# Preparation for Spring Coastal Sprigging



## davang (Apr 7, 2010)

I bought 10 acres this last May and with mowing, discing, fertilizer and rain have managed to eliminate most of the weeds and had two fairly good yields of primarily blue stem hay with some bermuda. I want to sprig for coastal in the spring. Should I plant a winter grass, disc up the bluestem, spray....I don't know. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I've got a 17 acre field that I'm prepping for next spring. I've burned it with glyphosate, shreaded it and I'll disc it as soon as I can get some lime delivered. I'll just let it sit over the winter. Putting rye or oats in it would just mean I'd have to burn it again in the spring. The guy I used to get spriggs from died, so I haven't decided what I'm going to plant in the spring yet. I'm not sure you can find real "coastal" spriggs. A lot of the guys at A&M say most of it has reverted to common. Tifton 85 is a better choice. It loves fertilizer but it really produces. Drop me a PM with an email address and I'll send you the list of certified growers in Texas.


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## Customfarming (Oct 8, 2009)

Spray with roundup before the frost to kill the perennial grasses in the field. Then spray again if necessary. I wouldn't start land prep til about two weeks before you want to plant. This will help with erosion. You can plant a winter grass but it needs to be off about three weeks before you plant coastal so you can kill it and disc. This will also help control some weeds. Then spray a preemerge after it is sprigged.

Coastal sprigs should be easy to find. Most people call any bermudagrass coastal that is the confusion but true coastal does not revert back to common just the seeded varieties of bermudagrass. There has been coastal meadows in our area for a long time and still real good coastal meadows.

Certified sprigs is a joke. The land that is certified, usually 1 ac of a field, is not where they dig the sprigs. They can say they have certified sprigs but doesn't mean you are getting the certified field.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Customfarming said:


> Coastal sprigs should be easy to find. Most people call any bermudagrass coastal that is the confusion but true coastal does not revert back to common just the seeded varieties of bermudagrass. There has been coastal meadows in our area for a long time and still real good coastal meadows.
> 
> Certified sprigs is a joke. The land that is certified, usually 1 ac of a field, is not where they dig the sprigs. They can say they have certified sprigs but doesn't mean you are getting the certified field.


Let me reword this as Customfarming is correct that Coastal does not revert to common.....but the fields do get taken over by common. They're still very productive though. I've got one across the street, but I wouldn't waste my time taking sprigs out of it. I don't know about other parts of Texas, but around here there are some real idiots who fancy themselves to be spriggers. They dig "coastal sprigs" with a front end loader or break bales for "tops" and scatter them out with a manure spreader. I talked to 6 or 7 when I sprigged my last field. Most are not willing to show you the field they'll get the spriggs from....but will assure that it's Russel, Tifton, or Coastal. They usually want to do Jiggs with tops. I ended up going with the certified grower who had the proper Bermuda King equipment for digging and sprigging along with a good crew of people. I saw them dug up and watched them being put down. He had a lot more than a one acre field of Tifton 85, I got great results and a very productive field. Sadly he died and now I'm trying to find out where his equipment went.

I'm getting ready to do another one in the spring so I've got all winter to weed through the idiots. Unfortunately the closest certified grower is up in Canton. If the prices for sprigging get too high, I'll just seed it with Common and Giant and not worry about it....I can do that for less than half the cost of sprigging and the horses eat it just fine. If I sell any, I'll call it "Coastal".


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Mike,
If Canton is up north, and possibly too far for you, the Tifton 85 sprigger that farms near Kilgore, TX may also be far for you to get sprigs. If you are interested in his contact information, I can send it to you.


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## RCF (Sep 14, 2009)

This guy might be to far but if I was looking for sprigs I would give them a call.......Jim Russell Hay & Sprig Farm, Inc. - We grow and produce high quality Tifton 85, Tifton 44 and Coastal bermuda grass sprigs for sale


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## davang (Apr 7, 2010)

I thought about seeding too. In fact I seeded some this year with Cheyenne II. It started coming in about 6 weeks ago. They claim it doesn't revert to common...
I'm real small time, most of the people I sell too wouldn't know the difference between common or coastal. There's a guy who "spriggs" jiggs and tifton tops with a real planter not a "spread and disk routine". What do you think off Jiggs as an alternative?
Could I just disk up the bluestem real hard and seed it without the gly? I know I'd get a mix but that wouldn't be so bad, the bermuda would predominate.


