SWITCHGRASS: The Only Video You’ll Ever Need!!
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2020
- Switchgrass is so frustrating! I thought each of these plots of Cave In Rock switchgrass had failed, so I changed the plan. Nature wasn’t having it! This video is a must for anyone thinking about or struggling to find their way with this challenging crop. I’ll show you how each plot is doing in its second summer, help you identify switchgrass vs competitive weeds, provide guidance on herbicide use in switchgrass, and give you 5 tips to get switchgrass off and running on your property.
Get a jump on spraying your switchgrass this spring and summer with the following chemicals and ATV sprayer gear. Using these links doesn't raise your price but Amazon pays us a small commission which supports the channel. Thank you!
ATV Hitch Mount Food Plot Boom Sprayer - amzn.to/3anxDpL (Amazon)
Glyphosate Concentrate - amzn.to/30DfsYO (Amazon)
2-4d Amine Concentrate - amzn.to/3bGmjGU (Amazon)
Simazine Concentrate - amzn.to/3jpnO0M (Amazon)
Triclopyr Concentrate - amzn.to/3vbEhJn (Amazon)
Quinclorac Concentrate - amzn.to/2PNPwaw (Amazon)
Methylated Seed Oil - amzn.to/3jn2Dwf (Amazon)
Chemical Proof Gloves - amzn.to/3qDDgGn (Amazon)
Spray Tank Cap with Attached No Touch Measuring Cup - amzn.to/2N937Z2 (Amazon) - Розваги
Jake to add to your learnings, here are mine.
I have planted 30 acres of switchgrass since 2017. I've had about 50 / 50 success rate until this year. This year I have 98% success rate with establishment of Cave In Rock variety planted between 6 and 7 lbs an acres and 68% germ rate.
My first planting was Nov 1 2017 thinking I would get massive germination through over winter stratification. This is way overrated BTW and worked in only 1 area (1.5 acres) of 17 planted that year. I attribute the success of this area to limited use of simazine and the fact that we planted in well till, cultipacked soil with a proper drill. Failings on the other 15 acres are attributed to Simazine (not recommended for grass control within switchgrass stands) and the fact that I didn't get to dirt.
In 2019, I replanted 12 of the 17 acres. I had poor success in 2019 establishment year. But in 2020, I recovered from a slow start with a pre-emergence spraying of Glyphosate around May 15th.
Now,, in 2020, I spent 4 hours on the phone with Ernst Seed in PA. Their agronomist walked me through a recipe that works. They use it in their own farming practice. And they hundreds of acres established. Their protocol is below. Using it, I achieved 98% success on 12 acres of CIR Switchgrass this year. I have plants that range from 18" to 36" and a near pure stand. I didn't start planting until June 10th and finished June 30th. We planted directly into dirt -- not thatch. Soil was properly tilled. And lastly, I had a licensed operator with a chemical application use Atrazine vs Simazine.
These are some lessons learned AND the how to. If you need more details, please LMK.
#1. WAIT. If you are north of Appleton, Wisconsin (possibly anywhere north of the WI / IL border), save your self the time and trouble and WAIT to plant switchgrass until the 10th of June or until July 1st. That's right. Winter and early Spring plantings DO NOT give you a great catch. Instead, focus your spring on doing a kill with 2,4-d and glyphosphate around the 15th of April, a second spraying on the 15th of May. This way you have substantial weed control and have killed off all your spring competition. If your seed is already in the ground, it will start emerging late May. You will have very little at your finger tips to control weeds at that point.
Your main enemy is not broadleaves, but cool season grasses. And you can't control these very well once your seed has emerge. So kill them in the Spring before your planting.
#2. GET TO DIRT! Don't believe for a second that you are going to get a good catch broadcasting over thatch, dead grass sprayed the previous fall, etc. You want a well prepared, well packed seed bed. If you ignore #1 and buy into the frost seeding method, expect mixed results. For what you gain in stratification you will lose in seed to soil contact. Believe me, if does not work as well as others say it does, so GET TO Dirt. You can get to dirt pretty easy if you follow #1 after you bush hogged the area tight to the ground.
#3. PLANTING DEPTH. These seeds are no bigger than a sesame on Big Mac. You only need 1/8" to 1/4" MAX in seed depth. You can even broadcast and cultipack. But don't plant the seeds very deep.
