I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. We are buying 35 acres in the FL panhandle, near the Alabama line. It was mostly cattle pasture but about 10 years ago it was let go and hasn't been mown or otherwise touched since. The pastures are now a nearly impenetrable mess of briars (mostly blackberry), young pine trees, broom sedge, all manner of weeds, with only an occasional clump of Bahia grass here and there. The soil is very sandy here and in places also some clay.
We need to clean up the mess and reestablish pastures. In our area, most pastures are bahia grass, with some bermuda (mostly the hay fields are bermuda). We also have some type of native centipede-like grass that just grows wherever. Makes a terrific lawn and the horses love to eat it but it's not hardy to grazing pressure at all.
So I'm thinking, for now, grab soil samples and find out what we need to do to fix the soil. The large amount of broom sedge leads me to suspect it's acidic and nutrient poor. (Do I need to till in the lime or fertilizer or would surface spreading be adequate? I'd think tilling it in would make it work faster and better...?)
Once the weather cools a bit we are going to start mowing and removing the pine trees, many of which are a tad too big to pulverize with the bush hog.
But once the land is cleared again, I'm not sure what to do to reestablish grass. I suspect the existing bahia is not an improved variety, likely Argentine, as it's a clump forming type. I'm trying to decide if I should completely start from scratch, eradicate everything, and replant from bare dirt, or if I should just overseed the bare areas with Tifton 9 Bahia seed as it would quickly establish and fill in.
I need usable pasture ASAP. Will definitely overseed with annual rye grass for winter grazing for the horses, and come next spring, I need to get graze-able pastures available ASAP. Buying hay for the horses gets very expensive, it's cheaper to buy land and grow grass!
I would really like to establish at least one area in Bermuda. We have a pasture area of about 5 acres we are looking at trying to turn into Bermuda, as we can hold off putting any animals on it until it's well established. But I'm struggling to find someone local that does sprigging.
Another challenge is that the land is actually hilly! For Florida, anyway. Almost none of it is flat. We love the rolling topography, and there's a large pond, several acres, in between the hills. But if we start tilling up the soil, we WILL have runoff and erosion problems until we get grass well established. Hence my wondering if I should just overseed the Tifton 9 rather than tilling it all up. The 5 acres we'd like to establish in Bermuda is less hilly thankfully, but still would require vigilance to prevent gullies for forming.
We need to clean up the mess and reestablish pastures. In our area, most pastures are bahia grass, with some bermuda (mostly the hay fields are bermuda). We also have some type of native centipede-like grass that just grows wherever. Makes a terrific lawn and the horses love to eat it but it's not hardy to grazing pressure at all.
So I'm thinking, for now, grab soil samples and find out what we need to do to fix the soil. The large amount of broom sedge leads me to suspect it's acidic and nutrient poor. (Do I need to till in the lime or fertilizer or would surface spreading be adequate? I'd think tilling it in would make it work faster and better...?)
Once the weather cools a bit we are going to start mowing and removing the pine trees, many of which are a tad too big to pulverize with the bush hog.
But once the land is cleared again, I'm not sure what to do to reestablish grass. I suspect the existing bahia is not an improved variety, likely Argentine, as it's a clump forming type. I'm trying to decide if I should completely start from scratch, eradicate everything, and replant from bare dirt, or if I should just overseed the bare areas with Tifton 9 Bahia seed as it would quickly establish and fill in.
I need usable pasture ASAP. Will definitely overseed with annual rye grass for winter grazing for the horses, and come next spring, I need to get graze-able pastures available ASAP. Buying hay for the horses gets very expensive, it's cheaper to buy land and grow grass!
I would really like to establish at least one area in Bermuda. We have a pasture area of about 5 acres we are looking at trying to turn into Bermuda, as we can hold off putting any animals on it until it's well established. But I'm struggling to find someone local that does sprigging.
Another challenge is that the land is actually hilly! For Florida, anyway. Almost none of it is flat. We love the rolling topography, and there's a large pond, several acres, in between the hills. But if we start tilling up the soil, we WILL have runoff and erosion problems until we get grass well established. Hence my wondering if I should just overseed the Tifton 9 rather than tilling it all up. The 5 acres we'd like to establish in Bermuda is less hilly thankfully, but still would require vigilance to prevent gullies for forming.
