I have a field of various types of wild annual grass and would like to nip
many of the grasses in the bud, so to speak, to insure they do not appear
again. I believe grass produces seeds after it "flowers", and I should
likely mow it just before or slightly after that. How do I recognize the
proper time to cut. I think flower is the same as inflorescence? Is there a
web site that discusses this?
--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)

Web Page: speckledwithStars.net

"W. Watson" wrote in
:

I have a field of various types of wild annual grass and would like to
nip many of the grasses in the bud, so to speak, to insure they do not
appear again. I believe grass produces seeds after it "flowers", and I
should likely mow it just before or slightly after that. How do I
recognize the proper time to cut. I think flower is the same as
inflorescence? Is there a web site that discusses this?

There are probably web sites that discuss grass flowering. You will want to
cut the grass before the seeds start to fall off. If you cut it too early,
the plant might flower again, meaning you need to cut it again. You should
cut and bag the cuttings, don't leave the cuttings on the ground, or rake
them up after cutting otherwise you are just spreading the seeds around.
Cut low enough that you will get all of the seeds. You can compost the
cuttings if you want, as long as it gets hot. Some grasses such as sandbur
would be easier to eradicate by digging out as soon as you can recognise
the species, because if you wait, the seeds catch on anything, and are a
serious pain to clean out of your mower bag.

Sean

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Thanks for the tips. Grass seeds, as in the growth of plants and grasses, do
not seem to be a topic of much note. I picked up two books at the library on
grasses, and they seem to just tangentially mention them. One book is called
Botany for Gardeners and the other First Book of Grasses. They seem to touch
on just about every other part of the grasses, but not seeds. Maybe there's
another word for it in botany?

A friend who is a biologist pretty much cleared things up when I brought
some samples to him. They show flowering (infloresence) and he said they
contain immature seeds, so now is the time to cut them down (foxtail and
others I really don't want). I asked when do they become mature, and he said
when they start turning brown. I probably have 4-5 or even more days before
that happens, so I'm hiring some workers to cut them down soon--maybe an acre.

Sean Houtman wrote:
"W. Watson" wrote in
:

I have a field of various types of wild annual grass and would like to
nip many of the grasses in the bud, so to speak, to insure they do not
appear again. I believe grass produces seeds after it "flowers", and I
should likely mow it just before or slightly after that. How do I
recognize the proper time to cut. I think flower is the same as
inflorescence? Is there a web site that discusses this?

There are probably web sites that discuss grass flowering. You will want to
cut the grass before the seeds start to fall off. If you cut it too early,
the plant might flower again, meaning you need to cut it again. You should
cut and bag the cuttings, don't leave the cuttings on the ground, or rake
them up after cutting otherwise you are just spreading the seeds around.
Cut low enough that you will get all of the seeds. You can compost the
cuttings if you want, as long as it gets hot. Some grasses such as sandbur
would be easier to eradicate by digging out as soon as you can recognise
the species, because if you wait, the seeds catch on anything, and are a
serious pain to clean out of your mower bag.

Sean

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)

Web Page: speckledwithStars.net