So I’ve got about 1/4 acre where I planted a variety of fruit and nut trees in spring of 2020. Foolishly, I failed to deal with the Johnson grass in the field first.
Any suggestions as to what I can do to remedy that and get rid of the Johnson grass? Think I would prefer not to use herbicide if I don’t have to as the idea of spraying herbicide close to my trees makes me nervous, but maybe you all know if there’s anything that would be safe to use, or if digging it out is the safest way (there’s a LOT of it though) or some other method might work?
My father said geese would take it out, but then you’ve got geese. My friend’s father said that if you cut it at the right time you could stop it, but I don’t know what that time is.
Johnson grass is a tall grass with a large storage root.
So mowing it short like a lawn, frequently will deplete the root reserve’s .
Just never let it get more than~6 inches tall
May take several (~ 3 ) years to get rid of it ?
I’d never heard that about geese… but then, as you say, I’d have geese. Cutting it at the right time is intriguing… the idea being to drain its reserve?
Makes me feel less bad about telling my mom that I don’t want to use herbicides around my trees.
I’ve got a couple of goats but I don’t think it’s a good idea at all to let them have at it, especially after what you said about your cow and the article saying that in drought it gets more toxic to ruminants. Besides, I suspect my goats would rather eat my trees than the Johnson grass…
Definitely need to keep it from seeding out; keeping the grass short (or perhaps even some light tilling) might help a lot…
Keeping it blow 6 inches is certainly doable… it’s mostly dormant now but staring to come back, especially in places close to the tree wells that have seen moisture.
We have a lot of Johnson grass. They are tall and bunchy, so easy to ID. They thrive in bare soil by seeds. So the only way to control is to never let seeds drop there.
So always mow your law before seeds form. After that, I just pull them by hands. They are grass, so you can’t kill them with weed killers. All mechanical means like farm animals do not really take them all, just weaken them, like law mower.
In a set-stocked pasture setting(cows always on the same paddock, never rotating), cows will eventually graze JG out of existence - it’s probably the #1 most desirable/palatable forage going(crabgrass is #2!), so they keep coming back and nipping it off as soon as it sends up new shoots. Essentially, its reserves are exhausted and it dies out. Mowing it to the ground every 2 or 3 days might approximate this… but it still may take several years…and then you’ve got the soil seedbank to deal with. Better budget in a couple of decades.
Tilling will break up rhizomes, spreading it around. Every little piece with a node will resprout.
If I were committed to JG eradication… clethodim or another grass-specific herbicide would be a major player in my approach.
Goats, and to a lesser degree sheep, have no business being in an orchard… goats, in particular - since they are primarily browsers and not grazers - will preferentially eat leaves, buds, twigs, bark of fruit trees/berry bushes, and will pay virtually no attention to grasses/forbs until there’s no ‘browse’ left for them to eat.
I think most of the folks have garden or backyard setting. So not sure how many of us can get sheep, goat, geese or other animals to help. I wish we could.
True for broadleaf selective herbicides but not so for non-selective ones. Glyphosate (round-up) for instance probably works better on grasses than it does broadleaf weeds.
There are now several herbicides that kill grasses only and will not harm your orchard plants in any way.
Clethodin is a generic that is very inexpensive. Fusilade and Poast were the originals and can be found in generic form.
Just to be honest. I do not battle those weeds any longer. @ wdingus if you kill all vegetations with Roundup, more weeds will get in. The battle never ends.
The best is still good mowing practice. If this is only in a small orchard, then I’d just dig them up since there may not be so many…
that is so true. you remove 1 weed another takes its place. reason why i stopped raking my lawn years ago. remove the thatching, dandelions and other weeds start growing in the exposed soil in between the grass. the thatching breaks down and feeds the soil for you so alot of money and time is saved from raking , herbicides and fertilizing. i even leave the grass clippings to break down. if its thick ill go over the piles quickly with the mower again to spread it a few days after it dries some.
Agreed, around here an exposed bit of soil, is quickly covered by an abundance of weeds. I was just specifically addressing the comment where you said Johnson Grass wouldn’t be killed by weed killers. Very much depends on the type of weed killer… As txpanhandle1 advised, there are even some specifically engineered for “weed grasses”. I’ve used Fusilade II and Ornamec both to fight Japanese Stiltgrass for instance.
I am considering going out of my way to plant jhonson grass Cogan grass etc on my property, I cleared my land so that I could move material from the back corner more toward the middle and build a house pad, now Im left with sand, its literally like your on a beach.
Its been almost a year now and very little native vegetation is sprouting up. Very unattractive and can be depressing looking at all the sand.
Ive been in contact with numerous county extension offices looking for advice of what I can get going that dosent require an irrigation system and I havent had any suggestions that would be uniform in appearance.
This cogan grass is all over Florida, it grows thick so it chokes out any other weeds, its uniform in appearance and from what Ive seen can be easily mowed if I were to want the area mowed.
Im having a hard time with it cause Ive been told it would be irresponsible to plant it I.E invasive but Im getting close to the point of giving up and just doing it regardless.
