PLANTING A TALLGRASS PRAIRIE: WHAT TO PLANT
Compiled
by Lee Stone, reprinted from the Prairie Dog, Spring Issue, Mar.-May 1993,
updated Feb 2001.
[Editor note: We recommend using local ecotype, non-cultivar native seed for grasses and forbs harvested within 150 miles of the planting site, if possible. If not possible, we suggest using non-cultivar native seed from as close to the planting site as possible, and only using the named cultivars as a last resort.]
What's Available. These grasses are usually available commercially: little bluestem, indiangrass, sideoats grama, blue grama, green sprangletop, and buffalo grass.
Ask seed suppliers for local ecotype native seed or native seed collected and harvested from wild populations as close to the planting side as possible.
Use named cultivars of native plants as a last resort. Cultivars include: Indiangrass (Lometa and Cheyenne), sideoats grama (Haskell for the whole state and El Reno for the northern
half of the state)
buffalo grass is typically a hybridized Texas-Oklahoma variety called Texoka.
Other varieties are now available for lawn plugs.
There are two cultivars of black grama, neither is from Texas; and three
cultivars of blue grama, none from Texas. sideoats-
El Reno northern half of state. both rhizomatous. Premier is a bunch.
If using named cultivars of native grasses, use Big Earl big bluestem.
This is the only big bluestem seed native to Texas.
The other big blue seeds are Oklahoma or Kansas stock. These is not
recommended by NPAT for the drier, hotter, southern half of Texas.
The
only native lovegrass on the market is Bend sand lovegrass from
Kansas/Nebraska.
For Texas source native grass and forb (wildflower) seeds, it is always a good idea to call Native American Seed Company in Junction. They have the largest selection of native seeds in the state.
If
you want any of the muhlys, you will have to plant container plants, which you
can obtain from a very few nurseries such as Madrone Nursery in San Marcos south
of Austin and Bluestem Nursery in
Arlington. Check these same three companies for others that are not commonly part of
the nursery trade, such as cupgrass, dropseed and gramas. Madrone Nursery has a
large selection of Eastern Gamagrass.
What's
Not Available for Texas. Everything else. No native lovegrasses, no cupgrass,
no vine-mesquite, no curly mesquite, few gramas, no tridens, and no seed for
Texas varieties of buffalograss. Trichloris crinata (False Roadgrass), Eastern
Gamagrass: no commerical supply developed yet? Herbeceous mimosa - perennial
legume. Wright's pavonia- central and south Tx. Canada Wildrye-ask for it so
growers will grow it. Western Indigo: ask to get them interested.
Purple and white prairie clover. Panhandle:
roundhead lespedeza.
Helpful
Hint #1. When calling seed suppliers about native grass seeds, it helps to be
very specific about the kinds of seeds you want. Many folks who answer the phone
at a supplier's office will not know the meaning of the word "native."
They may assume that any grass they have in stock is native because they grew
the stock in Texas.
Helpful
Hint #2. On rare occasions, the clerk who answers the phone will actually try to
talk you out of using natives and into using seeds of introduced non-native grasses that
they are more familiar with. Be gentle but firm with them when telling them no.
Helpful
Hint #3. In general NPAT recommends using grass seed from stock which originated
from no more than 300 miles of your location, preferably from within 100 miles.
This is not always possible. Often the supplier will tell you where the general
area in which it was harvested, so be prepared to dig a little deeper to find
out where it came from before that. Ask your supplier if he knows where the seed
stock originated.
Helpful
Hint #4: Call all the suppliers, even if they are headquartered far from you,
they have seed combined from fields all over Texas. Prices vary and so does the
variety of seeds. Sometimes a supplier will tell you there is no more seed of a
particular kind of grass available in the state, but another supplier may have
it. Occasionally one of the
suppliers will have a rare harvest of a different prairie grass. So ask around.
How
Much to Plant? Most suppliers can recommend to you a minimum amount to plant for erosion
control. If you can afford it, don't be afraid to double that amount. If it's
too much to put out with a single pass of the seed drill, just drill a second
time, crossing your earlier paths at right angles. Years ago, David Riskind, who
is Resource Manager for Texas Parks and Wildlife, told me the amount of seed you
use depends of the resources you've got. For example, if you won't be able to
easily mow the plantings to control weeds, you could compensate for the weed
competition by putting out more seed.
Put
out most of your seed in the proportion you want the final prairie to be in. For
a Blackland Prairie, you'd want mostly little bluestem with the others mixed in
where it was appropriate for them: for example, Indiangrass and switchgrass
where it's moister and the soils deeper. In my restoration project on deep
soils, I used 15 lbs pls/ac (pure live seed, as opposed to bulk) little
bluestem, 15 lbs pls/ac indiangrass, 7 lbs pls/ac switchgrass, and 7 lbs pls/ac
Haskell sideoats. I didn't use buffalo grass, but wish I had. It is certainly an
important component.
Time
Will Tell. When it was all said and done, I wished I'd planted double or triple
the amount of sideoats. It was the one plant that came up that first growing
season, matured and made seeds. The others are more conservative in their
appearances. While I waited for them to be more visible, the weeds were going
great guns. Had I planted more sideoats, they would have helped keep the tall
weeds down and the planting would have looked better earlier. However, you have
time on your side. The little bluestems are really dominating the landscape now
and and indiangrass is coming on stronger and stronger every year.
What
about Prairie Seed hay? Sometimes there is seed from a real prairie harvest.
Bob and Mickey Burleson of Temple occasionally have prairie seed hay. There is
sometimes seed hay from the Meador Prairie in St. Jo (north central) Texas.
Seed hay should be put out soon after harvest in the fall. NPAT has a brief list of prairie remnants whose owners may be
willing to negotiate the sale of prairie seed hay. write us if you are
interested and tell us what county you are in.
The
Very Helpful List! The following is a partial list of some of the larger native grass
seed suppliers in Texas.
Native American Seed http://www.seedsource.com
Bamert
Seed Co. of Muleshoe 800-262-9892
Bob
Turner Seed Co. of Breckenridge 817-559-2065
Curtis
and Curtis in New Mexico has seed for west Texas.
Douglass King's Seed Co. of San Antonio 210-661-4191
Foster-Rambie
Grass Seed of Uvalde 512-278-2711
George Warner Seed Co. of Hereford 806-364-4470
Harpool
Seed Inc of Dallas 214-421-7181
High Plains Native Grass, Inc of Maple 806-927-5545
Sharp
Brothers Seed Co. of Amarillo 806-352-2781
An
up-to-date list of grass and wildflower seed suppliers and nurseries can be
obtained from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
4801 Lacrosse Avenue in
Austin, 78739-1702 (512-292-4200).
Or go to the Texas NRCS website, then click on plant
materials information. It provides a list of many species native and exotic
and suppliers.