I had an occasion to join a duck club locally. I new about it forever, close and has been good performer. 80 acres, mostly floodable, and diked. What I saw was kind of a mess. The new guys there have started the reclamation. Mowing, even burning, hot enough to cost us some blinds! The cord grass and catails are 4-5 foot tall, no open water around several blinds, which have not been used for a few years. The blessing is that it is so dry now, we can get in there, and get it out. I hope! The problem is, it stays wet, most years, and you can't get the water out. It is drained to an irrigation ditch but is graded shallow, and the water doesn't flow out. Secondly, we have really fine moist soil plants we don't want destroy with chemicals. ( Conservation Commision wishes they had them). Some have said lets put water on it longer, but we tried that, made the cattails, cord grass stronger. depth with water around 15"- 30". We have dry soil, time is now, what do we do? I hope some somebody somewhere has seen this, it's like a jungle, almost to thick to cut, roots come back crowding out ducks, beneficial plants, and US! The property is flooded by our own well and pump easily, so when it dosen't rain, we will have one of the few places with water. A winning suggestion can come and ducks as my guest this season! I think that you pheasant/waterfowlers can help us out.
Marsh choked to death! Help!
- Thread starter oldandnew
- Start date
morrismike
New member
We had a 5 acre stock tank at my old club in TX and cleaning it up was easy. You need to reclaim (and hold) it one piece at a time. Wade in with a machete (or power cutter) and hack out a section. Repeat often. When the catails recover back to around 2 feet tall hit them with roundup (if you're inclined to do it legal pay extra for Rodeo). The trick is to get every single plant as they have a massive root system that just a few plants can keep alive.
It just comes down to killing it all, there is no control for cattails once they've established that massive root network. Putting water on cattails is like fighting fire with gasoline.
It just comes down to killing it all, there is no control for cattails once they've established that massive root network. Putting water on cattails is like fighting fire with gasoline.
1pheas4
Moderator
Here's what we did at TallGrass Rest. in areas that had quality plants established and we didn't want to kill the good stuff off we'd either;
1. wear a cloth glove on one hand, spray the glove with a small spray bottle full of herbicide, and literally one by one grab the cattails (or whatever you wish to kill off) and rub the herbicide on each plant. From the bottom up.
2. cut the cattails at the root and drown them out once you flood it again.
3. pull each plant individually and drowned them out.
4. herbicide the whole dang thing and start over. lol
Just an idea too, if you're going to leave it dry for some time, cut the dang things at the base and let them dry up and die out. Of course this will only work if we stay in drought.
Either way O&N, you guys will have some work ahead of you. It's not fun hauling those cattails out of there either if you decide to cut or pull.
A small pile takes up a lot of room.
Good luck. Sounds like it could be a duck paradise.
1. wear a cloth glove on one hand, spray the glove with a small spray bottle full of herbicide, and literally one by one grab the cattails (or whatever you wish to kill off) and rub the herbicide on each plant. From the bottom up.
2. cut the cattails at the root and drown them out once you flood it again.
3. pull each plant individually and drowned them out.
4. herbicide the whole dang thing and start over. lol
Just an idea too, if you're going to leave it dry for some time, cut the dang things at the base and let them dry up and die out. Of course this will only work if we stay in drought.
Either way O&N, you guys will have some work ahead of you. It's not fun hauling those cattails out of there either if you decide to cut or pull.
A small pile takes up a lot of room.Good luck. Sounds like it could be a duck paradise.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
You're dealing with 80 acres of problems. Wiping with a glove is going to be underkill. Most of the beneficial plants are annuals. The problems are generally perennials. You are in need of some severe disturbance. Fire and disking are in order here. If you can get in with an ATV, you can drag a plank with a chain behind your ATV and knock down the growth. Follow that with about a 2Qt/ac shot of Roundup or Rodeo. With the ATV you can be more precise, leaving motts of quality herbaceous cover while taking out the problem plants.
If you can go bigger, you need to dry out as much as possible and get in there with a large offset disk. Disk it down to bare dirt and overseed with Japanese millet at 10lbs/ac. Pump a bit to get it started and occasionally you could moisten it up if it gets dry. Next year, you could just go with moist-soil management and utilize the annuals that will respond to the disking.
Another option is to take an excavator in there and dig deeper holes. These should have 45-60 inches of water in them when full. That will provide "landing holes" for ducks within the shallower/weedier cover. If you want to "plan" for long-term benefits, you could make canals in the shape of an E with additional horizontal legs across the marsh so that the flats drained into the canals and led to the outlet. That would make for several manageable units that could be dried out better to facilitat disking and burning. You could treat units in a rotation so you have several successional stages available to waterfowl every year.
If you can go bigger, you need to dry out as much as possible and get in there with a large offset disk. Disk it down to bare dirt and overseed with Japanese millet at 10lbs/ac. Pump a bit to get it started and occasionally you could moisten it up if it gets dry. Next year, you could just go with moist-soil management and utilize the annuals that will respond to the disking.
