# Smooth brome seeding rate



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I decided to go ahead and try to plant the smooth brome today. I'm only planting a couple small fields so if a spring planting doesn't do well I'm not out a whole lot. Since I'm able to get it planted this early I'm thinking it might have enough time to get well established before the heat of summer and it might do okay.

My question is what seeding rate would you suggest for a pure stand of smooth brome? I'm no tilling it with a JD 1590 drill into teff stubble so there isn't much residue at all. I was aiming for a 25 pound per acre seeding rate. The drill doesn't have brome on the chart so it was kind of a guess what rate to set the drill at. After a few adjustments I thought I had it pretty close but I ended up only planting 19-20 pounds per acre after weighing the extra seed I had left over. The seed was 90% pure and 85% germination so if I'm figuring it correct I planted about 15 pounds of live seed. Will this be enough to get a nice thick stand or should I drill the field again to plant a few more pounds of seed? I have another field I can plant to use the extra seed if I don't need to thicken up what I planted today.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

FarmerCline said:


> I decided to go ahead and try to plant the smooth brome today. I'm only planting a couple small fields so if a spring planting doesn't do well I'm not out a whole lot. Since I'm able to get it planted this early I'm thinking it might have enough time to get well established before the heat of summer and it might do okay.
> 
> My question is what seeding rate would you suggest for a pure stand of smooth brome? I'm no tilling it with a JD 1590 drill into teff stubble so there isn't much residue at all. I was aiming for a 25 pound per acre seeding rate. The drill doesn't have brome on the chart so it was kind of a guess what rate to set the drill at. After a few adjustments I thought I had it pretty close but I ended up only planting 19-20 pounds per acre after weighing the extra seed I had left over. The seed was 90% pure and 85% germination so if I'm figuring it correct I planted about 15 pounds of live seed. Will this be enough to get a nice thick stand or should I drill the field again to plant a few more pounds of seed? I have another field I can plant to use the extra seed if I don't need to thicken up what I planted today.


Wow, in my area 8-10 pounds straight, 4-5 pounds mixed with alfalfa/other grass. If it makes it through your possible dry summer, sounds like a thick stand in the making.

Larry


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

r82230 said:


> Wow, in my area 8-10 pounds straight, 4-5 pounds mixed with alfalfa/other grass. If it makes it through your possible dry summer, sounds like a thick stand in the making.
> 
> Larry


 The seed catalog I ordered from suggested 15-25 pounds per acre of brome for a pure stand. They only suggest 12-15 pounds per acre of orchard grass and I like to seed a minimum of 20 pounds of orchard to ensure a nice thick stand so that is why I figured I had better plant at least 25 pounds of brome. From what you said it sounds like I will be okay with the 19-20 pounds I planted so I will just use the extra seed to plant another small field.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Thought I would give an update on how the smooth brome I planted back at the first of Febuary is doing. It took about 3 weeks for it to germinate. February was pretty dry and there wasn't much moisture so a couple drier parts of the field didn't start to germinate until we got a rain so they came up a couple weeks later than the rest but still look good. It appears my seeding rate was about right as it looks like a pretty good stand thickness wise so far.

The only thing is there is a section of the field that was planted right after I refilled the drill with seed that never came up. I noticed it was the same rows every drill pass that didn't come up so apparently a few of the feed cups quit metering out the seed and took a few passes to start back again.....looks like about a third of the rows on the drill were not metering.

If it was orchard grass or alfalfa I would have to redrill that section of the field to thicken it up. My understanding though is that smooth brome is a creeping grass like Bermuda grass and will spread by the roots so will it fill in these thin areas or should I redrill that section of the field? I will post of pic of the part of the field that had some rows that were not planting seed as well as what the rest of the field look like.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

To get the 20 lbs./acre rate what was the seed setting you used. I tried to look up what seed was comparable to smooth brome that is listed on my chart but no luck yet. Thanks


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

IH 1586 said:


> To get the 20 lbs./acre rate what was the seed setting you used. I tried to look up what seed was comparable to smooth brome that is listed on my chart but no luck yet. Thanks


 I started out at setting 28 and ended up at 32 after a few adjustments. I think 30 ended up being pretty close to the 20 pounds an acre. This is on a 10' JD 1590.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

It's been about a month since I took the last pictures I posted of the smooth brome so I thought I would give an update on how it's growing and post a few more pics. To me it looks pretty good and it seems my seeding rate was just about perfect for a nice thick stand. The few thinner areas where it didn't come up well haven't filled in yet though.....not sure how long it takes brome to start spreading by rhizomes like I'm thinking it is supposed to?

The other curious thing is there is a section of the field that is by the road where the street lights stay on all night and the brome has headed out and is about waist high by each street light while the rest of the field is not showing any signs of heading out or even producing a stem and just has leafy growth that is about half way up to my knee. Any ideas on why the lights have caused it to head out and if I should expect the rest of the field to head out this year or not?

