# switch grass



## rzdrmh (Dec 30, 2003)

can anyone tell me what switch grass looks like when its just coming up?

I put in 2 acres of switch grass this spring - sprayed with round-up on april 18th. got a pretty decent kill. first of may, i disced it lightly to knock down the dead vegetation and expose a little soil. may 8th i hit it light one more time, broadcast my seed, and then cultipacked it to ensure contact. (some consider drilling it the best way, but i had a few friends that used this method, and it worked for them.)

anyway, i know that its a 21 day germination period, and the area that it was planted in has been a pasture for decades, so its nice, black, moist dirt without any hard pack. there's obviously all kinds of weeds coming up now, and its just about time to do some brush hogging, but i'm wondering if the switch grass is coming in. there's a lot of sprouts of what looks like grass, but i don't know if its just weeds or what. anyway, any advice or what to expect would be appreciated. thanks


----------



## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

Sometimes it takes a summer or two to even see the grass. Quite often a good majority of your seed doesn't even germinate until 
the second spring. But with ideal conditions it can be 2 feet tall the first summer. If you have been getting the rains, and all this hot weather, its probably up.
My brother planted Bluestem, and Indian grass 3 weeks ago, and its a few inches tall. 

The grass will be light green in color. The best way to tell is the long taper. Most grasses have a short taper. "The distance from the point of the grass blade to where it reaches its maximum width". Prairie grasses like switch grass have a long slender taper. When the grasses are drilled in their easier to see because of the rows.


----------



## wecker20 (Mar 10, 2004)

If you used a cultipacker, you should see some kind of row. That's what I always see when I planted clover or ww.


----------



## rzdrmh (Dec 30, 2003)

yes, that's what i thought with the cultipacker as well, but since the ground was moist and mellow, and we've had some subsequent hard rains, the grooves have really disappeared.

just keep mowing it until i get more sign, i guess?

thanks for the tips on identification, bishs.


----------



## johnhunter (Jun 17, 2000)

RZ, your planting protocol should work just fine.

In the first year, you may not be able to positively ID the switchgrass until it goes into dormancy; it will be a different color from the cool season grasses that will likely show up in the plot, and will be a little stiffer.

From what I've been able to observe at my place and elsewhere, is that _most_ of the time, switchgrass doesn't really become a nice stand until year 3.


----------



## wecker20 (Mar 10, 2004)

So what kind of maintenance would you do in that three year period? You wouldn't want to mow the switchgrass would you? I thought I read that controlled burns every 5 years after a good stand is the best way to maintain it or mow every 5 years. What do you do?


----------



## rzdrmh (Dec 30, 2003)

thanks, FL.. guess i'll hold off booking those pheasant hunts for my friends for another couple of years.. :lol: no, really, we've seen more pheasants in the past few years than we've seen in a long time, and i'm hoping to foster our population a little, might even see a deer or two in there... next year, i plan to put a couple acres of clover right next to the switch grass so i've got a roosting/breeding place for the birds, right next to their cover.


----------



## rzdrmh (Dec 30, 2003)

wecker20 said:


> So what kind of maintenance would you do in that three year period? You wouldn't want to mow the switchgrass would you? I thought I read that controlled burns every 5 years after a good stand is the best way to maintain it or mow every 5 years. What do you do?


from what i've read, controlled burns are the best every five years or so, to get rid of the previous years' dead vegetation.

i've also read that you don't want to mow the switchgrass as its growing the first few years, but you want to keep the weeds low to make sure you've got sunshine on the switchgrass. you can brush hog above the switchgrass maybe 3 or 4 times the first year, possibly the second to keep the weeds down.


----------



## Bmac (Jul 7, 2002)

Switchgrass can be identified by looking for a very fine "hair" that is at the base of the blade where it attaches to the stem. Bend the blade down and look closely. If it is switchgrass, you can see the "hair".

Switchgrass can be established in one season with chemical control of other grasses and broadleaves. I planted a few acres on Memorial Day last year and had 3'-4' tall switchgrass by Labor Day. I was in it today and it is over 4' already. I used a mixture of Roundup and Atrazine sprayed a few days after drilling and packing the seed. You can also plant corn as a "cover crop" for the switchgrass and get the benefit of a food plot at the same time.


----------



## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Bmac said:


> .......... You can also plant corn as a "cover crop" for the switchgrass and get the benefit of a food plot at the same time.


Never thought of or heard of that before. Great tip.

L & O


----------



## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

You have some good advice on Switch here. What I recomend when planting switch grass by broadcasting into tilled soil is spray with round up, cultipack, spread the seed and cultipack again. If you spread seed on tilled ground and cultipack, it can get pushed in too deep. This is why I say cultipack, seed, cultipack. But you should be OK with your method at a rate of 10 lbs per acre. Switchgrass will tolerate atrazine but, this is a restricted chemical. 1 quart of atrazine per acre will do a wonderful job of keeping down the broadleafs. You can use 2-4-D (non restricted) on it right now to kill and eliminate the competition of broadleafs, grasses are your biggest enemy when establishing switchgrass and needed to be controlled prior to planting. You should see switchgrass at a height of 1-2' this fall at least. 

The corn food plot idea Bmac spoke of is something I thought of while spaying atrazine on a switchgrass stand. Atrazine is a chemical used on corn to control broadleafs, so I thought if the switch doesnt get that high in a year and I am spraying atrazine on it anyway....Why not grow corn with it? This works best on tilled ground, or better yet in a field that was RR soy last year. Just make sure you are starting on a grassless field. Spray with Round up or generic Glyphosate, till to a fine well fitted soil, Plant your corn with a corn planter, cultipack, spread switchgrass (drill or broadcast, doesnt matter), cultipack again, spray with 1 quart of atrazine per acre and watch the corn and switch grass grow. Little or no impact is made on either the switch grass or corn as far as competition is concerned. You get a free one year food plot while the switch is establishing. Switch grass grows down before it grows up, and can go as deep as 20' to get the nutrients it needs. Use no fertilizer!

Native grasses have become my passion in recent years and my trials have shown me this will work. If you are not seeing good amounts of switch, it is probably due to competition from grasses and weeds. 

If that was my field I would be spraying it with 2-4-D as soon as I could. Dont worry this wont hurt the switchgrass that is growing. 

Good luck


----------

