Canary Grass

[Jeff]

Much of the 40 at the cabin has been inundated with canary grass that has migrated in from the big power transmission right of way where I am guessing it was planted in the wet areas.  Our water tables are so high now that what were once farm fields 60 years ago are now probably included in the state's prized wetlands.

Pete used to keep it at bay with copious amounts of round up. Im not so sure that's not part of what killed him and not something I'm big on firing back up.



 

 

 

[mike_belben]

Wow.. Thats a problem.  


Has anyone tried controlled burning?

[Southside]

So I am going to ask why it's a problem.  Looks like bunny, quail and grouse cover to me.  

[mike_belben]

Looks like invitation for ticks rattlers, copperheads and wildfire if it were in my yard. 

[Jeff]

It chokes all other vegetation out. You can't walk through without tangling your feet and I've never shot a bird or rabbit in it. Those areas pictured use to be quite diverse before the eastern larch beetle took out almost all the larch.  Maybe if I can find that topic there will be some old before pics.

[Jeff]

Here is a before and now picture of the same tree and area from back when the larch were dieing. 



 

[Southside]

Gotcha. If it weren't introduced I would say it's filling a void, which it sort of is but clearly is aggressive. 

Round up alone will only kill that generation of plant, but there is plenty of seed in the soil bank now so you need something more aggressive to overtake that area once you knock it back. 

Like Mike said, what about a burn and immediately plant clover or a clover / orchard grass mix to get ahead of it? Definitely need plants that like wet feet. 

[Jeff]

By the end of winter, the grass will be matted back to the ground. It reemerges from a thick but shallow bed of risons and of course, billions of seed.

[thecfarm]

WOW!! That stuff took right over!!!  :(

[mike_belben]

Man thats a chore to tackle.  


I wonder about rototilling and spraying the new shoots for a few cycles.  


Im afraid it seems that left unchecked, its gonna turn that whole region into a prarie when the current stand fails to secure a replacement.     :(

[mike_belben]

Anyone talked about class action effort to get the powerline to remediate? 

[Jeff]

Hah!

[Southside]

Anyone got a few head of cattle around? 

[clearcut]

NRCS offers these suggestions.  Looks like a challenge to control even using herbicides. 

[Don P]

Looks like what japanese stiltgrass has done here, it stops succession, nothing can get up through it.

[SwampDonkey]

Only thing that is going to keep that stuff at bay is shade. Plant some spruce plugs with a ground cover like around squash plants in fields and bare root paper birch with wood chip mulch around the stems for 4 feet to slow the takeover of the grass around the birch. The birch is the most work, so just a few among the spruce. Plant as soon as the frost is gone. Once they are 4 feet high the grass isn't going to kill them.

Only effective thing otherwise is herbicide and plow or fire in combination. Lots of hard work my friend. Does Michigan have any assistance for woodlot owners as far as siviculture and seedlings? You're not a young feller anymore. It's going to be a battle.

Here is an old study (2007)

https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/e/48913/files/2013/10/Hovick-Reinartz-2007-Wetlands.pdf

[saskatchewanman]

Reed canary grass has overrun most wetlands in my area, especially those that dry out by early summer. The loss of the larch and rising water tables likely both contributed. Can you dry the site out and re-establish some trees? Looks like it would be a nightmare to try to spray. You could possibly try to contain it with herbicides and keep it from spreading to new areas.

Deer and pheasant's love hiding in it here.

Not the greatest cow feed but it is widely hayed especially during drought years.

[Southside]

I've never shot a bird or rabbit in it

I didn't say anything about it being good hunting - I said it was good COVER for bunnies and birds - and you confirmed it as such, that or you need more target practice.  :D

[Jeff]

All cover and no food makes for no critters.

[Southside]

True that - we see that here in the plantation pine.  Not a speck of green on the forest floor.  

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, the hares live off woody plants in the winter and they love spruce seedlings to unfortunately.

I had a damp spot all in white spruce that were growing nicely for 3 years, then the hares moved in one winter. Sure thinned them out. But a walk through there this fall after 20 years has gone by, revealed that the spacing between them, cedar and balm is going to be about right. If you look at any natural mature site of spruce on damp ground it's not thick anyway. Cedar comes in thick though. Luckily I don't have much for alder except on an old skid path. Which themselves will nurse in cedar and white spruce over time and keep the sedge out, if leaf beetle doesn't kill them (alder).

[A-z farmer]

We have planted many acres of reed canary grass years ago because it seems to thrive on our wet clay soil.It does make very good hay and balege but it gets very tall and rank if not cut early .We have some fields of it that I have planted corn on for a few years and it will still come back from the seeds still in the ground .I do not understand how those seeds lay dormant for soo long but they do and when we bought the seed they said the seeds were only viable for one year which is very confusing to me .

[brianJ]

We have about 200 acres on swamp ground.   Like any other grass, it is good cow feed when gotten at the right maturity.    Trouble is that swamp ground don't usually let you on it until July which lets Canary grass become about like straw.  But I tell you that second growth really saved our herd a couple of bad dry years.    

If that was my photo Id grub out the scrub and make a hayfield.    Jeff prolly wants to go the other way.   Fusilade will set it back well and will not harm trees or brush.  Shade is what will doom it. 

[Jeff]

I think the grass exploded this year because of the snow and ice events the last two years where the alders were all bent over for weeks, and never straightened up. No shade.  We've been planting trees for years, they are just now getting above the alder which are starting to die out, problem is, they are being replaced by the grass. Many of the spruce are over ten feet now, but they only seem to displace grass where they stand.

[SwampDonkey]

Yep to the displacement where the trees are established. It will only be eliminated where the trees are touching hands. Hopefully some natural shade tolerant trees can also grow up between planted ones. Be nice if red maple and cedar could get going in large numbers on it's own. The hares would eat it up if planted. I tried planting yellow birch on damp ground (not wet), the hares ate them over night. Planted about 1500. It would have done well because yellow birch grows huge and old there. Then of course near the brook where I had a few wild birch and maple the beavers claimed all them. :D :D