There has been a lot of information out there to help property owners establish switchgrass for wildlife. Conservation districts offer cost share incentives in many cases to establish and maintain switchgrass. Switchgrass is a perennial warm season grass that takes 3-5 years to fully establish. In Michigan, my best stands have been created using the switchgrass variety of Cave in Rock (CIR). Switchgrass can be established on a variety of soils including the dreaded sandy soil. I also always preach that as a property owner you should have a clear and concise plan to follow for any and all improvements that you are doing on your property.

The best method to establish switchgrass is to focus your efforts on weed control the year prior to planting. This can be accomplished through chemical treatments in the fall or planting an annual food source in the establishment area. Weed competition in your establishment year will be your biggest hurdle in establishment. Depending on your soils, vegetation, and seed bank, as many as 2 chemical applications are recommended in the fall prior to planting. Fall applications can include glyphosate and 2-4 D to control grasses and broadleaf weeds. In the spring, switchgrass can be frost seeded around February or March. Frost seeding is the cold stratification process to help germination on a hard seed like switchgrass. A final late April spraying of gly and atrazine or simazine is completed before the switchgrass seed germinates. Switchgrass is a warm season grass and will not germinate until soil temps reach 50 degrees. Atrazine is a pre- and post emergent restricted use pesticide that will continue to suppress weeds in the establishment year. Simazine is not a restricted use pesticide and can be used as an alternative to atrazine. Read and follow the labels for all chemicals.

There are many seed sources to purchase your seed. The thing to be mindful of is the germination rate and purity of the seed. I have purchased from Pheasants Forever, Ernst Seed, and Real World Wildlife Products. A little on the Pheasants Forever seed that I purchased, it’s a great organization and they create more habitat than any whitetail group. But I think because of the switchgrass craze, they went from offering a highland and lowland variety, including CIR to only providing the Forestburg variety here in Michigan. Forenststburg does not have the height on drier soils to create good whitetail cover. Ernst seed is by far the most affordable, in fact, several other habitat companies purchase their seed put it in a new package and charge double the price. I had great success with Real World Wildlife Products switchgrass but it is expensive.

I was blessed to purchase a 40-acre whitetail property that partially consisted of a 12-acre field. I have used switchgrass for travel corridors, bedding, screening access routes, screening food plots, and road screening. My travel corridors and access screening do not have any forbs or other food sources in them. In my bedding switchgrass I plant a wildflower mix to provide a food value for bedded whitetails. My strategy is to plant straight switchgrass and in the spring of year 2, I spray the switchgrass with gly and 2-4 D and seed my wildflower mix. This cuts down on the competition for switchgrass to become established. I still purchase my wildflower mixes from Pheasants Forever – they offer a cheap native wildflower and honeybee interseeding mix. I should note that I have created 6-7 acres of switchgrass without the use of any chemicals on my personal property, I simply seed the switchgrass and wildflower mix at the same time. Not using chemicals takes a few strategies including several mowing’s through the summer until the beginning of August. But when working with clients, I always recommend chemical applications to ensure a good final product. Mowing the field in the establishment year may be required even when using chemicals depending on weed competition.

The last strategy I employ with my switchgrass plantings is to include pockets of shrub and conifer plantings within the grass. I purposely leave unseeded areas inside my grass plantings to make room sized pockets. The deer relate very well to the change in structure and can provide a daily food value for whitetails.

Note: the godfather of switchgrass was doubletree, he was the pioneer in frost seeding and chemical treatments to establish switchgrass. He had experience in Iowa and Michigan. A simple google search of “doubletree, switchgrass” will provide you with a wealth of info.