Prairie grass growth after burn

lhfarm · Mar 24, 2012

I just did my first ever burn of 4 acres of prairie grass last weekend. There is already grass sprouting. I thought it might be fiscue, which I had planned to spray this week. However, it doesn't look like fiscue and is sprouting from the old prairie grass crowns. I didn't expect new grass growth until May.

Is it possible the burn + this early hot weather has them growing this much?

Thanks,

MWRR · Mar 24, 2012

I have had some prairie grass (switch grass, big blue stem and Indian grass) and they never showed any signs of growth until late spring. I doubt that the growth that you are seeing is prairie grass. I'm sure someone from your county extension office or someone from a nearby University can identify the growing plants in your photo.

MWRR · Mar 24, 2012

What type of prairie grass do you have?

I've got some switch grass down in the bottoms. I will take a couple of pictures in the morning and post them. It has some unique characteristics that will make it easy to identify.

lhfarm · Mar 25, 2012

MWRR said:
What type of prairie grass do you have?

I've got some switch grass down in the bottoms. I will take a couple of pictures in the morning and post them. It has some unique characteristics that will make it easy to identify.

I have big/little bluestem, Indian grass and switch grass. I planted the mix 11 years ago.

There is fescue and bluegrass growing along the firebreak and I'm sure it isn't one of those.

Thanks for the help.

Western · Mar 25, 2012

We have Big and Little Bluestem here in a good portion of the state, usually the 1st grasses to respond to a burn, especially now and with good moisture. From the 2nd photo, that looks just like our BS after a burn. Could be Switch grass or Indian grass. Dont know much about fescue, so.....

MissouriSprayer · Mar 25, 2012

I burned my NWSG 2 weeks ago and I have new growth as tall as 4 inches as of today. Its a mixed stand of switch, Indian, Big BlueStem and little blue.

It has certainly been warm enough. These grasses are triggered by soil temperature

Looks like you had an excellent burn and you will be thrilled with the result. The photo is Native, not fescue

lhfarm · Mar 26, 2012

I walked part of the field today, to see what else might be coming up. There are some thistles that I've been battling, but not a lot much else yet. That is really good news. I'm going to hand spray the thistles.

I had a number of invasive trees (autumn olive) spring up over the years and I'm going to remove those by hand too.

Thanks for the info!