PF Diverse Prairie Mix and Switch? with pics.

[GSP]

Gents,

I prepped both of these fields the same way. Burned them down with RU last June, disced and cullipacked it. Hit it with RU again in Sept. On March 13 I frost seeded it.

We have had a VERY wet and relatively cold Spring. It has only warmed up in the last 10 days or so.

In one field I planted PF's CP24 & CP38. A mix of big & little bluestem, indiangrass, canada wild rye, switch grass and 19 species of wildflowers. I think I got a decent catch.

What'ya think? Should I be seeing some wildflowers? Does this look like the blue stem coming?

The field I planted to straight switch (Wisconsin ecotype) has me worried. I see nothing coming. And I have a lot of weeds. Is it too early to expect to see switch coming? Can I hit this with 24D? Too late for RU? I'm really open to suggestions here.

 

[1GB]

Should I be seeing some wildflowers?

I doubt that you'd see many actual flowers this soon.

Is it too early to expect to see switch coming? Can I hit this with 24D? Too late for RU? I'm really open to suggestions here.

Switch is slow to establish IMO. I wouldn't expect to see a whole bunch unless your field prep was excellent, and even then it wouldn't look real impressive yet.

For 2-4D you should wait until the switch has grown a bit more and has 3-4 leaves so it doesn't get damaged. Yes, this is hard to tell when you can't find much to evaluate to begin with.

You can't use RU at this time because you'll smoke the switch grass.

While the switch is growing you could mow in order to top off the weeds and enable the switch to keep from being smothered. Once the NWSGs go dormant this fall, then you could use RU to burn back the CSGs and any forbs that are still growing (known to some as weeds, but IMO keeping some weeds is a good idea). If not this fall, next spring before the NWSGs wake up would work as well, but IME fall spraying seems to result in a more complete kill.

 

[oldandnew]

Just my opinion but I think we use way to much herbicide now. If your goal is pheasant habitat the native weeds will be as good as the plot mix. I spot spray for noxious weeds, disc annually to provide open ground, burn when needed. I rejoice over ragweed volunteers. We had a lot more birds before we became chemical farmers, I don't think it's a coincidence. If you disc and burn to favor the switchgrass and Bluestem it will eventually prevail, diversity is good anyway. Might not be as tidy or emotionally satisfying. Only question is why in the world would you plant canadian rye?

 

[FCSpringer]

Yep you need to wait for the leaves as said. The seed grower I talked with said 5 leaves and then you can spray. But as said you could mow the tops off the weeds. But if you have young grass showing you don't want to drive over them either. Maybe a wide sickle mower to do less damage.

 

[FCSpringer]

And yes I would not support any more PF using C rye. They even bit me when I did not want it by leaving there crap in the drill I used. I am no longer a member till they change thier ways. I like to run my dogs in CRP, Not run them in for 10,000$ surgery's.

Your field looks good other wise. To get rid of the Rye, mow at 8-10 inches tall before it heads out. Then spray the whole field with Round up when it greens up first thing in the spring. Warm season grasses will germinate 3 weeks later. So you will be killing the cool seasons off, Rye Brome etc. I am going to do this from advice from one of the big seed producers. He said you will get most of it and doing this 2 years should get it all. But use good true round up. Do not let it seed out. But do your selves a favor and get rid of it. PS wild flower seed can be added back in easy broad casting if you get some of them. You can buy pure wild flower seed from these guys too. And even varities you want.

 

[GSP]

Is the aversion to having rye in the mix only due to the awns?

From the research I have done and my personal experience, the awn has settled into the dirt by late fall and winter. My dogs won't be in a field with it or fox tail until Nov.

What's the other rub on rye? It makes up 15% of the grass mix in this particular PF offering.

Thank you all for the advice. I will brush hog the switch field in a week or so when the weeds get taller.

 

[oldandnew]

For me it's all about the awns. The stuff will migrate as well to other areas where you don't want it. At your latitude it may very well be in the soil by the time you hunt the area and I'll assume you never excercise your dog there in the off season, though I can't imagine why not. Here in the lower midwest we encounter this nasty invader during the peak of the hunting season. Even if in or on the ground, the awns work their way up through the pad, or inhaled into the nostrils, or even punctured through the skin. Why take a chance. There are dozens of native plants that provide the same benefit without the risks. The cure is expensive if even possible. I'd just as soon hunt my dog in a Palmetto swale with gators, cottonmouth, and rattlesnakes, they call them $100.00 dogs in the south ,because no bird hunter spends more than $100 on his dog because the life expectancy is short, I equate consistently hunting in the canadian rye as the same risk. It's not if it's when. How lucky are you?

 

[GSP]

Thanks O&N. It is certainly a very good consideration. It has been some time since I looked at it, but as memory seves, the "barbed stem" disassociates from the awn at the end of it's life cycle. This would explain why I have never seen nor heard of a dog bein affected during our pheasant season (Oct. 20 opener).

That said, I agree, there's no way in hell I would exercise my dogs in the field prior. For that matter, so much of the farm land around here is infested with fox tail that hardly any local is safe.

Fortunately, we have big woods here and a lot more grouse than pheasants. As such 75% of my hunting occurs in the woods, absent from awns. As such, the vast majority of my exercising and training occurs in the grouse woods. So holding off on the pheasants until late fall doesn't impact me terribly.

All that said, it does seem logical for PF to eliminate rye from their mix and I will consider this for future plantings.