I have an area done in 2009 where I have not mowed. Warm-season seed is in the ground. To this day its still 100% cool seasons. Not a blade of warm-seasons emerging. I don't want cool seasons in that area I want warm-seasons.
Should I just keep waiting and hope for the best? Or maybe it's time to get some prescribe/timely mowing in there next summer?
QUOTE]
1Pheas4.
Im by no means an expert, but Ive been struggling with cool season brome in a restoration that I did 7 years ago.
Its a wooded meadow on the west side of my acreage. This is what it looked like when I bought the acreage. I disc'd it up the first year and planted RR soybeans in it so I could kill as much as the brome as possible, then did a fall frost planting of Big Blue, Indian, and a little Switch.. First year was done with maintainance mowing, second year was done with spot mowing, and the third year I left it grow, but built a 45x66 shed next to it, and a part of it got torn up by the construction equipment needed to build the shed.
This is what it looked like when I bought it.
Loking North:
Looking South:
When it got tore up from construction, weeds took over and I have been mowing that portion of it for a few years now.. I have been experimenting with a roundup dose in early spring to set back the cool seasons, and have been happy with that approach, as it does work quite well, if you hit it before the warm seasons emerge.
After several years of mowing the tore up area, I decided to try a different approach this year.. A more aggresive attack on the cool seasons.... and the weeds. I mowed it all off short, let it dry, and then did a controlled burn on the meadow in early April. Then, I let the cool seasons emerge, and hit them with a dose of roundup. Then, I took my disc and I disced up the whole area and then applied a pre emergent called Prowl to stop any weed seeds from growing in the disturbed/ disc'd area. My theory in doing this was that cool season grasses are typically sod forming grasses and have shallow root system, while BBS, IG, and SG are clump forming and have a deep root system. Discing tore up the shallow cool season root system, and chopped off the residue and leveled off the clumps.. I did this more as an experiment to see if it would work, and if it did, so be it, if it didnt, I was going to start from scratch again on the meadow with a total reseed.. I gotta tell you, it worked like a dream.. This is the nicest stand of BBS Ive had in 7 years. Even the area behind the shed that was tore up, filled in nicely..
Here is what it looks like yesterday:
North:
South
My advisor on my restoration was truly amazed at the difference between last year and this year.
7 years into the project, I wish I knew then, what I know now..
There is no "instant gratification" in any type of prairie restoration.
http://imageevent.com/okoboji_images/newfarm?n=0&z=2&c=4&x=0&m=24&w=0&p=0