Food Plots Help with Johnson Grass!!!

[BlountArrow]

Have any of you guys had any success with getting rid of Johnson Grass? I have essentially 3 open fields (1.5 acre, 1.5 acre, and 3 acre). One of the 1.5 acre fields is mostly consumed by Johnson Grass. About a month ago I bushhogged, sprayed it with Glyphosate (round-up), then I burned all of it. It burnt really well. Basically right after that I ran a disc over it a couple times and seeded it with rye and wheat. The rye and wheat took off great, but in no time flat the Johnson Grass bounced back and has taken back over. Any suggestions/secrets that you've had experience with???

 

[bigtex]

Johnson grass is very hard to get rid of because of the massive amount of seeds it has.
You were on the right track but it is going to take several spraying, attempts to rid yourself of it.
You did kill the Johnson grass by spraying and burning but with all the seed in the ground it will continue to sprout.
About the only way to control it is to spray, wait on it to re-sprout, spray, repeat, repeat, repeat.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Disking is the worst thing ever for johnson grass unless its done late in the Fall and all rhizomes are brought to the surface to be winter killed(If we have a cold enough winter) Disking just chops up the rhizomes and multiplies one plant into many plants the majority of the time. Roundup from 18 inches high to preflower and done religously can work. Thats something to really stay on top of though, I feel for ya. Spray it, and do not disk areas with JG any more would be my recommendation. Fire likely would not kill rhizomes underground.

 

[BlountArrow]

Great info, but disheartening too. Okay I will continue to spray. So this winter I could open the ground up and the freeze might help kill the root systems?

 

[tellico4x4]

Actually, I've had better luck with Clethodim instead of GLY for Johnson Grass. For years I sprayed GLY & disked, only to do it again and again...Never thought about that I was spreading it as much as I was killing it.

Eventually got a decent stand of clover established in the plots with JG, started using Cleth and no disking. What was once a couple of plots full of JG is now down to 2-3 very small persistant patches that I occasionaly spot spray with the Cleth. Not disking may have been the key.

 

[Football Hunter]

How many ounces of Clethodim per gallon of water, Jack??

1.3 oz per gallon of cleth,plus some type of crop oil I do believe

 

[tellico4x4]

14 oz. each of Cleth & Crop Oil per 10 gallons water.

 

[Boone 58]

Disking is the worst thing ever for johnson grass unless its done late in the Fall and all rhizomes are brought to the surface to be winter killed(If we have a cold enough winter) Disking just chops up the rhizomes and multiplies one plant into many plants the majority of the time. Roundup from 18 inches high to preflower and done religously can work. Thats something to really stay on top of though, I feel for ya. Spray it, and do not disk areas with JG any more would be my recommendation. Fire likely would not kill rhizomes underground.

If you can keep it mowed fairly low until frost it might help if you do not plan to reseed.........that way it doesn't get as much of a hold on overtaking everything else and doesn't come to seed.

 

[primos32]

Repeat spraying before it seeds year after year is the only way to get rid of the stuff unfortunately...