#4. USE ATRAZINE for grass control. A lot people are using Simazine. From my experience, it is about 50% effective at killing your stand or setting you back a year. Since you are going to use chemicals, spend the time and money to get your chemical application license or hire someone who has one. You should know what chemicals you are applying, their mode of action and their long-term impact on your soil. Atrazine is tough chemical on soil. But is certified for use in switchgrass plantings where simazine is not.
Spray atrazine, 2,4-D and glyphosate within a week before or after you plant. This will give you season long weed control except for quackgrass and foxtail
. Foxtail you can control. Quackgrass requires a healthy does of gly or the switchgrass to outcompete it (which it will).
#5. MARK YOUR PLANTING AREA. No one does this. But you essentially need to mark your rows so you know exactly where you planted. You will see your seed emerge within 1-month. If you till and use a seeder, you will see your rows as well as any weeds. Typically germination with a June 10th planting is emergence between July 1 and July 4th. If you have any weeds, which btw you shouldn't -- you know you did it right if your plot looks like dirt for 45 days -- you need to identify them. Quackgrass and Foxtail are the two main ones in my area. Milkweed too -- and like Quackgrass, that is really tough to control b/c it's a heavy rhizome and extremely hardy. Only heavy doses of Glyphosate will kill it. So once you have it, it can linger.
#5. FOXTAIL CONTROL. In your first year, wait until your switchgrass has 6 leaves. When 7 - 8 out of 10 plants you sample have more than 6 leaves, spray your switchgrass with 5.3oz of dry quinclorac per acre. Foxtail looks similar to switchgrass early at emergence. But switchgrass grows up and Foxtail grows out. Without proper control of Foxtail, it will outcompete your 1st year stand if you have a lot in your seedbank or you purchased seed that has a lot in it. If you planted June 10th, you should spray towards the end of July (45 days - 55 days after planting). You want to kill the foxtail early. An end of July spraying will essentially wipe it out.
If you wait later, you can set it back. But you won't kill it.
#6. 1st year results. I'm in northern WI and the grass planted in early June achieved 3 feet with the seed head included in the 1st season. The grass I planted on June 30th, grew to about 18-24". In the establishment year, I have roughly 98% closed canopy coverage of all areas that I planted. Product I used is Cave-in-rock. Germination rate was only 68% according to the seed seller (Ernst Seed). If the remaining 32% germinates next spring, I will have an extremely thick stand.
Please note: I DO NOT recommend planting more than 6lbs an acre. Anything higher will cause the plants to compete for nutrition. Having planted some areas @ 7.5 lbs / acre, I would recommend between 5 and 6 as tops.
#7. 2nd YEAR SPRING - BURN! Switchgrass loves a good burn. You won't damage it at all but stimulate the plants vigor. Plan on burning before May 1st -- ideally April 15th or 15 days before spring green up. A few things happen here. #1, the thatch layers is removed which opens the soil to early spring heat; your ground is black essentially which stimulate plant production. #2, you feed nitrogen back to the grass which provides additional vigor; #3, you promote cool season grasses to emerge earlier; this gives you an opportunity to kill the cool season grasses with a minimum of glyphosate. But do not be afraid to spray 2,4-d and Atrazine with your glyphosate. This will give you a pure stand.
Best way that I found to burn is 3 persons working the fire against the wind. One person on each end with leaf blowers. Leaf blowers are great at snubbing the fire and controlling direction of the burn. The third person with a rake. You can add more rake people depending on the width of the fire. The rackers pull the fire into the wind and burn it back on itself. They essentially help the fire along.
Also, you can burn every year if you want. However, it's not necessary except once ever 3-5 years.
#8. 2nd YEAR FOXTAIL Control. Between the 10th of June and Father's day, spray 5.3oz per acre of Quinclorac. This will NUKE your Foxtail for the year and you will have a massive thick stand.
Essentially, you aren't letting the foxtail establish. And the Switchgrass will take over.
#9. DON"T WORRY. If you blow your first year stands, one of the best things that you can do is follow step #7. You can recover from your 1st year with a well timed spraying of just glyphosate alone. Grab your thermometer and like Jake stated 55 degrees is what you are looking for.
Another trick is mowing your stand in mid-summer to open the canopy for Switchgrass in your 1st year. So, if you did a bad job with your pre-emergence weed control and you can't find switchgrass in the areas you marked, mow and follow step 7. You can save the stand if you do so.