I'm posting a pic of the part of the field that has headed as well and what most of the field is like. The scattered darker green clumps in the picture is some volunteer barley.....didn't quite get all of it cleaned out of the drill before planting the brome.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Looks like you have a nice stand. No weeds? Or have you sprayed?


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Teslan said:


> Looks like you have a nice stand. No weeds? Or have you sprayed?


 Up until now the stand has been very clean but I'm starting to get some Palmer pigweed and lambsquarters so I'm going to have to spray in the next couple days.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> It's been about a month since I took the last pictures I posted of the smooth brome so I thought I would give an update on how it's growing and post a few more pics. To me it looks pretty good and it seems my seeding rate was just about perfect for a nice thick stand. The few thinner areas where it didn't come up well haven't filled in yet though.....not sure how long it takes brome to start spreading by rhizomes like I'm thinking it is supposed to?
> The other curious thing is there is a section of the field that is by the road where the street lights stay on all night and the brome has headed out and is about waist high by each street light while the rest of the field is not showing any signs of heading out or even producing a stem and just has leafy growth that is about half way up to my knee. Any ideas on why the lights have caused it to head out and if I should expect the rest of the field to head out this year or not?
> I'm posting a pic of the part of the field that has headed as well and what most of the field is like. The scattered darker green clumps in the picture is some volunteer barley.....didn't quite get all of it cleaned out of the drill before planting the brome.
> 
> ...


Looking good Hayden


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

I've heard of lights affecting vegetable crops so I guess it could do the same to your brome.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

farmerbrown said:


> I've heard of lights affecting vegetable crops so I guess it could do the same to your brome.


Common in soybeans too, especially the more day length sensitive varieties (northern varieties)...

Later! OL J R


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

farmerbrown said:


> I've heard of lights affecting vegetable crops so I guess it could do the same to your brome.


 In this same field those lights affected the soybeans I planted a couple years ago and caused them not to bloom until September. Seems that it had the opposite affect on the brome though and caused it to bloom earlier. I really didn't think it would have had any affect on the brome because I thought it had to go through a chilling period like wheat and orchard grass for it to head out. Since it was spring planted I was not expecting the rest of the field to head out.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

FarmerCline said:


> In this same field those lights affected the soybeans I planted a couple years ago and caused them not to bloom until September. Seems that it had the opposite affect on the brome though and caused it to bloom earlier. I really didn't think it would have had any affect on the brome because I thought it had to go through a chilling period like wheat and orchard grass for it to head out. Since it was spring planted I was not expecting the rest of the field to head out.


Yep BIL has a field with a sodium light on the pole on the edge of his field, across the road from a trailer park... the soybeans under the sodium light grow to about 4-5 feet tall and stay green as a gourd right til harvest... they DO make some beans, though... too bad they're still green and wet when it's time to combine...

Later! OL J R


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Thought I would give an update to my smooth brome thread since I baled first cut about a week ago. In mid May I sprayed it with dicamba to kill the weeds and it stunted the brome really bad....couldn't not figure out why. It eventually recovered but much of it had to start back from the ground and it set it back about three weeks of growth.

It finally started growing good again and by the third week of June the whole field had mostly headed out. I was a little surprised as I had not expected it to head out since it was a spring seeding. Didn't have the weather to cut it until about 10 days ago so it was rather over mature but still looked pretty good as there was a lot of leafy growth compared to the stems and heads.

It made between 45-50 bales an acre.....I was pretty pleased with that considering it was a spring seeding and got stunted by the dicamba really bad. It also made some pretty nice looking hay considering how mature it was. It dried to a little darker color than I was anticipating but still looks quite nice in the bale.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Nice stuff thanks for the update I want to try some next spring.


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## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

That looks nice, how does it smell? I always liked the odor of.well cured brome made at the right time.

I cut some new seeding hakari brome today. I am not impressed so far. Seems like a LOT of seed head and not enough leaf compared to what I am used to. We shall see how it looks and smells in a bale.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

SVFHAY said:


> That looks nice, how does it smell? I always liked the odor of.well cured brome made at the right time.
> I cut some new seeding hakari brome today. I am not impressed so far. Seems like a LOT of seed head and not enough leaf compared to what I am used to. We shall see how it looks and smells in a bale.


 It smells pretty dang good.....little different smell than other grass hay but good.

I'm pretty impressed with this smooth brome so far. The variety I planted was Peak. I am anixious to see how it re grows and if I will get a second cutting. I spread 50 units of N last week after I baled it so we shall see how it does. If I can get a good second cutting off of it I think I will really like it and it might be a good grass for me. I was under the impression though that smooth brome was a creeping grass and would spread out and fill in some thin spots but I'm still not seeing that yet.


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