Grasses for bedding area

[boonechaser]

I have approx 4 acre's of rolling hay ground I am thinking about turning into a deer bedding area. The field join's a 5 acre existing deer sanctuary consisting of briar thicket's. I have seen on here about a quick growing tall grass that some guy's were using. What is it's name?? Where can I get it?? Can I drill into existing grass in spring or do I need to kill off existing grass, till and then drill seed??? thanks for the input

[throbak]

Boone look at the Pics I posted one the plant I'd thread ILive near pleasant I can show you in the field All the Bedding grasses that are non invasive and native to Indiana growing on my farm the grass I think you want is Alamo Switch grass I have it And Cave in rock in solid stands and mixtures also Big blue dominant stands Indian grass dominant stands

[swilk]

I'm sure you know but in case you don't go over to the qdma forums and read up....a few guys over there have a lot of experience with it.

Instead of pure stands of switchgrass you might try a mixture of switch, other grasses and various pines or other such trees.

I frost seeded about an acre of cave in rock switch a few years ago into a disced area and it did really well.

I'm scared to burn it so I'm not sure exactly how many years it'll last......

[esshup]

Dec 17, 2014 14:32:37 GMT -5 throbak said:

Boone look at the Pics I posted one the plant I'd thread ILive near pleasant I can show you in the field All the Bedding grasses that are non invasive and native to Indiana growing on my farm the grass I think you want is Alamo Switch grass I have it And Cave in rock in solid stands and mixtures also Big blue dominant stands Indian grass dominant stands

throbak:

Thanks for posting that. I have a 6 acre field that I will be burning this Spring, and have to re-seed. It was planted before the drought hit and not much took. So, it's time for a reseeding. It buts up to an 80 acre woods that is pretty much a sanctuary - the owners are absentee landowners, and nobody hunts it. There's another 80 acre parcel next to it that I hunt, and the field is part of the 80 acres that I can hunt.

I can't find those locally here in Northern Indiana. Where to get and what's the planting rates?

[throbak]

Call Tom Applegate at Brook Indiana 219 275 3664 hes up north .. what you want as far as seed depends on your objective how long ago was the drought ?? for birds you use a lot less seed for bedding more Tom is very familiar with all the CRP programs and what the intended management practice was for I have drilled seed that was from 87.00 per acre to almost 700.00 acre ( Wetland stuff) most plans call for around 5 lbs pls per acre for bedding I would go higher up to 10 but 8 will be ok seed prices fluctuate I always use Toms Seed Never a problem on anything seed related. I drilled 10 lbs per acre one time to get 4# pls.

[esshup]

Thanks. The drought was in 20012/20013. The soil is very sandy, so that compounded the drought problem. Just got done liming the field yesterday. More for deer bedding and for a visual screen for people driving by.

The place is near Knox in Starke County.

Just got done transplanting some trees with a tree spade. Top 10" is loam, then it turns to yellow sugar/blow sand. In some of the holes, by the time we got back with the plug, there was 6" of water in the bottom of the hole. So, hopefully there will be some moisture in the ground next Spring (if we have a normal snow pack this winter).

The state biologist stopped by last Spring and said she had the same problem - planted before the drought and had really poor germination. She said to wait a year and see what germinated with the wetter year that was predicted. Well, the wait is over - very little seemed to germinate last spring/summer.

[trophyparadise]

Dec 19, 2014 10:07:05 GMT -5 esshup said:

Thanks. The drought was in 20012/20013. The soil is very sandy, so that compounded the drought problem. Just got done liming the field yesterday. More for deer bedding and for a visual screen for people driving by.

The place is near Knox in Starke County.

Just got done transplanting some trees with a tree spade. Top 10" is loam, then it turns to yellow sugar/blow sand. In some of the holes, by the time we got back with the plug, there was 6" of water in the bottom of the hole. So, hopefully there will be some moisture in the ground next Spring (if we have a normal snow pack this winter).

The state biologist stopped by last Spring and said she had the same problem - planted before the drought and had really poor germination. She said to wait a year and see what germinated with the wetter year that was predicted. Well, the wait is over - very little seemed to germinate last spring/summer.

Your place sounds very similar to one of mine. I have a farm near culver that has the same blow sand. I will be planting a switchgrass/ Indian grass blend very soon.....once most of this snow is gone

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[steiny]

Just burnt off about 20 acres of these grasses Saturday.
Don't forget to allow for fire breaks around these grasses so they can be burned. It's good policy do burn them about every three or four years.