#10. GAPS, POCKETS and SMALL FAILURES. Don't get too stressed out if you have weak patches that didn't take. Deer love edge and diversity. Mono-cultures are "no bueno". The deer will love the happy accident.
Good luck!
San Mateus
Nice job
Heart surgery sounds simpler. You took all the fun out of it.
Wow...
Maybe you should have your own show on u tube.
Very interesting to read about others experiences, will use your expertise along with habitat pro..
But I really like whitetail habitat solutions with Jeff Sturgis the best.
Heck I don't know maybe you taught him? All you guys help in the same love of nature and making it a little better for all the big and little wildlife in and around my stomping grounds.
Let's Go Brandon!😁
Great breakdown. Thank you for taking time to share what you've learned.
Gosh. I need to talk w u.
That was excellent. I appreciate how you point out mistakes so others can learn from them.
That’s how we learn best. God bless!
Interesting information! Thank you for taking the time!
Love this stuff! Hope it helped!
Great video. I've had foxtail every year in my switch but simazine and gly has really helped it boom year two. Good luck!
Crazy how dead everything was out there this spring when I planted. I planted NW screen May 31 and had two herbicide burn downs before that! I wish I would have done the quinclorac a week or two earlier when the screen wasn’t so tall. Those big leaves really blocked a lot of chemical. Live and learn!
Great video. Glad I Watched. now I know that switch grass is going to be a very expensive and Time consuming planting. Now I can plan for Success.
Yes, up until we had the RC varieties it was a very frustrating and long process. I should actually do another video because the new RC stuff acts totally different out of the gate.
Watched this video quite few times. Good info for sure.
My experience thus far…
Summer 2021 leased to farmer, he planted corn. After harvest he had most of the field chopped up nicely with mostly dirt exposed. I flagged my switch grass and food plot areas off based on the habitat map I drew up.
November 2021 watched weather closely. Had a big storm coming in 2 days with 1/2” of snow expected prior to the big storm. I broadcast 10lbs/acre soon as the 1/2” of snow had fallen. This way I could see my seed on the ground and not overlap.
Next day the 1/2” melted putting the seed on the ground.
2 days go by and we got over 18” of snow and the cold set in for the winter.
Wait….
March had good freeze and thaw days.
March 31st ground was exposed and I hit it with simazine.
Waited for spring green up…. In a way it never came. It was cool wet spring.
I planned on hitting it with 2-4d and Gly, but never got the chance. No weeds were coming up at all.
2nd week in May and noticed grass sprigs coming up. I assumed it was switch. I was correct.
Now June 12th 2022. I currently have a weed free 3 acres of switch grass. Ranging from 1” to 6” already.
Will post end of year progress…
This is good feedback. Thanks for leaving it. Other folks can definitely take some of this and run with it on their properties. That’s what this channel is all about. Now with the new RC varieties, we also have new things to learn because it acts completely differently out of the gate than all the old unimproved varieties. It definitely deserves its own video.
Very good!
Thanks for the feedback, Brian!
Best vid ive ever watched
Thank you sir. God bless.
Thanks for the video. I'm looking at putting some in to help provide privacy.
That’s a great plan. Layer it with other stuff and you’ll have great success, especially if you’re up north and you get snow.
I bought the quinclorac, used your link from Amazon. Read through the label, they note 64oz per acre +mso, however stated for post emergence weed control in turf. Wanted to double check what application rate you used for switchgrass. Only other info I could find towards switchgrass, was with use of quinclorac 75 @8oz/acre. quinclorac 1.5L noted concentration 17.79% vs 75%, roughly came out to 34oz/acre accounting for concentration. Just wanted to be sure prior to spraying. My main competition is foxtail. Thanks in advance! Great video as well.
Mike I went with 64 oz per acre and 24 oz MSO per acre. I did the same rate in my plot screen from Northwoods Whitetails and it turned out great. I did have some leaf burn on the switch but it was very sporadic. We haven't had any rain to speak of so the plants are growing very slow and that also means slow to die! God bless sir!
Jake- I’m in year one of a stand of switch. All summer it looked like crabgrass, yellow/green foxtail, yellow nutsedge and some cold season grasses. I’ve kept it mowed all summer, and I hit it with Quin/MSO in late July. Would you recommend hitting in October, once any switch I do have goes dormant, to spray Gly to fry any existing cool season grasses that remain?
