Cleaning up waterways - when to plant native seed?

southernblues

southernblues

New member
Had some terraces rebuilt and had the dozer clear through some old waterways that was busting water into fields.

It's all nice and shiny and we need to get some grasses in there. I'm thinking some wheat and maybe bluestem/native? Suggestions?

Also, when can I broadcast the seed? It was mostly native grass before so I think the seed bed will do fine coming up, but want to help gingerly along, if you know what i mean?
 
I guess I would want more information. What are your goals with the resultant habitat? What are your soil types? How many acres are you talking about? Do you have access to a no-till drill? What are the adjacent habitat types? What's lacking in the way of habitat? What species are you trying to benefit? What life stage are you trying to enhance?

The things that you can do right now are somewhat limited. Planting wheat soon will give you a cover crop. You still have time to plan and plant after establishing the cover crop.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
I guess I would want more information. What are your goals with the resultant habitat? What are your soil types? How many acres are you talking about? Do you have access to a no-till drill? What are the adjacent habitat types? What's lacking in the way of habitat? What species are you trying to benefit? What life stage are you trying to enhance?

The things that you can do right now are somewhat limited. Planting wheat soon will give you a cover crop. You still have time to plan and plant after establishing the cover crop.
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Troy-

My goal is to get some grass in my waterways before a gulley washer hits! :)

We just cleaned out the waterway -- I've got 7 terraces that dump into it, it's only 1.5 acres long --- thought about wheat/native just to get something in there. Prior to cleaning it out, lots of trees/brush and native...maybe little brome and little fescue where water stood.

Not trying to create the premo habitat area, want to keep my soil from washing out the end -- wanted some quail friendly grasses in there. Didn't know with it being Sept if I should wait or go ahead an broadcast native grass.

BTW -- it's been a week and where there was moisture, I can already see grass trying to come up.
 
Quick cover crop, go for oats or rye, seed in your prairie grass along with it. Cut when ripe, before growing season for warm season grass. at least that's what I'd do, and has worked for me before.
 
Your two goals kind of oppose one another. The most quail friendly grasses are not suited to a high capacity waterway for erosion control. If you don't manage for the erosion control, you will expect to have a high repair/rebuilding bill down the road. Your best option is to plant wheat as a cover crop right now and seed in Blackwell switchgrass next spring or this winter at about 8 pounds per acre. Planting smooth brome is often used, but the wildlife benefits are almost zero. Also, brome is a nitrogen hungry animal and costs more to maintain.
 
Southernblues, if you plan to broadcast your seed, you'll need to up the seeding rate by 50-100% to make up for seed lost due to a multitude of reasons.
 
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