Crabgrass

[ClodHopper37869]

I'm giving serious thought to sowing some Red River or Quick-N-Big crabgrass. I've read just about every link that googled. I would like to hear comments from anyone has sowed some, especially in the Northern East Tennessee, SouthWest Virginia area.
Some of my questions are, Drill?, broadcast? when? site prep? Lbs per acre? in K31?, RR or QNB?
I was planning to sow in my K31 pastures for late summer grazing & hay any surplus.
Any info Greatly Appreciated!

 

[Bigfoot]

I'm giving serious thought to sowing some Red River or Quick-N-Big crabgrass. I've read just about every link that googled. I would like to hear comments from anyone has sowed some, especially in the Northern East Tennessee, SouthWest Virginia area.
Some of my questions are, Drill?, broadcast? when? site prep? Lbs per acre? in K31?, RR or QNB?
I was planning to sow in my K31 pastures for late summer grazing & hay any surplus.
Any info Greatly Appreciated!

I sewed some rr crabgrass once. It either didn't come up, or was indescernable from my native crabgrass. I have gotten to the point of relying pretty heavy on crabgrass, and barnyard grass. Easily could be 50% of my grazing program.

 

[rollinhills]

We sowed 20 ac to Red river last year and about 2ac to QNB. This year will tell the story. We work the ground and broadcast it in the fertilize, put out 3lb to the acre, it did very well but I expect it to be a lot thicker this year, we cut it late in the year after the seed got mature and drill wheat in it to cut for hay. You need to wait till the soil temp gets to 60 degrees. I do think if I was doing it over I would go with QNB seemed to have a lot more leaves on it.

 

[oscarsteve]

I'm located in East Central Georgia and drilled about 12 acres of QNB into existing sod of one pasture and into one hay field March 16 of last year. I had talked with R. L. Dalrymple a couple of times prior to doing so. He indicated that would be an appropriate time for my area to do so. He, along with everything else I read about, emphasized that most failures with it were due to getting it too deep. I think two things worked against me with QNB. 1) In an effort NOT to get it too deep, I didn't get it deep enough. The only places I got a decent stand (not sure I would call it that) was where there was bare ground. In the thicker, dormant existing sod, there wasn't much, if any, germination evident. 2) The unbelievable drought in our state didn't allow it to germinate/grow like I was hoping it would. Crabgrass likes moisture! Where it did come up was impressive and easily distinguished from our common crabgrass. I am HOPING that the seeds that didn't germinate last year are still there and viable and will germinate this Spring/Summer. My reading tells me the second year is much better. On my last hay cutting, I left scattered strips of it to allow those seeds to mature and drop to the ground to add to the seed bank. Hopefully, we'll have adequate moisture this year and all those seeds will germinate and I'll feel better about that investment. I'll try to post something on CT about it later.

 

[Lucky_P]

My experience similar to bigfoot's - I planted some ... a number of years back... may have done both RR & BNQ... I imagine it all came up, but I can't tell that it was any different from the crabgrass already here. Cows love it - it's the first or second thing they key in on when they move to a new paddock, along with Johnsongrass.
I don't intend to be paying upwards of $4/lb for crabgrass seed again...

 

[bball]

Top spread QNB at 5lb/ac late June last year. Drug with chain harrow in hopes of not getting it covered too deep. Came up very well on bare areas that were quite sandy. Cows loved it and I'm hoping for even thicker cover this coming season. I'm also hoping it's one of those deals where you pay for it once and it keeps producing year after year. Guess I will find out. Mr. Dalrymple is a wealth of information and strongly advise making contact.