# Switchgrass with Corn and Sorghum



## DeltonTom (Oct 2, 2006)

Going to broadcast corn and sorghum and lightly disc, then cultipac and broadcast switchgrass and cultipack again. I have a farmer friend who can spray atrazine, hope to have food and cover while the switch gets established. Has anyone tried this? Ive been reading on this, can also add 

big blue to the mix. 

Experimenting is half the fun for me!


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## chevyjam2001 (Feb 14, 2002)

Atrazine will kill the big blue stem.


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## JBIV (Jan 29, 2004)

We had good luck with corn and switchgrass, not to far from you either, just north west of Dowling. The areas where atrazine was used grew to waist high or better the first year. A couple spots we did not use atrazine (steep slopes, worried about erosion), very little switchgrass showed up and what did was maybe 6". We are hoping those area will fill in. I am intrested to know how the sorghum does in the same process. Please post on your results


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## DeltonTom (Oct 2, 2006)

Read on pg 14 of aatrex4l label for use on newly seeded big blue, on crp land. I bought 4 lbs of bb to mix in. I just dont like a monoculture of switch for visual appeal. Just a little experiment. Hoping the switch will hold up the bb in the winter.


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

I wrote a post a year or so ago ago on how to do this with switch and corn. If you do a search you may be able to find it. I would caution you on using too much corn and sorghum in the mix as I have always done it with corn in a corn planter, I would suggest no more than 8 lbs per acre of corn and sorghum. As far as mixing in Bluestem, eventually the Switch will become a monoculture anyway. It will take over any other grasses, and as was already stated the atrazine will affect the bluestem. I am sure your idea will work just fine.


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## steveboss (Sep 4, 2002)

What does switchgrass and corn do together, and what is atrazine. I want to plant switchgrass also does the corn help the switch grass grow? I don't want to sound dumb but this sounds interesting.


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

Steveboss- The reason for planting the corn and switch together is due to the fact that most native warm season grass of which switchgrass is one of, grows very slowly. You should expect to see a height of 2-3 feet the first year. This will allow you to grow a "free food plot" of corn the first year with no effect on the switchgrass growth. There is very little competition between the two with proper weed control. Atrazine is a restricted chemical that you can get if you have a chemical license. It is used to control weeds in corn and is equally tolerated by the switchgrass. Thus you have eliminated all weeds, established your switch and gotten the "free food plot" of corn in year one. The corn stalks will also assist in holding up the switch for a couple years. Be sure to start with a field that is free of all grasses as the Atrazine will not control them. Round-up applied to the field while it is green prior to planting will solve this. 

If anyone is a computer guru and knows how to link old threads to this one feel free to do so. Search "corn and switchgrass" with my name in the response will give you the exact recipe to pull this off. I found a couple of them but dont know how to link it.


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## omega58 (Sep 3, 2003)

Here are the links for you:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137504&highlight=corn+switchgrass

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100942&highlight=corn+switchgrass


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## DeltonTom (Oct 2, 2006)

This spring i planted 10 lbs of sorghum with 5lbs of switch and a couple of BB on disced and cultipacked ground around 2 acres. Then had everything sprayed with atrazine. Things got off to a slow start from the drought. Did a small area without sorghum for a control area. 
The sorghum came in way to thick but there is still some switch to be found some from six inches to three feet tall. seems like the grasses are taller with the sorghum than in the control area. It looks like competion from the sorghum helped the switch. in the control plot you can see the little brown switch plants but there is alot of comp from green grasses at this time. I had them spray atrazine at 1 quart per acre. 
Now i have a couple of questions for the pros. Should i reseed everything with more switch this spring or spray with gly and atrazine? and should i mow the sorghum off early this spring.
The deer have been feeding in the sorghum during the gun season and also bedding there so it seems a success will try some more this coming spring its been fun anyway Tom


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

I am glad to here it worked for you. I would not reseed anything until I gave it another year. Mowing off the sorghum is a good idea, but I would leave it 8" tall. To kill off the green that is there now I would spray it with no more than 1 quart of Glyphosate in the spring, no need for the atrazine again unless it looks like its getting a lot of weed comp. When I say spring, I mean about the first of may and the green stuff is up and growing while the Warm season switch has not really come up. Switch will take a quart of glyphosate after establishment and recover.


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## Anderson (May 17, 2005)

Why would you mow the Sorghum? It seems like just another trip so enlighten me. Just curious


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## chevyjam2001 (Feb 14, 2002)

Tom, did you broadcast all of the seeds or did you use a planter for the sorghum?


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## DeltonTom (Oct 2, 2006)

I broadcasted the sorghum seeds first on disced ground with a shoulder spreader like Ed spin uses. then cultipacked, spread switch and cultipacked again.
I asked about mowing because i wondered if the flattened sorghum plants would keep the switch from coming up and it would be much easier to spray roundup with my quad.
I do have an old corn planter dont know the brand though, it used to have a indian on it. It has one set of metal plates tried it on my corn seemed the seeds were to big for the plate better off broadcasting those too. May have to try it for sorghum then broadcast switch this time around. Tom


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## orion (Apr 8, 2002)

Mow the sorghum to allow the spray to reach the new green undesirables.


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## sjhawkeye (Apr 25, 2006)

DeltonTom said:


> I broadcasted the sorghum seeds first on disced ground with a shoulder spreader like Ed spin uses. then cultipacked, spread switch and cultipacked again.
> I asked about mowing because i wondered if the flattened sorghum plants would keep the switch from coming up and it would be much easier to spray roundup with my quad.
> I do have an old corn planter dont know the brand though, it used to have a indian on it. It has one set of metal plates tried it on my corn seemed the seeds were to big for the plate better off broadcasting those too. May have to try it for sorghum then broadcast switch this time around. Tom


Tom, how did you spead the switch seed? I planted some last year and tried mixing it with saw dust with several different spreaders (spin cast) and eventually just scattered it by hand.

thanks,

scott


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## JBIV (Jan 29, 2004)

Hey Tom, thanks for posting your results. We added a little more switchgrass to our property this summer also. With the drought in that area I was supprised anything came up. This years planting of switchgrass got to about knee high, not as good as the year before, but I was happy. We again added corn to the mix, and again the turkeys just about picked us clean. Our 2 year old Switchgrass looked great, 6' tall and thick (maybe to thick). Next year I would like to try a border of sorghum around the switchgrass. A couple questions for you. What kind of sorghum did you use? How high did it get? When did the deer start feeding on it? And how high is it now? 
Thanks again
Jason


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## DeltonTom (Oct 2, 2006)

Hey Scott. i just used the switch grass seed with no filler. put just a little seed in and adjusted the opening till it barely came out. It took a long time to use up the seed used y tracks in the cultipacked dirt to keep somewhat of a spacing. The BB seed i did by hand in clumps every few feet. The planting in the control plot without sorghum looks like plants about one and a half feet apart, I would rather have 
it thin and clumpy. It will be interesting to see how it does this year!
Jason i got the sorghum seed from pheasants forever it was a mix, hieghts of 2 to 8 foot. The deer didnt really start feeding on it untill recently. This planting was to establish cover and a screen round my perrenial clover plots and annual ww and brassica plots. since my plots are in old ag fields that are starting to grow up with trees. See my property pic where the plus sign is i have 3 treestands on that row you can see the linear food plots sorhum and switch just to the north of the food plots. I want to plant spruces for a bedding area in the middle of the back field. Wish i could afford to have North Jeff come down to help with layout. Later Tom​


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