No it’s a lot safer to do a gly-simazine shot in the spring. Just make sure you do it before your soil heats up past 50 or so. It’s a balancing act because parts of the field are going to heat up faster than others!
Looking to control some grassy weeds that are currently competing with my new switchgrass stand that i frost seeded this winter into last years food plot. Some of the new Switch is already 8"-10" tall with 5-7 leaves and overall seems to be doing very well. The only problem is that getting a mower into the area has been extremely difficult. Im contemplating doing a very light spraying of Drive XLR8 while being very cautious not to overlap while spraying, just to help knock back some of those quack grasses. Just wanted to know your thoughts on spraying with Quinclorac in the first year in mowing isnt an option?
While I cannot give you exact advice without seeing the plot with my boots in it, if the Switchgrass is definitely Switchgrass, and is as tall as you say it is, you can spray Quinclorac at maximum labeled rate with MSO for your unwanted grasses. You won’t get them all but if you let them get much bigger, you won’t have much luck at all. I wouldn’t waste your time with reduced rates of chemical. Good luck sir!
I'm looking to kill the switchgrass in my yard,now I know how. Thank you
There’s definitely a place for it, and there’s a place you don’t want it. Hope it worked out!
Great video. I am still not sure yet if I did it wrong or am being impatient. I frost seeded, put Simazine down in late March then roundup two times in late April and mid may. Good week suppression but not much switchgrass.
Anyone with suggestions??
Darrin depending on where you are you should be seeing switch by now unless your batch had a lot of dormant seed. Now would be the time for foxtail/crabgrass control if it's a problem in your area. Hope the videos are helpful!
If Quinclorac is sprayed on emerging foxtail, will the residual effect prevent switch from germinating ??
I’ve never experienced any residual control with that herbicide. If your switch is young, less than four leaves, you will sting it pretty good. Even mature, switch turns maroon in some cases for some reason. There’s really no predicting which switch plants take it hard and which plants tolerate it well.
I'm curious if the switch comes back this year. Please let me know. I've had my failures with it too but it will not tolerate shade. So I'm curious if the corn killed it out.
You bet Aaron. Subscribe if you haven't already. Whether I fail or succeed you'll know about it. That's how I roll.
@@HabitatProLLC just did. 3 years ago we prepped (kill of fescue and spray etc) mid Sept. Two years ago we sprayed then hired a big grass drill. We had to plant approx 30 acres in switchgrass for a program. Last year we had some coming in. Looked at the fields this year to see what had come up and we didn't get shit. So.... another 50# just arrived and we'll try it again in 2021. We burned off some fields a couple of weeks ago. We're going to try broadcasting/frost seeding this go around.
@@AaronSteeleRealtor Ok make sure you hit it with simazine 3 qt per acre as soon as it's dry enough to get out there. That's a pre-emergent chemical sprayed on the dirt. Then you can hit it with gly when the soil temps hit 55. Quinclorac is often needed in early summer for foxtail. Good luck sir.
My switch grass stand is full of foxtail. At this time should I just wait until next spring to spay and burn?
Yes. Foxtail has dropped seed by now. Next spring, burn to remove thatch if you are able to do so safely. In April spray simazine before stuff has germinated. That's a black dirt chemical--keeps many weeds from germinating. In May spray glyphosate by the 15th or so depending on soil temp. Your switch won't be up yet but lots of weeds will. You can't spray switchgrass if the soil temp is above 55 degrees so you'll need to monitor that with a soil thermometer. Wait as long as you can. These stands on the video were sprayed around the 20th when my soil was at 54. Then, about late June to July 4 give or take a couple weeks, spray quinclorac with MSO for foxtail. You're waiting until grasses in the area are around 4-6" tall. You can spray that in August too if needed. It will be back thicker than ever. After the quinclorac, let 'er buck!
@@HabitatProLLC thanks Jake
@@jsboutdoors I have around 30 acres of switchgrass planted over the last 4 years. I spent around 4 hours on the phone this year with Ernst Seed in PA to find a new recipe for planting. I've had multiple failures and thousands of dollars absolutely blown on planting this stuff. Here is what I have learned to complement Jakes Video.
