Planting native grasses in pines

Short answer: It's a lot more work than it should be.

Invasive control is your #1 task when establishing it. It can take a few years to get it established, and you can lose it all in a season if it's not maintained properly. You'd think it would be easy to establish plants that are native, but the competition is fierce. You can end up with a prairie full of privet, ragweed, and tallow trees faster than you can blink. You also have the issue of needing prescribed burns. A lot of your native understory species are going to need fire to properly germinate their seeds and kill of competitors. It's virtually impossible to maintain on a large scale without fire.

If you're really serious, contact Marc Pastorek. I consulted with him a few times when I practiced landscape architecture in New Orleans, namely Lafitte Greenway and a few smaller projects. He is the go-to along the coast for large-scale native grasses and plants.

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Inland Sea Oats

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One of my favorite plants. I'm on year three of establishing a large planting along my creek buffer. I started out with a handful of seeds I stole off a plant somewhere. So far so good. Just trying to keep the honeysuckle and privet out. And fricking Virginia creeper. Pain in my arse.

We’ve done wire grass in long leaf areas in the past. Took several years of control burns to get it established. Not sure how it would work with other pines.

We are on the northshore. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to burn, but I don’t know anything about it so I need to explore that option. The area to be planted is realistically only about 1.5 acres. Just so I’m clear, should I be considering a burn instead of spraying PRIOR to spreading seed, or after?

One of my concerns is the seeds germinating with the mulch. I had the mulching guy take it down pretty close to bare soil, so my hope is that with either a tiller or a drag I could get good soil contact.

Here is a Study the USDA did on getting seeds to germinate in a Pine Savanna where they did just tree thinning, herbicide treatment and a combo.

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Any idea if I could rent one of these to pull behind a fourwheeler or sxs?

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I know you can rent bigger ones that are pulled behind tractors. Check with the local Co-ops and Soil and Water Conservation Districts. They often have drills available to rent, but those are generally the bigger ones. They may not have one that can be pulled behind a fourwheeler or sxs, but they might know where you could find one to rent.

An alternative would be a broadcast seeder followed by a packer or light disk if all you have access to is a fourwheeler or sxs. Some of those small native seeds can be difficult to broadcast, though.

One method I've seen and used myself is to mix the seeds with pine straw or some other carrier to make it easier to spread them. You can spread that by hand pretty easily.

Do you know what the soil type/soil series is? That can tell you alot about potential species that would grow well on your property. Some of them even have Ecological Site Descriptions attached to them now, which give you an abundance of information on plant communities.

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FYI, I got some info today from my local LSU AG extension office that Marc Pastorek has moved to Colorado.

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Oh I completely forgot about that. Now that I think about it, he mentioned that the last time we talked, but that was over a year ago now.

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Per the USDA, the soil is myatt fine sandy loam.

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Ooh, yeah, that can be a pretty wet soil, and a definite longleaf pine soil in SELA. It's one of the 3 common soils identified for the eastern longleaf pine flatwoods in LDWF's Rare and Sensitive Wetland Plant Communities of Interior Louisiana. Lack of burning would have definitely eliminated much of the native understory.

It's possible that it wasn't a longleaf community, but most of the Northshore was just that historically. The lower, wetter areas would have been baygalls or swamps, but outside of the marshes and cypress swamps along the lakes and rivers, most of the terrestrial habitats were dominated by fire adapted species in various savanna or flatwoods habitats.

If you aren't in a giant hurry to get it planted, I would recommend a burn first. Give it a season and see what comes up. You might be surprised by what responds, and your wallet might be alot happier as well.

you can probably rent a water trailer and pump. that should be all you need to keep it under control. it will be a very low fire that’s not going to immolate your property

you could also talk to the VFD nearest you if there is one, they will have a trailerable fire pump.

I honestly have zero interest in doing it myself, ha. I'd rather someone who knows the deal and has insurance get out there and handle it. Considering that it's a small job my hope is that it wouldn't break the bank. I will consult with the local AG extension office first and if I don't get any suggestions from them, I will call agriculture and forestry.

You've been very helpful here and I really appreciate the knowledge. I've been in contact with Will Afton in Covington with LSU Ag. I've gotten his help with some things in the past and he was great to work with and very helpful. He was actually looking into a similar project already, so we are going to put our heads together and see what we can come up with.