Miscanthus ... as a screen
- Thread starter OakSeeds
- Start date
-
- Tags
- miscanthus
Bill
Administrator
Typo :D
No actually I have used both but always seem to have 24db on hand.
Either will work and plain old 24,d is probably cheaper.
Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
Going to work on a property next week that has a bunch of 2nd yr plantings, using the method I described. Will get pics if I don't forget. Fair warning, it doesn't look anything close to as pretty as your guys' does. I'm just trying to build 5' tall privacy fences, though, and the method I describe has done that for me.
Fair warning, though. If planting in sandy or pure junk soil, in shaded areas or when pushing the northern limits with shorter growing seasons, I'd go full tilt on controlling weeds, as the MXG most likely will need every advantage it can get to achieve the results I'm after.
Miscanthus experts, i plan on putting in a miscanthus screen using rhizomes from maple river farms in the spring. Right now the 12 ft wide by 500 ft long area is a crabgrass jungle. I'm thinking i should gly the crabgrass and throw and mow the area with winter rye now to prepare for the spring miscanthus planting. Only got 4 weeks to our average first frost date. Right idea or should i go another way? Or include something with the rye?
Bill
Administrator
Not sure about the rye idea. Maybe run it by Don at maple River. Rye allelopathy (the release of chemical growth inhibitors that affect other plants) may affect MG. some believe it does corn. (No I'm not that smart, Paul Knox taught me about it).
As for prep it wouldn't hurt to spray it off and plant oats. Oats will die off but the trash will hold off Erosion. (I've never done this. Always just spray pre plant.
Prior to planting spray again with 2 Qts/acre of 41%gly and 4 oz/acre of simazine. (As MoBuck pointed out keep quiet about it). Not sure what the label says but I'm sure MG isn't listed.
Post emergent if the weeds pop up you can spray 2oz /acre simazine and 24D per the label. Dawn dish detergent, no crop oil.
As for prep it wouldn't hurt to spray it off and plant oats. Oats will die off but the trash will hold off Erosion. (I've never done this. Always just spray pre plant.
Prior to planting spray again with 2 Qts/acre of 41%gly and 4 oz/acre of simazine. (As MoBuck pointed out keep quiet about it). Not sure what the label says but I'm sure MG isn't listed.
Post emergent if the weeds pop up you can spray 2oz /acre simazine and 24D per the label. Dawn dish detergent, no crop oil.
Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
Here are pics of 3 MxG plantings that were put in 2 springs ago. All of them were done by spraying once with generic round up. On 2 of the plantings I used a tiller after the weeds dies and stuck the rhizomes in the dirt by hand. The other was just spraying and using a tree planter to slice them into unworked ground (this is how I do most of it). That's the last pic, which happens to be MxG sliced into a 10' wide band of switch, indian & big blue.
Same screen...included the deer pic for a reference
MxG sliced into NGs
Same screen...included the deer pic for a reference
MxG sliced into NGs
Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
Same here. I had been going full throttle on weed control until I had a surplus one year and just disced and tossed them in the dirt. I figured I'd be disappointed, but anything would be better than just tossing them in the trash. When it worked, I took a risk the following year, hoping I wasn't making a big mistake. You are seeing typical results from that risk. They aren't as good of stands as those you guys are showing, or my results from when I did the same, but it's better than I'd hoped and good enough for my purposes.
That said, I do believe in sandy soils, most likely in wet areas (where it doesn't grow great for me no matter what), heavily shaded areas and in generally poor soils, weed control is very likely quite important. In decent soils and in good sun, it's not required, at least to get the results I want. In fact, the weeds help create a little more effective screen, as the MxG fills in.
Planted my 200 rhizomes on the 22nd and 23rd of May. Came back and watered this Tuesday and had 15 shoots poking up through the soil. Finally had a couple of nice sunny days and Thursday ther were 42 poking through, including a few with more than a single shoot. Couldn't be any happier right now.
alldaysit
5 year old buck +
alldaysit
5 year old buck +
Did you spray weed killer before or after planting?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a 275 foot stretch of it that I sprayed with Gly about a month prior to planting. That is the section you see in the photo. That covers the east side of my plots. After planting that on Monday I still had about 50 rhizomes left, so went and sprayed about 100 feet on the south side of plot. On Tuesday I hit that section with the weedeater and then planted it. Looks just as good right now as the first section.
Still had about a dozen left, so they were planted without any herbicide. Just grass and a little winter rye growing there that I hit with the weedeater. It's coming up just fine there too.
Still had about a dozen left, so they were planted without any herbicide. Just grass and a little winter rye growing there that I hit with the weedeater. It's coming up just fine there too.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Planted 150 single rhizomes May 22 in loamy sand soil. Used my Earth auger with a 6" blade to drill a hole about 6" deep and then hand planted them with about 3"-4" of lightly packed soil over the rhizome. Many have sprouted and some are 2' tall.
Looks like some may have been dug up by an animal.
Pretty interesting to see the MG significantly rapidly out growing the existing weed & grass vegetation ... curious if the root system is as aggressive and large ... so far so good.
Bill
Administrator
I had rabbits dig some of mine up just after planting once. They didn't eat the rhizome it was just tossed to the side. I think they liked the loose dirt for digging a nest.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Interesting ... I have a strip of blue spruce that was planted earlier this spring alongside the row of MG. These were 3-0 transplants and some of those were dug up also.
Bill
Administrator
That's going to look good. Looks like you got good weed control.
Checked it today and you can certainly tell the difference that competition makes. Sprayed gly a couple weeks before planting, then 2-4 D after they were up.
But in some sections grass came back with a vengeance. Most MG in those sections are about 1.5 feet tall. Where the grass isn't coming back yet the MG is 2.5 - 3 foot tall. Lots more multiple shoots there too. On a couple of them I counted 8 shoots!
Sent from my SM-N920R4 using Tapatalk
But in some sections grass came back with a vengeance. Most MG in those sections are about 1.5 feet tall. Where the grass isn't coming back yet the MG is 2.5 - 3 foot tall. Lots more multiple shoots there too. On a couple of them I counted 8 shoots!
Sent from my SM-N920R4 using Tapatalk
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Checked it today and you can certainly tell the difference that competition makes. Sprayed gly a couple weeks before planting, then 2-4 D after they were up.
But in some sections grass came back with a vengeance. Most MG in those sections are about 1.5 feet tall. Where the grass isn't coming back yet the MG is 2.5 - 3 foot tall. Lots more multiple shoots there too. On a couple of them I counted 8 shoots!
Sent from my SM-N920R4 using Tapatalk
Did you plant a single rhizome or the cluster?
