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Summer Switchgrass seeding

Tree Spud

Tree Spud

5 year old buck +
Well I think I may have accidentally nuked one of my SG fields. I had a real bad marestail & foxtail infestation and was advised that Liberty Herbicide was the right herbicide especially if the marestail is Gly resistant.

Switchgrass is not a controlled plant on the Liberty label; however, upon further review, "Witchgrass" is. Looks likes "witchgrass" is a typo and should have been switchgrass.

As i have a complete kill on these fields, rather than waiting for fall or frost seeding, wanted to re-seed with switchgrass now.

Any experience with seeding SG this time of year?
 
I have drilled it and broadcast it in the summer and obviously drilling is far better. The broadcasting method I used wasn't ideal so I am not sure I am giving it credit, but I simply killed the weeds I could and broadcast it and tried to control the weeds thru the rest of the summer. Results where very spotty. When I drilled it I had a great bare earth seed bed and it came in great in most cases. Again controlling the weeds (especially the grasses) is the hard part. I mowed when I could to try to keep from burning the new grass and then used spraying as a last resort. I thought I had lost my switch to foxtail, but it proved me wrong. Getting it established is the difficult part. After that it will handle itself. I have never frost seeded it. The stuff I drilled only got a few inches tall the planting year but got better and better until about year 3 when it now grows to 5 feet tall.
 
I wouldn't do it with large acreage because of the cost involved. My best advice is to call osenbaugh prairie seed. Ask for John Osenbaugh. Tell them you have switchgrass questions. Of the resources I have, he will know. (641) 766-6790
 
I recommend switchgrass to be fall planted for best results. My 12 acre 26 year old prairie restoration was done in September after prepping the field for planting in the summer. Mow, spray gly, disk, then pick up rocks was the prep work. I had great results. The only problem I had was that the far East end of the field was initially some what sparse. Due to the shallow planting depth of prairie seeds, the predominant West wind blew some seed off that end of the field. After a few years, the prairie filled the void left by the blown away seed. As a bonus, I have little pockets of forbs scattered around my land adjacent to the prairie.
 
Sounds like the best approach might be to continue prepping the ground and killing the weeds & cold season grasses. I have about 5 acres to prep for fall.

I have some SG seed that is about a year old, been stored in cool area and is dry. Worth using this to seed?
 
Tree Spud said:
Sounds like the best approach might be to continue prepping the ground and killing the weeds & cold season grasses. I have about 5 acres to prep for fall.

I have some SG seed that is about a year old, been stored in cool area and is dry. Worth using this to seed?
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Do a ragdoll germination test and make sure before you waste the time and money spreading seed that is not viable only to find out 2 years down the road that it was garbage. You know as well as anyone that it will take at least that long to find out if you are going to have anything in the way of a decent stand of switchgrass. Then, if it did turn out to be bad seed, you are 2 years further behind in your efforts.
 
wiscwhip said:
Do a ragdoll germination test and make sure before you waste the time and money spreading seed that is not viable only to find out 2 years down the road that it was garbage. You know as well as anyone that it will take at least that long to find out if you are going to have anything in the way of a decent stand of switchgrass. Then, if it did turn out to be bad seed, you are 2 years further behind in your efforts.
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Good idea. Was thinking about do a test area of about 20'x20' just to seed germination reliability.

What do you mean by a ragdoll test?
 
I got some "free" switchgrass seed from the USDA when I was doing my planting. When I saw the amount of chaff and crap in it I just laughed. I did put it in with the rest of my seeds for planting only because it would not do any harm as I had the necessary fresh seed I needed for my 12 acres. My friend who planted his prairie at the same time and did not supplement with his own switchgrass seed got a very sparse germination of this "free" USDA seed.
 
JFK52 said:
I got some "free" switchgrass seed from the USDA when I was doing my planting. When I saw the amount of chaff and crap in it I just laughed. I did put it in with the rest of my seeds for planting only because it would not do any harm as I had the necessary fresh seed I needed for my 12 acres. My friend who planted his prairie at the same time and did not supplement with his own switchgrass seed got a very sparse germination of this "free" USDA seed.
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I purchased my seed from Welters and it was very clean. I was pleased with it. To often there is always an unknown cost with "free" ...
 
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