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Re: *!?#@! CROWN VETCH

>Nancy Morey wrote:
>>
>> I am planning a 20 acre prairie restoration of land in south
>> central Iowa going into CRP.  I have a healthy stand of cool season
>> Eurasian grasses that have been established for over ten years.  Because
>> the land borders a mid sized river I have a diverse population of
>> wildlife.  I have read Steve Packard's chapter on interseeding (Tall
>> Grass Restoration Handbook, Island Press) and I feel that I should
>> restore using this technique in order to preserve the current wildlife
>> habitat.  My problem is that numerous patches of crown vetch have
>> invaded the grasslands from nearby roadside plantings.  My questions
>> are...with interseeding, will a heathy prairie of native forbes and
>> grasses overtake and eventually choke out the crown vetch?  If not, will
>> strategic burns or mowing break down the vetch enough so that native
>> plants can overtake it?...or, should I spot treat the crown vetch
>> patches with Round-Up while the native seedlings are establishing?
>> Because of the creeping nature of the vetch roots, I do not think I can
>> successfully hand pull the invaders...or, would it be better to totally
>> eliminate the vetch by plowing and exposing its roots and disrupt the
>> animal communities that are already established?  Does anybody have any
>> ideas or options?  What would be the best way to tackle this one??????
>> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  David Morey, Keokuk
>> County, Iowa
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>
>
>Crown vetch is severely injured and sometime killed with very close
>mowing.  It make take a couple of good "scalpings" to severely thin it
>or kill it.  Of course spot spraying where feasible is a good
>alterntive.
>
>Brett Roberts
>
>
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This reply is from Carl Kurtz, Marshall County Central Iowa

We tried to reconstruct a diverse prairie community in a field infested
with a number of colonies of crown vetch 5 years ago.  For one year
preceeding planting, we first sprayed the patches, then kept the soil bare
by disking throughout the entire season, planting in the fall.  It appeared
that while we may have killed the mature plants we spread vetch seed over
the south 1/2 of the field and it came up and established small patches by
the dozen.  We then commenced spraying it once a season with 2-4-D, to
avoid killing the establishing grasses and it now appears after five years
we have achieved nearly complete control.  It is almost impossible to pull
and get all the roots from even a small colony.  In retrospect I would have
planted the field to corn, then soybeans before planting the prairie.  Our
established prairie nowlooks great, but is short on forbs where we were
forced to spray the crown vetch, and we will have to monitor it for years
in the future.



Carl Kurtz
515-477-8364
cpkurtz@netins.net 


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