# Too late to plant orchard grass in NC?



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Is it too late to plant orchard grass in NC and expect it to do well? If not what kind of production can I expect this year and how long would it be until I would be making first cut? I was originally going to do something else with this field but I am going to be short of hay this year and was thinking if I could still plant orchard grass and get a decent amount of hay off of it this year that would be the way to go. I think by tomorrow it will be dry enough I could plant. Thanks, Hayden


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> Is it too late to plant orchard grass in NC and expect it to do well? If not what kind of production can I expect this year and how long would it be until I would be making first cut? I was originally going to do something else with this field but I am going to be short of hay this year and was thinking if I could still plant orchard grass and get a decent amount of hay off of it this year that would be the way to go. I think by tomorrow it will be dry enough I could plant. Thanks, Hayden


Yep, don't even think about it. Plant teff and notill og in the teff stubble. Till the heck out of it now get your lime and fertilizer incorporated, have no weed problems in sept because teff won't let them start and you are good to go. Only thing about the fall seeding is you give up your 4th cutting of teff.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Hayman1 said:


> Yep, don't even think about it. Plant teff and notill og in the teff stubble. Till the heck out of it now get your lime and fertilizer incorporated, have no weed problems in sept because teff won't let them start and you are good to go. Only thing about the fall seeding is you give up your 4th cutting of teff.


 I don't want teff....tried two fields last year and I have decided I didn't like it....just too many negatives. Besides being hard to dry and the lodging issue and the low yield, I only got one cutting off of one field and the other wasn't worth cutting 2nd even though I did( 9 bales per acre). The only thing I liked about teff was it did make pretty nice hay. I just can't pencil out taking up the ground for the summer for one cutting of 60 or less bales per acre.

The ground is in good shape.....was limed and fertilized last fall before planting timothy which didn't amount to anything. Was going to plant soybeans then plant grass in the fall after the beans come off but got to thinking maybe I still have time to plant orchard grass now to meet the demand I have for hay.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Understand your issues with teff, I just think you are asking for a think stand of og planting this late and having it go into summer heat and no rain. I think you would be better off doing a summer crop and then coming back in fall with og. From our previous conversations, I think your weather is fairly similar to ours. I planted my og (overseeding) 4 weeks ago and that was late but the season has been so funky with the late cold. Do you have a market for millet hay? That would give you the same thing as teff-get a crop, control the weeds and early og planting. Guess if you planted short season beans really early you could get them off early enough for orchard grass but I think the ideal plant date is last week of aug-early Sept.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Hayman1 said:


> Understand your issues with teff, I just think you are asking for a think stand of og planting this late and having it go into summer heat and no rain. I think you would be better off doing a summer crop and then coming back in fall with og. From our previous conversations, I think your weather is fairly similar to ours. I planted my og (overseeding) 4 weeks ago and that was late but the season has been so funky with the late cold. Do you have a market for millet hay? That would give you the same thing as teff-get a crop, control the weeds and early og planting. Guess if you planted short season beans really early you could get them off early enough for orchard grass but I think the ideal plant date is last week of aug-early Sept.


 After I thought more about it I decided to not try orchard grass this late.....I just can't see it faring well through the heat of summer as it is still establishing. If it was still in march I may would have given it a try.

I probably could sell pearl millet hay or I could also plant some more sorghum sudan....this hay would be going to a different group of buyers than what the orchard grass I needed was. I think our weather is similar with spring coming a few weeks earlier and fall a few weeks later though. Here mid September through the first of October seem to be the best time to plant cool season grass. Our first frost is around the first of November usually.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FarmerCline said:


> After I thought more about it I decided to not try orchard grass this late.....I just can't see it faring well through the heat of summer as it is still establishing. If it was still in march I may would have given it a try.
> 
> I probably could sell pearl millet hay or I could also plant some more sorghum sudan....this hay would be going to a different group of buyers than what the orchard grass I needed was. I think our weather is similar with spring coming a few weeks earlier and fall a few weeks later though. Here mid September through the first of October seem to be the best time to plant cool season grass. Our first frost is around the first of November usually.


sounds fairly close- our spring frost date is about may 25 and I have frost cured first cutting plenty of times. I am not sure what the official date in fall is but it is close to Oct 15. Heck in the last 25 years we had 6-8 inches of snow in mid oct here but that is not normal. Mid 20s and hard freeze predicted tomorrow night and 80s yesterday and today. go figure.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Hayman1 said:


> sounds fairly close- our spring frost date is about may 25 and I have frost cured first cutting plenty of times. I am not sure what the official date in fall is but it is close to Oct 15. Heck in the last 25 years we had 6-8 inches of snow in mid oct here but that is not normal. Mid 20s and hard freeze predicted tomorrow night and 80s yesterday and today. go figure.


 Our official frost free date in the spring in May 1st but it's not very often that we get a frost past mid April. I normally feel safe by the 3rd week of April to start planting some tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers and the like in the garden. Stuff like sweet potatoes and okra I wait a little longer though. We are supposed to be right around 32 tomorrow night so hopefully we won't have but a light frost as the apples are in full bloom.


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