# Planting switchgrass in sandy soil



## bookerdestroyer350 (Feb 13, 2012)

I was wondering if anybody has had any experience in planting switchgrass with out using a planter for native grasses. I'm looking on planting on some fields this spring. Any answers would be helpful! Thanks


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## Honker (Aug 1, 2005)

The Cave in Rock that I have planted loves the sandy soil over everything else. 

It depends what is growing on the fields now. I have had good success frost seeding switch into sod in March and then spraying the sod in late April with roundup and simazine. But if there is to much thatch this may not work.


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## Hunters Edge (May 15, 2009)

I worked the ground up and added lime and fertilizer. Most of my property is clay with sand a foot to two feet down but I have a hill about 2 acres of sand. When I purchased from PF they offer two kinds and one was identified better for sandy soils so I purchased two bags of Cave Rock and one of the other to make sure of the hill I had. It appears both have done well but the first year it is not up very high supposedly the first year the growth is in the roots. Now on the sand part looks just as good as the clay but remember last year we had lots of water. Any way I can only tell you what I know or my experience.

Worked ground as mentioned plowed than broke it up by several times across and angled over field with disc's than a cultipacker. I then used a broadcaster and it was hard to see seed it is very very small. Then after many passes to make sure of coverage used a cultipacker to just get it in the ground it seemed to work well in both clay and sand. On a side note the sand on a hill very steep and was not disced as much as the clay it would actually bog down disc dragging and piling dirt which I had to avoid. Then cultipacker to pack it down before planting you do not want the seed to deep.

If I remember right had a class early this year and they were saying if the field is ready you can even spead it out in normal weather in Nov and Dec it will stay dorment under normal conditions until spring remember it is a warm grass not a cool grass.

Hope this info is helpful


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## ezcaller (Feb 21, 2009)

We have frost seeded some switch grass dividers and screens in the Gladwin area.And have had some success. Do not mistake the low first year growth for anything suspicious and remove it- let it grow. Check out dbltree posts on switchgrass to see what new switchgrass looks like. The second season of growing will tell you a lot and the third should give you what your looking for.


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## misfire (Nov 23, 2011)

I've planted cave-in-rock with good success. I used a disc to break the ground added fertilizer and broadcast the seed. It worked pretty well. I've also done some frost seeding with the cave-in-rock and that also seems to work quite well but it takes more pounds of seed per acre using either of these methods. They say you should mow it down the first year of two to give it a good start but I never did and in 3 years it was over 6 foot tall.


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