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Broom Sedge

M

morgan in ar

Member
Sage grass, locally. I have a hayfield
that is almost a 50 acre pure stand of it.
It will make decent feed in June, but the
second cut is worthless. I would rather
have Johnson grass. I'm not baling this,
going to just mow it down. I'd like to
renovate this field to grow something
worthwhile. I understand sage grass
actually produces a toxin that kills off
other grasses. What are your thoughts on
how to proceed? I was thinking maybe drill
oats in the spring and try to choke it out
before it takes off in July?
cvphoto37506.jpg
 
As long as it hasn't turned color you can still bail it. Broom sedge is an indicator of poor soil you need to get a soil sample done. Probably needs a couple tons of lime per acre to bring it up.
 
My very limited knowledge of broom sedge is that it is opportunistic in poor or deficient soils. So, I would counsel that step 1 is a comprehensive soil analysis. Maybe you have done this. If, for example, the pH is way off, then trying to push out the sedge is starting off in a hole.
 
Either your phosphorus is very low or your phosphorus is tied up because your soil is to acid and you need to lime it.
A soil test will tell you what to add.
Do that now.

Then next spring graze it and graze it hard; or keep it cut very short.
Cows will eat new growth sage when it is small and grazing hard will weaken the sage and give other desirable grasses time to grow.
 
Test will show phosphorus low and PH out of whack too. I got a patch I bought last year just like that. I am liming it soon as I get the bales moved off and adding more Phosphorus as I did in the spring. Other grass is looking better. In the spring I dumped a bunch of grass seed on the place in with the fertilizer. I now have a combine bin of fescue seed I cut in June and am going to get a buggy from the plant food place in town with the fertilizer and stop here and auger all that seed in the buggy to add to the place.
 
Yep, lime and/or phosphorus. It'll take some time, but get your soil healthy and it'll fade out.
 
That's the thing there is usually lots of unavailable K in acid soil as the soil becomes more neutral after applying Lime the K will be released.Also increasing the organic matter
content of the soil will improve things.
 
People often think sage is a lime problem because they add lime and the sage goes away.
When it reality it is a phosphorus problem.
By adding lime they just made the phosphorus in the soil available to the plants.

People need to realize this because lime will do nothing if the soil does not have enough phosphorus in it.
But I agree most soil in the region sage grows in has plenty of phosphorus it is just locked up in the soil because lime is needed.
 
In my area the soil is so naturally acid all soil always need lime,I've tested some of my mountain land soil and it can be down to almost 4.5 takes a whole lot of lime to get
it up to something to crop.Rule of thumb is put on 2 tons an acre and then take a soil test.
 
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