I've tried to work the last two years keeping it sprayed as much as I can, but haven't hit it once this summer. Just don't have time like I used to. I'm sure is 8-10 high already on some plots. How do those of you that have bad JG deal with yours?

I make it a priority to mainatain the plots, just like i make it a priority to hunt. A little hard work during the summer, pays off in the fall.

If it was me, I'd bush hog it down as best you can and then hit with Gly. Might have to spray one more time before fall plots but this should get it manageable. Hope this helps.

Just have to make sure to keep it from seeding out. Whatever it takes! Like blumsden said, if you do not make it a priority it will beat you. Grass and weeds don't take days off, that's the down side to trying to do serious food plotting.

yeah I wish I could make that a priority. Paying bills trumps it though right now. I hear ya it shouldn't seed out but I've seen seed on the stuff at a foot tall and I've seen it grow that much in a week!

Depending on what you intend on planting in the fall you could look into using a pre-emergent and use it one time in the spring to prevent a complete infestation. You have to be careful though.

I hate it too. It don't take long to take over. I've been looking at making cheap rope wick but have not seen a plan I like yet

My advice would be to stop tillage and try to smother it out using cover crops. I’m assuming that this plot has been repeatedly disked over the years. Doing so causes your soil to burn up most if not all of the organic matter present in the soil. This can dramatically reduce your soil’s ability to hold moisture and nutrients just depending on your soil type. Some soils, like those dominated by sand, will be significantly impacted by increases and reductions of organic matter. When OM is reduced to very low levels and soil moisture is very low, then that lends itself to being a much more favorable environment for species like crabgrass and johnsongrass to dominate. They are designed to flourish in poor soils and we’ll easily out compete “crop plants” that attempt to compete with it under these conditions. Trying to eliminate weed problems through spraying long term will not work as you’ve seen. Keep on doing it for years and you’ll start finding out about gly resistance as many are beginning to do with all these RR crops. As long as your soil is starving for OM and unable to hold nutrients/moisture…then grasses like this will continue to be a problem. These grasses are dominating for a reason. Its nature’s way of trying to restore the soil’s OM levels through high carbon grass species.

Start this fall with 50-75 lbs of cereal rye per acre along with a mix of red and white clovers like crimson, durana, and yuchi arrowleaf, as well as some hairy vetch. Let the cover crops mature next spring and they will help smother out any new growth that tries to come in underneath it.. You will still have some grass issues as this surely wont fix your problem in one year. However, as you soil’s ability to hold moisture improves and increase then your crop plants will be able to get a better jump on any remaining unwanted species and eventually phase them out to tolerable levels. The first step is to realize that its your management practices that’s creating this situation that’s allowing these grasses to thrive. You will have to alter what you are doing to see different results. If you do the same thing, you will only see the same results.

I'm sure u already know this.But I was gonna tell u anytime u cut that chit, make sure u clean it off ur bush hog to keep from contaminating other area's..

I never had Johnson grass on my place but after my last burn it showed up I am knockin it back so far its kind off a draw. I agree with the weeds dont take a day off. Right now its in a small area with pines only if I cant control it, may call for a application of Arsenal

The problem is the seeds are in the dirt and it will take you a few years to get things back under control. Spray it, wait a few weeks and disc in under, then spray it again. You may have to do this two to three times during the summer before you knock it down completely.

If i were going to disk agin, i wouldn't waste the time spraying. Everytime you disk, you bring up dormant seed that will sprout. Repeated disking ruins your soil. You would have to disk all summer to remove all the seed from the seed bank. At that point, your Om has went to hell, and the ability to hold moisture, with it.

^^^ This.

CNC has some good info above. He and I don't do the same management per say but what he shared is good. OM is the key to good plots, without it your food plot hopes are gone. There is middle ground when it comes to breaking ground though and that is where I fall on the subject.

I do not believe you can smother heavy Johnson grass with no-till crops. You can't plow it to death either. I think you'll have to spray like killing rye grass , heavy and about 3 times during growing season.

Thanks I appreciate the input!

Sugaray, don't use arsenal as it will have an effect on your food plot for a long time. Use Gly instead.

What if you transitioned from a stand of cereal rye in the spring straight to a pure stand of buckwheat using the throw and mow method? I think that would stand a good chance.

Here's a pic to illustrate what I was talking about in my prior post about OM and soil moisture being a key to out competing unwanted "weeds". This is my apple orchard. I tilled it as recently as last summer so I'm just now getting the process going of turning it back around. I broadcasted some durana clover into the orchard last fall along with some cereal rye. It was all planted at the same rate and there is clover in underneath the grass all across the field. However, the reason I want to show the pic is because I irrigated a small section of it.....one of the benefits of testing stuff in the backyard.

Is the crabgrass an issue in the area that got plenty of soil moisture? No...in that spot the durana was able to out compete and smother the crabgrass. The key to getting things like crabgrass to a tolerable level through cover crops is to improve your soil so that it offers a better growing environment for "crop" plants. For most of us that will only happen through improving the OM. That's why I'm not doing anything to the crabgrass right now. Many people would say "Oh you need to spray that so that you'll have a pretty clover plot." But I disagree....I'm specifically leaving the crabgrass because it is what will provide my soil with a dose of OM this summer. Grass species are the #1 source of carbon for your soil. They are the main builders of OM. As OM increases then so will the clover's presence. If I spray the crabgrass then my clover will simply burn up in this heat in these poor sandy soil conditions.

If you continue to plant into degraded soil then the weeds or grasses with always have the upper hand. They were designed to grow in those conditions...most crop plants are not. These nasty unwanted species are the very ones that are suppose to come into degraded soils in order to get something growing over the bare surface.

Here is a closer shot showing how the clover was able dominate over the crabgrass in the area I irrigated. BTW....it hasn't been irrigated in several months now.

Try it on a good stand of Johnson grass and post results. Seeing is believing.