Another option is to take an excavator in there and dig deeper holes. These should have 45-60 inches of water in them when full. That will provide "landing holes" for ducks within the shallower/weedier cover. If you want to "plan" for long-term benefits, you could make canals in the shape of an E with additional horizontal legs across the marsh so that the flats drained into the canals and led to the outlet. That would make for several manageable units that could be dried out better to facilitat disking and burning. You could treat units in a rotation so you have several successional stages available to waterfowl every year.
1pheas4
Moderator
If the grounds isn't dry enough for ATV's/dragging, you can have two guys holding a plank (2x4's work great) knock down/bend the cattails as you go. Have a 3rd guy spraying the cattails as the bend from the plank. This allows the cattails to be exposed to the herbicide for a good kill.
We've done this a few times where there was no way of getting machines in there. You can knock out quiet a bit.
O&N are you looking to touch the whole area or just sections of this property?
We've done this a few times where there was no way of getting machines in there. You can knock out quiet a bit.
O&N are you looking to touch the whole area or just sections of this property?
It all needs it! I am concerned with this area, if we don't get it now, we get it done! We are in a historic dry spell, with 100 degree heat every day for two weeks. We have a good well, sub-irrigated from the Missouri River. Dry weather will not harm us for duck hunting, in fact it's the fact that it is too wet, normally. We may be the only guys with water, if you can't WRP's generally aren't pumpable, and it might be a huge cost to fuel the diesel pumps to do the rest, at least here we have an electric pump, about 2 weeks will get about 68 acres under around 30" inches. Water might be enough but food would be nice. Thanks, to you guys, I was afraid it was a brutal task, I read the North Dakota/USFG war on cattails! Come to Kansas City, I take you out. Like all clubs, nobody goes when the ducks are here, crowded in cattails, with unseasonal warm last fall, they had 500 ducks, utilizing about 30 acres, and a lot of geese, they swing around this area, which is all corn and soy beans and feed and then go back to the river, about 2 miles away.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Oldandnew, you have to have food to hold ducks. Once you get under about 200 pounds of food per acre, the ducks won't stay. You've got to set succession back to get the food producing plants. Disturbance is necessary. Use this dry period. It's the best chance you'll get.
1pheas4
Moderator
Dang Prairie Drifter, you're good dude.
I had no idea it was that high. That's a lot of food. Thanks for sharing. Think I might have to hit one of my duck hunting ponds while we're still in drouth and get something in there. This could be the reason a week after duck season starts they stop flocking on the pond even with little pressure
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Combine low food and hunting pressure and the ducks just won't stay.
ehudgens
Active member
Unfortunately, I'm an expert at killing cattails. They are one of the hardest plants to kill, and after a ton of research and experimentation I have finally succeeded in getting rid of them in my pond.
Since your marsh is dry, you can probably use roundup vs rodeo. I've also had great success with the generic herbicide that I bought at Menards for 1/4 of the price of roundup. Just look at the ingredients mix on the back of the carton. The primary ingredient in Roundup is Glysophate.
You have to mix your round up at a 2% mixture. So if you have a 25 gallon spayer, you need to mix in 64 ounces of roundup. In addition to the round up, you need to add a surfactant to mix as well. This is EXTREMELY important. Without the surfactant the roundup does not stick to the cattail and it will not kill them. All you are doing is wasting time and money. You need 16 ounces of surfactant for every 25 gallons of mix.
With 80 acres you have quite a task in front of you. It takes about 10 days for the plants to completely die. Once dead you can burn them or mow them. Good luck, if you have any questions, you can email me at ehudgens@ftdi.com.
Since your marsh is dry, you can probably use roundup vs rodeo. I've also had great success with the generic herbicide that I bought at Menards for 1/4 of the price of roundup. Just look at the ingredients mix on the back of the carton. The primary ingredient in Roundup is Glysophate.
You have to mix your round up at a 2% mixture. So if you have a 25 gallon spayer, you need to mix in 64 ounces of roundup. In addition to the round up, you need to add a surfactant to mix as well. This is EXTREMELY important. Without the surfactant the roundup does not stick to the cattail and it will not kill them. All you are doing is wasting time and money. You need 16 ounces of surfactant for every 25 gallons of mix.
With 80 acres you have quite a task in front of you. It takes about 10 days for the plants to completely die. Once dead you can burn them or mow them. Good luck, if you have any questions, you can email me at ehudgens@ftdi.com.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Good information ehudgens. Don't rush the fire or mowing after the plants brown down. The chemical is still moving to the roots, give it some time to fully translocate and kill the roots or it will return on you. This is more than a 1 time treatment. You'll need to stay after it. Don't skimp on the surfactant as ehudgens said. The waxy coating on the leaves is hard to penetrate.