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## davang (Apr 7, 2010)

RCF said:


> This guy might be to far but if I was looking for sprigs I would give them a call.......Jim Russell Hay & Sprig Farm, Inc. - We grow and produce high quality Tifton 85, Tifton 44 and Coastal bermuda grass sprigs for sale


Thanks. I've seen their website, very impressive.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I've got two paddocks of the original Cheyenne. I seeded them about four years ago. They are very productive, but I only graze them. I also did one with Ranchero Frio....it's OK. I did all of my other paddocks with Common because of the cost. I've got a Bahia field that I overseeded with Common in the spring. The Bermuda hasn't choked out the Bahia but has gotten pretty thick. The mix makes a pretty decent bale. I'll see how it looks in the spring and probably mix some Clean Pasture DF in with the Grazon to knock down the Bahia. Jiggs seems to do well with tops. Everyone I know who's done it has had reasonably good results.....as long as the tops are fresh, you have ground moisture, and you get rain shortly after you put them in. I've never seen Tifton 85 successfully established with tops but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Tifton is just more picky around here (NW of Houston). If you do seed, throw some Giant in there. It WILL revert to Common in a few years but it will give you decent first-year yields. My experience with Bluestem is that it's tough to kill. If you just disk it up, it will come back. Once it comes back you'll never get it out of there. I'd hit it with gly and be done with it.


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## HWooldridge (Oct 13, 2010)

Is now a good time to use glyphosate or should I wait until it cools off a bit more? I have a few really bad patches of johnson grass and a lot of KR bluestem on a 10 acre plot but there is some decent coastal spread all over the field and I don't want to kill that along with the pest grasses. BTW, I'm in central Texas, just north of San Antonio - our first frost is usually sometime around Thanksgiving.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Personally I would wait until spring and hit it before the coastal greens up. What are you planning to do with the part that isn't coastal?


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## davang (Apr 7, 2010)

Mike120 said:


> I've got two paddocks of the original Cheyenne. I seeded them about four years ago. They are very productive, but I only graze them. I also did one with Ranchero Frio....it's OK. I did all of my other paddocks with Common because of the cost. I've got a Bahia field that I overseeded with Common in the spring. The Bermuda hasn't choked out the Bahia but has gotten pretty thick. The mix makes a pretty decent bale. I'll see how it looks in the spring and probably mix some Clean Pasture DF in with the Grazon to knock down the Bahia. Jiggs seems to do well with tops. Everyone I know who's done it has had reasonably good results.....as long as the tops are fresh, you have ground moisture, and you get rain shortly after you put them in. I've never seen Tifton 85 successfully established with tops but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Tifton is just more picky around here (NW of Houston). If you do seed, throw some Giant in there. It WILL revert to Common in a few years but it will give you decent first-year yields. My experience with Bluestem is that it's tough to kill. If you just disk it up, it will come back. Once it comes back you'll never get it out of there. I'd hit it with gly and be done with it.


You are right about that bluestem. We disked our back field which was pretty much a wreck and it killed out almost all the weeds but the bluestem came in like gangbusters. No fert just some horse manure from the barn and all that rain. We had 4 acres of thick tall grass. BTW I'm in Wharton. Who do you get your seeds from? I got the Cheyenne from a website and the common from our feed store.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I'm in the Hockley/Waller area on the other side of 290. I usually just get my feed store to order anything I need and he discounts it enough that it's normally cheaper than paying freight. I'm pretty sure he got the Cheyenne from Pennington. That's where he gets the liquid lime I use in my paddocks. If I remember right, Bluestem propagates through the roots...burning it just makes it grow better and disking it is like sprigging.


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## davang (Apr 7, 2010)

My neighbor to the south has acres on acres of bluestem. If I spray mine in the spring how do I keep his from crossing the fence line just keep spraying the fence line?


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

davang said:


> My neighbor to the south has acres on acres of bluestem. If I spray mine in the spring how do I keep his from crossing the fence line just keep spraying the fence line?


Once you get it out of the field the Bermuda will usually take over (give it lots of fertilizer) I just spot spray it whenever it shows up. I've never had enough to worry about up here. My old place in South Texas had a bunch but mesquite was the bigger problem.


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