as you and add it to my mixes I seed. One place I bird hunt has a solid field of it, my buddies think I’m crazy when I’m over there harvesting some seeds!

View attachment 59323

The bushy bluestem looks awesome! I am going to have to keep an eye out for that, would love to add some to our pasture.

I agree Turkey Creek, Indian grass is my favorite as far as looks too.

My oldest son and his family took their fall family pics at the pasture this year with the native grasses as a backdrop.


Our pasture along the woods is around fifteen acres with a nice thick mix of native grasses, every inch of it habitat and cover.
Two years ago I mowed a trail around and through it so we can easily walk or ride ATV or sidexside to check things out.
Some local photographers do some graduation/engagement/senior pics out there at different times of the year.

 

[omicron1792]

What a blessed man you are!

Been spreading native seed all day today.

 

[Barndog56]

I just collected some liatris and gallardia seeds today. I've also got lots of lupine, delphinium, bee balm, black eyed Susan, coneflower, hollyhock, and sweet William seed. I started a small wildflower patch in the orchard area and will be adding those to it. Started a bunch of smooth blue aster, anise hyssop, yellow coneflower, purple prairie clover, and joe pye weed last year. Just got some seed packets of prairie dropseed, side oats Gramma, and little bluestem to add as well. I'll broadcast some and plant some in a bed that I can baby, and harvest future seed from.

 

[Ikeman]

I do the same with my very favorite grass, bushy bluestem. It is crazy expensive so any time I see it I do the same as you and add it to my mixes I seed. One place I bird hunt has a solid field of it, my buddies think I’m crazy when I’m over there harvesting some seeds!

View attachment 59323
I also do the same with the liatris I have growing on my place.

Stock photos, not mine.

I have a TON of liatris on my parents place. It had not been allowed to bloom in years due to overgrazing, so it was a welcome surprise.

I hunt a lot of public grasslands, and for several years, I would do a very similar harvest method as the Op. I would just punch at the bottom of the seed head and place in a foraging pouch. It was never much. No more than a Walmart shopping bag per year. But, I think that is where the big bluestem came from on the farm.

There are two plants that I have been collecting seeds right off the farm for propagation for several years.

False indigo… because it is just so pretty on the landscape.

And Yucca, because it thrives in our shallow soils. I found this patch on my aunt’s portion of the old farm that neighbors my mom’s.

This is what a single pocket jacket worth of yucca pods turns into… this was maybe 5 seed pods.

Only a few years collecting and spreading, and already had a few take.

Next up is more grasses!
If only I could find an excellent stand of native switchgrass.


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[bigboreblr]

Do that with dandelion, common and english plantain. Got sme white with pink blush clover that works well in traffic areas. I grab a few of them to propogate. Likely ladino, but who knows.

I use it for ATV paths and parking lots, stay's push mowerable after a month of nobody mowing. Also, roundup resistant If I tame down the weeds n mace sedge while Im spraying foodplots in the summer.

Been tempted to plant lupine up north. It supposedly a well accepted forb for deer and caribou in canada.

 

[Skye King]

Good idea! I'm going to give this a try. I have a spot that I cleared during the winter and it came back this year with the tallest stuff I have growing on the edges of the swamp(no idea what it is) and I want a lot more of that growing all over on the edges of the vast swamp that surrounds my property. thanks

Good idea! I'm going to give this a try. I have a spot that I cleared during the winter and it came back this year with the tallest stuff I have growing on the edges of the swamp(no idea what it is) and I want a lot more of that growing all over on the edges of the vast swamp that surrounds my property. thanks

I have an app called “picture this” that identify all types of plants. You take a picture of the plant and tell the app to identify it.

 

[b116757]

I cleared about 20 or so small tree pockets in an original native grass prairie field a couple years ago seems like foxtail is the grass that’s been growing in those disturbed areas. I should go collect some of the native seed and spread in those areas like you have done not a bad idea.

 

[jsasker007]

I have an app called “picture this” that identify all types of plants. You take a picture of the plant and tell the app to identify it.

I'm too old and stupid to figure out any apps. I have my daughter do it with her phone and yes it does work pretty good. If I could just get her to go with me to check out some of things growing past my yard would be fantastic. She's 19 and has no interest in anything that I like. Guess she takes after her mother---poor kid.
PS. If you don't hear from me after this post please send the search and rescue as I fear my wife will kill me if she reads this. THANK YOU

 

[H20fwler]

We almost need a native grass/wildflower seed exchange like we do with scions.

 

[Ikeman]

We almost need a native grass/wildflower seed exchange like we do with scions.

What a fantastic idea…..


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[bigboreblr]

What a fantastic idea…..


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Before that we need 2024's scion exchange. h20fowler should really be sharing those crabapple scions, think you called em briar lane.

 

[H20fwler]

Before that we need 2024's scion exchange. h20fowler should really be sharing those crabapple scions, think you called em briar lane.

Will do, just shoot me PM in February and I’ll send you all you want. It is a great crab, drops all winter/DR/heavy fruit load and takes well to grafting.

Next fall in September we need to start up a native grass/wildflower seed exchange then and see how it goes.

That way it gives everyone time to collect seed through fall and get at it before it drops. Most of my switch seed and the early coneflowers have already dropped with the winds we had and it’s full on deer season now.

 

[omicron1792]

I drove my Polaris through some planted native grass areas and the seeds went everywhere in the wind. Seems to be a good way to help spread them around the property. I’m sure the fire I do this late winter will help roo