#1. WAIT. If you are north of Appleton, Wisconsin (possibly anywhere north of the WI / IL border), safe your self the time and trouble and WAIT to plant switchgrass until the 10th of June or until July 1st. That's right. Winter and early Spring plantings DO NOT give you a great catch. Instead, focus your spring on doing a kill with 2,4-d and glyphosphate around the 15th of April, a second spraying on the 15th of May. This way you have substantial weed control and have killed off all your spring competition. If your seed is already in the ground, it will start emerging late May. You will have very little at your finger tips to control weeds at that point.
#2. GET TO DIRT! Don't believe for a second that you are going to get a good catch broadcasting over thatch, dead grass sprayed the previous fall, etc. If you ignore #1 and buy into the frost seeding method, expect mixed results. For what you gain in stratification you will lose in seed to soil contact. Believe me, if does not work as well as others say it does, so GET TO Dirt. You can get to dirt pretty easy if you follow #1 after you bush hogged the area tight to the ground.
#3. USE ATRAZINE for grass control. A lot people are using Simazine. From my experience, it is about 50% effective at killing your stand or setting you back a lot. Since you are going to use chemicals, spend the time and money to get your chemical application license. You should know what chemicals you are applying, their mode of action and their long-term impact on your soil. Atrazine is tough chemical on soil. But is certified for use in switchgrass plantings where simazine is not.
Spray atrazine, 2,4-D and glyphosate within a week before or after you plant. This will give you season long weed control except for quackgrass and foxtail
#4. MARK YOUR PLANTING AREA. No one does this. But you essentially need to mark your rows so you know exactly where you planted. You will see your seed emerge within 1-month. If you till and use a seeder, you will see your rows as well as any weeds. Typically germination with a June 10th planting is emergence between July 1 and July 4th.
#5. FOXTAIL CONTROL. In your first year, wait until your switchgrass has 6 leaves. When 7 - 8 out of 10 plants you sample have more than 6 leaves, spray your switchgrass with 5.3oz of dry quinclorac per acre. Foxtail looks similar to switchgrass early, but will outcompete your 1st year stand if you have a lot in your seedbank or you purchased seed that has a lot in it. If you planted June 10th, you should spray towards the end of July. Your foxtail will have emerged. And end of July spraying will essentially wipe it out.
#6. 1st year results. I'm in northern WI and the grass planted in early June achieved 3 feet with their seed head in the 1st. The grass I planted on June 30th, grew to about 18-24". In the establishment year, I have roughly 98% closed canopy coverage of all areas that I planted. Product I used is Cave-in-rock. Germination rate was only 68% according to the seed seller (Ernst Seed). If the remaining 32% germinates next spring, I will have an extremely thick stand.
#7. 2nd YEAR SPRING - BURN! Switchgrass loves a good burn. You won't damage it at all but stimulate the plants vigor. Plan on burning before May 1st -- ideally April 15th or 15 days before spring green up. A few things happen here. #1, the thatch layers is removed which opens the soil to early spring heat; your ground is black essentially which stimulate plant production. #2, you feed nitrogen back to the grass which provides additional vigor; #3, you promote cool season grasses to emerge earlier; this gives you an opportunity to kill the cool season grasses with a minimum of glyphosate. But do not be afraid to spray 2,4-d and Atrazine with your glyphosate. This will give you a pure stand.
#8. 2nd YEAR FOXTAIL Control. Between the 10th of June and Father's day, spray 5.3oz per acre of Quinclorac. This will NUKE your Foxtail and you will have a massive thick stand.
#9. DON"T WORRY. If you blow your first year stands, one of the best things that you can do is follows step #7. You can recover from your 1st year with a well timed spraying of just glyphosate alone. Grab your thermometer and like Jake stated 55 degrees is what you are looking for.
#10. GAPS, POCKETS and SMALL FAILURES. Don't get too stressed out if you have weak patches that didn't take. You want diversity and these will become future bedding spots.
@@fattroutlounge I'm going to try this. Thank you
@@jsboutdoors If you run into problems, find me. I want youtube regularly.
When do we put in switch grass seed as a “frost seating“ plan? Before the first snow or just before signing in say March in Michigan as the soil is freezing at night and sign during the day? What is the absolute best time to frost seed. ? Thanks drew
Drew, it depends what your latitude is. In the north it is usually better to frost seed before your first snow because we go from late winter to spring in a flash with very few freeze-thaw days after the snow is out. If you waited until your seed could get to the ground in the spring you wouldn't have many or any days of freeze thaw left to work the seed in and stratify it. If you're further south, you may be able to get away with it, but when in doubt I copy nature, and all switchgrass drops seed in late summer before the first snowfall. Tough to argue with our Creator right!
