Plot screen

[Barndog56]

I'm trying to get a plot screen going on 2 sides of my triangle shaped food plot area. So in the spring of 2015 i sprayed gly over a 12 foot wide strip on those sides. I raked all of the dead grass away and spread switchgrass seed i purchased from the local feed store. None of it came up, and all that did was broadleaf weeds like lamsquarter and ragweed.

This may i sprayed again to kill off the broadleafs. Early june i planted Antler King's shield and bedding plus, a mix of switchgrass, indian grass, and big bluestem. Within two weeks i had grass coming up like crazy. I was quite pleased at the time. But now that it's had a couple months to grow, it appears i have a screen of crabgrass with just a handful of tufts of the screen mix.

Is there anything i can do to try and get those seeds to germinate? Or is it time to throw in the towel on the grasses and plant white pines? The purpose of the screen is to encourage more daytime usage of my plot.

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[JFK52]

Prairie seeds spend their first couple of years establishing a root system. I planted a 12 acre prairie and for the first two years thought I had made a huge mistake as I saw nothing that had been planted growing. The third year and the entire prairie took off growing like crazy. My seed was planted on gly sprayed disked ground with a special pressurized planter.

 

[Bill]

Yep native grass is a wait to wait again prospect.
You could spray with gly next spring when things green up but before the natives do and again knock back the broadleaf.

Wish there was a way to get guys more aware of Miscanthus grass for screens. Natives are fine in afield for cover but for screen you can't beat miscanthus. IMHO.

 

[Barndog56]

I hope you guys are right and it's growing in there somewhere. Ill mow it off to keep the crabgrass from seeding.

Bill, i hadn't heard of miscanthus until joining here. I'll be studying up on it now and look into acquiring some.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Yep native grass is a wait to wait again prospect.
You could spray with gly next spring when things green up but before the natives do and again knock back the broadleaf.

Wish there was a way to get guys more aware of Miscanthus grass for screens. Natives are fine in afield for cover but for screen you can't beat miscanthus. IMHO.

Bill,

I am in east texas where our summers are hot(106 yesterday) harsh and dry

Does miscanthus have a prayer of surviving here/

thanks,

bill turner

 

[Bill]

Bill,

I am in east texas where our summers are hot(106 yesterday) harsh and dry

Does miscanthus have a prayer of surviving here/

thanks,

bill turner

Lacey Creek growers show hardiness in zones 4 through 9. But I'd want to test a few plants on the extreme sides of that range before jumping in.

Once established it is pretty drought tolerant. Been somewhat dry here in MO and it's already 10 foot tall. The establishment year is the question. It will need some water.

 

[j-bird]

I know the year I planted my switch I thought I had lost it to foxtail. Mine was a gly killed area as well. I was able to control the broadleaf weeds with chemicals, but I had no real response for the grasses other than mowing. Find some of the switch and make sure your not mowing it, mow above it to give it a fighting chance. I planted midsummer and was real concerned that fall. The following spring I saw little green rows of grass start to show up once it warmed up. I sprayed to control the broadleaves again and the switch finally started to do something. First full growing season it reached maybe 3' to 4' tall.......every since then it now gets 5 to 6 feet tall and it's pretty tough stuff. I have not had near as good of luck with indiangrass or big-bluestem. IF you can get it established your home free for the most part, it's getting it establish that can be tricky.

NWSG is great for hiding deer, but it doesn't seem to work so well at hiding people. If your trying to make the plot safer for the deer you should be fine. I use it as a buffer between my wooded areas and my plots. The deer really like the edge between the NWSG and the wooded areas to travel and sometimes bed. If you are trying to create a screen of your activities from the deer.....I am not sure you will get the height you need to do that. I am looking into the stuff Bill uses/has as well for applications where I am trying to hide hunters and the like where I need some additional height.