Can anything compete with Johnson Grass?
- Thread starter PecanArcher
- Start date
Man I hate that stuff!!!
PecanArcher
Active Member
Oh man, we had a huge outbreak of that on a property that was way ovetgrazed by cattle. It was everywhere! But has since gone back to NWSG.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
That's my experience also. Lots of energy in those roots and shortly after the top dries from spray a new shoot comes up. I've spent quite a bit of time mowing so that seed isn't made. Also spent a day pulling heads that I couldn't mow this weekend so nothing new is added to the seed bank.
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Don B
Member
It's almost impossible to eradicate.I live in JG country,it grows in ditches by the roads. Out here it's just part of the landscape. Any field left fallow has it. I just try to control it in my food plots and forget the rest. It actually makes good cover here because the areas can get so large and thick. It doesn't hold up well in winter,though.
I mowed Johnson Grass in late Summer, then I sprayed the regrowth with glyphosate using a boom sprayer, and then I burned it in the Winter. The following Spring I sprayed regrowth with Gly using a boom sprayer. Prior to planting, Johnson Grass came back again! Determined to win the war, I sprayed Johnson Grass with Gly every time is came up all Summer, thinking I'd eventually deplete the rhizomes, and toward the end of that Summer I sprayed two applications of the grass selective, Poast Plus.
The following Spring Johnson Grass came back with a vengeance, because I'd eliminated the competition. I've since learned that Spraying Glyphosate is akin to seeding Johnson Grass. I had a friend on another forum who was a Monsanto Engineer and he worked with me to change the Glyphosate mix, thinking a slower kill might be taken further into the rhizomes... nothing worked!
Plateau kills Johnson Grass, and has a residual effect, but one Johnson Grass plant can produce 50,000 seeds that last ten years in the seedbank. When established Johnson Grass is sprayed it can come back from seed, rhizomes or a combination of the two, since seed will remain viable in the soil for ten years!
Johnson Grass can be shaded out, or it can be controlled by grazing and haying, and I've seen corn successfully grown, and also beans.
The following Spring Johnson Grass came back with a vengeance, because I'd eliminated the competition. I've since learned that Spraying Glyphosate is akin to seeding Johnson Grass. I had a friend on another forum who was a Monsanto Engineer and he worked with me to change the Glyphosate mix, thinking a slower kill might be taken further into the rhizomes... nothing worked!
Plateau kills Johnson Grass, and has a residual effect, but one Johnson Grass plant can produce 50,000 seeds that last ten years in the seedbank. When established Johnson Grass is sprayed it can come back from seed, rhizomes or a combination of the two, since seed will remain viable in the soil for ten years!
Johnson Grass can be shaded out, or it can be controlled by grazing and haying, and I've seen corn successfully grown, and also beans.
ALwoodsman
Member
I have wondered this myself. I planted a 10' buffer strip of switchgrass down a property/fence line last year. Across the fence is is about a 10 acre pasture full of johnson grass. I don't know if I will have any luck or not.
Don B
Member
Yeah, cattle pastures is about the only place you don't see it out here!
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catscratch
Well-Known Member
JG is a preferred forage for cattle when it's young and they will eat it if it's been allowed to get tall, but not usually preferred at that stage. We have lots of pasture that appears JG free but if you rotate the herd off for a while the stuff pops back up. Cattle are the most effective way I know to keep it in check, just have to rotate them off the plots in time to plant fall plants (which works as JG stops growing early in the fall).
Cattle works, but I would still like to find a spray that finished it off!
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Cattle works, but I would still like to find a spray that finished it off!
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PecanArcher
Active Member
Yup. No cattle on my property. They do too much damage to my small pecan trees. So that's out of the question.
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mattpatt
Well-Known Member
My Grandpa did this all the time when he was farming soybeans. This was back in the day before they had RR beans.
Matt
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