Hi Drew. I've frost seeded in early to mid February and had good results. I'm in mid-Michigan. Spray with atrazine, or simazine, before green up and glyphosate the last week of April. Then wait. And wait some more. Then, wait some more. It'll grow. If you have a broadleaf problem, you can spray 2-4d in late summer. 2-4d will damage or even kill young switch, so you want to wait until the switch has a minimum of four leaves. The later the better.
Drew hopefully you've gotten the help you need here. I've added a video specifically on frost seeding so check that out here - ua-cam.com/video/sxt6bnoZui0/v-deo.html. My Facebook page also has a current post that helps you see what a frost seeding weather forecast looks like. Good luck sir!
What type of sorghum seeds do you plant that get 7' plus?
That is the HD Food Plot screen from Northwoods Whitetails.
Is it too late for me in mid July in the Traverse City Michigan area to start planting switch grass?
If you are no till and the competition is killed off you go right ahead. If you are broadcasting I would get things all killed off and spread after soil temps dip below 50 in October of so.
Sorry the message below is Siri fied. What I meant to ask is as the soil thaws in the spring and then freezes at night, thAWS during the day say March is this the best time to frost seed? As there is opening and closing of the earth with freezing -thawing or better to put the seed in before the first snow? What’s the most predictable? Thanks. Drew
Depends where you are in the country Drew. I’m in northern MN, and we usually don’t get enough freezing overnights after the snow is mostly gone. Best to copy nature and drop seed in the fall. A great time is right before the first snow. I usually advise clients, many of whom are absentee landowners, to put their switch down during deer season in the middle of the day.
I was gonna subscribe but u left out the one thing i was watching this video for lol what ph does switchgrass like acidic or lower acidic should i add lime to help it grow better answer then ill subscribe thanks
Switchgrass will do fine from 5.5-7.5 as most grasses will.
Are you saying put simazine over fresh seeded switch grass seed? Or switchgrass established then hit with simazine?
Either. I personally don’t put chem on seed I’ve just spread. Simazine is a dirt applied chem so as soon as the area is dry you apply. Don’t apply near waterways as it’s the kind of chem that gives frogs six legs. Obviously that means you should take great care when handling it-PPE up sir!
I have food plot I put in cereal rye and brassicas and hybrid sorghum from Northwoods around the edges. I want to turn the food plot into switch grass and sorghum on the edges until switch gets high enough. how do I proceed from here on out to put the switch in the place of the rye and brassicas?
will bothe the cereal rye and brassicas winter kill to the point where I can just frost seed into them or will I have to spray before I frost seed it?
Rye will be back in the spring. You may get a few volunteer brassicas depending on how many dormant seeds you had and if any plants went to seed this fall. Spray gly and simazine mix in mid May when overnight temps are above 50. If you want a great seed bed work the soil, wait until it greens up again, spray, then plant. With a blend of HD plot screen and switch you’ll want to plant together in the spring. The screen needs to get worked into the soil down to an inch or so, then pack, then switch on top, pack. Of course no till makes the process easier, but that all depends on your gear. Good luck!
@@HabitatProLLC what would the seeding rate be per acre of the sorghum and switch mix?
Can I grow switchgrass in SE Oklahoma?
Of course, Chris! In fact, some of the Switchgrass varieties that were developed long ago came from Oklahoma or were developed in your state.
Jake, I have two questions for you.
#1. Have you been able to get good height (5' or greater in November) of Cave in Rock? I think you are in the MN area. I'm a customer of John Komp's in Northern WI, essentially across Green Bay east of John Komp. Mine is tapping out at around 6' in the summer with 1 ft for seed heads which essentially blow away. And then there is natural shrinkage and breakage. Most of my stands are only 4' by fall. And I'm not finding the amount of bedding activity that I would expect. What has been your experience?
#2. Does fertilizer -- superU (coated urea) -- get the plant to grow more? I feel like these plants need a kick. What has been your experience?
