Planting Jiggs tops

[TXMike]

I ended up working out a deal with a guy on some jiggs tops. I had another thread trying to decide what to plant and I was going to go with Tifton 9 Bahia until I found out how much the seed costs.... The cheapest I could find was $245 for a 40lb bag. The guy I'm gonna get my tops from is gonna sell me more than enough to do 2 acres for $100. He said early to mid may he would start cutting and bailing tops and that whenever he got a big order he'd let me know so he could do mine with it. I had my soil tested and strangely enough it said my PH was good. It came back 5.9. I may still put down a ton of lime when I work the ground up again.

One acre of it I sprayed, disced, and planted rye grass on. The other acre I didn't plan on planting so I didn't do anything to it last fall. Should I only do the 1 acre I prepped this year or can I do a couple round up passes before may to kill everything enough to plant it?

After I spread the tops how deep should I disc them in? I use a 6' adjustable disc and when I'm trying to get everything churned up I offset it and have a 55 gallon drum full of water on it and drop it as deep as it'll go. When I disc the tops should I move the discs straight and take the water off and drop it all the way down? how many passes should I make over the tops with the disc?

 

[Brute 23]

Disk the 2ac. Don't worry about the prep on the other acre. Shake out the tops on the disked field. Straighten out the disks and make a pass over it. Then preferably run a roller to pack it a little on top.

With 2ac I'd get a water source and put the water to it to ensure it comes up. Just a little moisture on those tops right when you plant makes all the difference.

 

[TXMike]

I've got water run to both of them so I got a hundred foot water hose and I'm gonna put a couple sprinklers out.

Is there any herbicide I could put down to keep the seed bank in the soil from germinating after I spread and pack the tops? Or will any of the herbicides that do this interfere with the tops rooting?

Should I leave the drum on the disc and drop it all the way down? Everything I've read says to disc it lightly.

 

[Brute 23]

Im sure there are but it may or may not be necessary. You can always spray it later.

Are you bottoming out the disk with the drum right now? If so you could probably take it off. If not leave it. Disk lightly just means don't make 3 passes trying to burry the stuff.

Just talking about planting jigs makes me itch and I feel like fire ants are biting my arms. :shock: I shook out lots of sprigs when I was younger.

 

[James T]

Brute gave you some excellent advice. Set disc straight, spread the tops, disc, pack and water. Once the tips start coming up, apply nitrogen. Weeds are inevitable. Like Brute mentioned you can always spray later with 2 4 D or something similar. Jiggs is considered one of the fastest and aggressive Bermudas. Spread the tops densely and it will end up choking out most weeds.

 

[TXMike]

How long will the tops survive? I'm meeting the guy in the field while he's bailing them and then it's about a 45 minute drive home. I have a camper top for my truck I figured id put on to keep them shaded. I wanted to try and keep them moist on the way home and we have these huge industrial ice machines at work and I was thinking maybe I could throw some ice in the bed of the truck to help keep them wet and cool. I think ill only have 1 or 2 people helping me spread the tops so it might take a little bit of time to get them all out and packed down, but as soon as they're out I'm gonna put the sprinklers to them. Ideally should there be some of the top sticking out of the ground or do they need to be mostly buried?

 

[James T]

You should be good to go. It's best to plant as soon after bailing as possible but I have thrown them out 2 days later and they came up just fine. I would leave the ice out and just get them into moist ground. Yes, some of the runners will show above ground and that's alright. After it's cut grab a few pieces and look to see how many nodes each piece is showing. The more the better. 6+ nodes is real good. It's at these nodes that the grass roots from. So that piece should be about 18 to 24 inches long. Less will still work but the odds are more in your favor with more nodes. One of the A&M sites suggested 5-7 bales of tops to plant an acre.

 

[Brute 23]

Ya no need for the ice. You are good to go for that short time. If you must leave them over night wet them with a water hose. We use to plant some a day or so later.

 

[TXMike]

Well I got my tops in this weekend. I'm not to happy with how they went in but I guess only time will tell if they come up or not. After I disced the ground up it was kinda rough so I drug a telephone pole piece to smooth it out and that night we got a little shower come through and I guess it compacted the ground down where I couldn't get the tops as covered with dirt as I would have liked. I put 10 bales down on a little over 1 acre. I guess I didn't ration it out as well as I should have. After I got it all in and rolled it we got about 4 inches of rain and there's supposed to be more coming so hopefully that will help get it started.

 

[Brute 23]

With that kind of moisture you may be all right. The tops don't have to be deep to grow. It just helps to keep them from drying out.

Keep cattle off a year or better if you can. Fert and weed kill. Cut hay off it until it is good and established.

 

[TXMike]

My tops are coming up good now. It's been almost 2 weeks and some of it is already 4+ inches tall. It's pretty splotchy. Some areas it came up real thick and others came up every few foot. We've got 7 inches of rain over the last 2 weeks and I've watered it in the early mornings. I've noticed a couple places with bahia popping up. Is it to early to go over it with some cimmaron and 24d? I want to let the jiggs get a good start before I hit it with anything that could set it back.

 

[B&M Farms]

My tops are coming up good now. It's been almost 2 weeks and some of it is already 4+ inches tall. It's pretty splotchy. Some areas it came up real thick and others came up every few foot. We've got 7 inches of rain over the last 2 weeks and I've watered it in the early mornings. I've noticed a couple places with bahia popping up. Is it to early to go over it with some cimmaron and 24d? I want to let the jiggs get a good start before I hit it with anything that could set it back.

Glad to here it's doing well. Cimmaron will work well on the bahia grass and weeds this early but make sure you have let the jiggs get established about 2 months or so and you will probably have to spray the bahia next spring also to get a good kill. It took me about three springs spraying bahia to get it out of my bermuda and I still have to every few years. Check out Patriot or Pasture Clean because its the same thing as Cimmaron and a lot cheaper. Just fertilize it well the first couple years and the jiggs will take over.

 

[TXMike]

I'm gonna put 50 lbs of nitrogen on it Monday. I thought I read somewhere to mow it to make it run but I can't find it now. How tall should I let it get before I mow to get it to spread?

 

[B&M Farms]

I'm gonna put 50 lbs of nitrogen on it Monday. I thought I read somewhere to mow it to make it run but I can't find it now. How tall should I let it get before I mow to get it to spread?

I would just cut and bale it. It will spread on its own if fertilized and sprayed. I would keep cows off of it this year though. You will be surprised by July if you get the moisture.

 

[Brute 23]

Glad it came up. Give it time to establish. Its amazing how it grows with rain.

Plan on spraying it every year for the rest of you life. Engrain it in your kids to spray it every year for the rest of their lives ;-)