I am feeding a lot of Tifton 44 hay...

[redangus]

It does not have a viable seed, but I can swear that where I fed T44 I've got bermuda growing around it. Now I cut hay from several different places so I could have got it mixed up.

Can T44, a grass that does not produce viable seed, grow from a bales after it has set in a roll for 150 days?

If this is the case, I'm sprigging it along with real good manure fertilizer. Do the spriggs live that long?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tod Dague]

I have had coastal and Tif 85 bales sprout before they were fed. They were typically bails that were put up a little wet.

 

[Jogeephus]

I really don't see how it can but I've noticed the same thing so undoubtedly it can. The majority of the grass in the hay yard that has "sprigged itself" from the rolls appears to look more like common though which makes me think it is coming mostly from the seed.

 

[msscamp]

It does not have a viable seed, but I can swear that where I fed T44 I've got bermuda growing around it. Now I cut hay from several different places so I could have got it mixed up.

Can T44, a grass that does not produce viable seed, grow from a bales after it has set in a roll for 150 days?

If this is the case, I'm sprigging it along with real good manure fertilizer. Do the spriggs live that long?

Thanks in advance.

I'm not familiar with Tifton 44, but I'm curious as to why you would think the seed is not viable? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see how can you grow it in the first place if the seed isn't viable?

 

[jj216]

None of the hybrid bermudas have a viable seed because they are hybrids.You must sprig them .If you could make a coastal bermuda seed that worked you could probably become very rich.They have developed some higher yielding bermudas that you can seed other than common(giant,cheyenne,etc.)but they still cant touch the hybrids(coastal,russell ,tift44 etc.)Im no scientist but mabye that helps.

 

[BC]

The seed are not viable, but what about the pollen? I have been told that the pollen is viable and will cross with common bermuda.

 

[jj216]

You're getting way out of my league on that one.I'd be willing to listen though.[/quote]

 

[Fred]

You probably pick up some sprigs with your hay forks when you pick up the bales. When you set them down they take root.

 

[Beefy]

my alicia tends to come up whereever i feed it. bonus grass.

 

[Jogeephus]

Redangus, do an experiment. Let it grow and see what it looks like in a year or so. I normally feed hay in designated pens all of which have bahia in them. I noticed the same thing happening and figured by moving the location of the rolls I might get a free hay field out of the deal. Unfortunately most of the grass appears to be common while some of it is definitely hybrids such as T44, T85 and alicia. This makes me wonder if when they say the seed isn't viable, they might just mean you can't grow the original plant from it. Kinda like some hybrid corn. I don't know for sure but it would be worth taking the time to do an experiment and see if it turns out like mine did. I now have about 5 acres of some of the prettiest common bermuda growing on the richest dirt I own. :lol:

 

[msscamp]

None of the hybrid bermudas have a viable seed because they are hybrids.You must sprig them .If you could make a coastal bermuda seed that worked you could probably become very rich.They have developed some higher yielding bermudas that you can seed other than common(giant,cheyenne,etc.)but they still cant touch the hybrids(coastal,russell ,tift44 etc.)Im no scientist but mabye that helps.

I see. I didn't think about the hybrid aspect. Thanks!

 

[cowboy44]

I have Alicia and I have never baled it but I find it in places where it should not be. I think it goes throught the cow and comes up in the cow manure if the conditions are right and it is not fully digested . If mesquite beans do this why couldn't grasses and weeds do it also

 

[cowtrek]

It's not that the hybrid bermudas produce absolutely NO viable seed, there is about 2% of the seed produced on a hybrid bermuda is actually a viable seed; I read that on some university research somewhere along the line. It therefore follows that it is simply not economical to plant hybrid bermudagrass from seed, since to get, say, 10 pounds per acre of viable seed out you'd have to plant 500 POUNDS of seed to the acre, since 98% of it is non-viable and will not sprout, and we all know how expensive bermudagrass seed is!!!

That said, the guy I buy tops from was telling me a story about when he got started in the business... a guy showed him a bermudagrass runner that had been laying in the floorboard of his pickup for nearly a year... dry as paper. He planted it in his garden and packed it in real tight and poured some water on it, and said 'give it a week and tell me what it does." When the guy checked on it a week later, it was sprouting out a new runner from the joints. That sold him on planting his whole place in it. I also have a neighbor who's buying Tifton 85 and Jiggs hay from the egg farm; I've hauled it for him. He showed me a patch behind his barn where he feeds on wet ground that was belly deep on a cow, solid hybrid bermuda that had come up from the hay stomped into the mud by the cows in winter. I would think that the stuff on the bottom of the bale would be especially likely to sprout since it's kept moist and dark against the ground the whole time it's stored. Just what I've seen! OL JR

 

[BILLY GILL]

CAN U PANT DRY COASTAL HAY AND IT COME UP CAN I SPRIK WITH DRY HAY AND MAKE A FIELD

 

[Brute 23]

Coastal, Jiggs, and Tifton will all sprig themselves from just feeding hay bales in the pasture. I would assume Tif 44 would do the same.

 

[1982vett]

Not a very effective way...but some form of bermuda will creep into your feeding areas fairly easily if your feeding bermuda hay.