Yes, some of my stuff is 5' tall, but this year will be the test. As far as bedding, remember if you don't have something else in there with the switch then it's just cover...like a buckthorn area. If there's nothing to eat, you don't have a bedding area, but rather an escape area or travel corridor. It can also be too thick. Tough to say without walking it. For fertilizer, every plant does better when you add what the soil is lacking. Urea isn't always the cat's meow. I've had some of my best results from 18-9-18-9 with the last number being a shot of sulfur.
@@HabitatProLLC I need to burn and fertiliize mine. It seems to flourish (5-6') in some areas. Then 3-5' in others. I have pockets of fallow areas sprayed with Clethodim roughly 1/8th to 1/2 acre in size. B/c i have very limited Ag in the area, the deer eat the broadleaves and browse in these pockets after the foodplot has been decimated. By and large, I think this had the right ingredients for bedding. However, I've found a high volume of exiting deer from the property each morning, and low volume of daylight bedders.
I recognize that I am surrounded by pine stands and other thickets with denser overhead stem count.
Next, I've planted between 6 and 8 lbs / acre which I would not recommend. 5 is your max. Anything above 5 becomes a wall. Do you have any ideas on how to thin some areas?
Lastly, some seed sellers suggest a straight 5 acre bedding area, no pockets. They have really good success with this strategy. What do deer prefef -- food in the cover OR to have a mono-culture?
@@fattroutlounge if you have cover but it contains no food, then you don't have a bedding area. There has to be food of some kind--weeds, young saplings, perennials, etc. Cover with no food results in bedding very near the edge so they can leave the cover for food during the day. For example, a 40-acre sea of pure switchgrass is great escape cover, but will go largely unused toward the center due to the lack of food.
Where do you source your Quinclorac from and what rate do you spray?
Joe that's always different. It's a bit of a math problem depending on the jug you buy. I usually search up crabgrass quinclorac and then look for a liquid. Some products come as a granular that dissolves but that doesn't work in my tank. Make sure the only ingredient is quinclorac and then you'll have to calibrate and put down the max rate per acre. I have a video on that as well when we get closer to spray season - ua-cam.com/video/By5fC_-7XSo/v-deo.html
www.amazon.com/shop/habitatprollc?listId=2F1JLJI8LR6KJ&ref=idea_share_inf
I've never mowed year one. I only do a cleanup spray 2nd year of gly and simazine then I never touch it.
I've gotten a lot of feedback after this video from guys who have had success several different ways. The one thing I'm going to test is quinclorac-mso on first year stuff to see if it stings the switchgrass seedlings. It would sure be great to have the freedom to do that for the immense foxtail problem we have up here!
@@HabitatProLLC try dual II magnum for the foxtail. It never hurts to have some weeds in the switch stand.
I will look into that sir! Yes, I agree on the weeds, but there comes a point where the new plants suffer, and I am there with this thick stand of foxtail!
Has anyone ever sprayed an old grassy field then disc up the field and plant switch grass
Yessir. When swapping a field from cool season sod grass to warm season natives breaking it up is necessary. I've tried no tilling switch into killed sod but that stuff just doesn't give up easy.
So, I plan on hitting it 2 times with weed killer, then planting. I will broadcast spread, then roll.
Let us know how it turned out. Now that we have the new RC varieties it’s probably time for another “only video you’ll ever need” because that stuff acts completely different! 🤷♂️
From the sounds of the comments it's not really the pursuit of deer hunting but crop growing.
I do enjoy the build more than the hunt.
how much quinclorac you spray and what brand?
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Maximum labeled rate when weeds are young!
Jake I would really benefit from talking to you if you have time. Matthew
My contact info is at the end of my last couple vids sir!
Wow, sounds way too complicated. Any simply substitute?
With switchgrass if you plant it and forget it you will be disappointed.
@@HabitatProLLC it would seem so. Is there anything more simple I could plant such as a briar patch or wild rose?
Of course you could plant whatever you want, but briars and brambles are food and promote deer use. This is screening so I don't want food here.
@@HabitatProLLC sooo....is there another screening planting I could use? Those were just for instance.
@@finallyfriday. Egyptian wheat. But must be planted every year.
Your switchgrass isn't growing because it's getting shaded out by your HD screening from John comp any competition with switchgrass and it will fail
The switch actually did quite well in the combination planting, but the seeding rate was too light for it to take over. It's doing pretty well now and I have moved the swath of HD screen inside the switch. I will overseed with more switch this spring.