Title and number of planting: Dot & Doug Wade Prairie 2006 Planting #69

Author of this history: Alan Meier

Revision Date: 3/3/2008

Site conditions:

Location: Ogle County, Township 22N, Range 10E, Section 16. This planting is approximately six acres in size. The western, northern, and eastern boundaries are all straight lines. The southern boundary is irregular. The coordinates of the boundary corners are:
southwest corner: N 41°53”28.0’, W 089°21”20.4’
northwest corner: N 41°53”30.2’, W 089°21”12.5’
northeast corner: N 41°53”30.1’, W 089°21”12.2’
southeast corner: N 41°53”24.4’, W089°21”12.6’

The site is bordered by Doug’s Knob on the southeast, the Shabonna Savannah on the south, a remnant prairie north of Potawatomi Ridge on the southwest, a heavily wooded area on the west (off preserve), a cornfield on the north (2007 planting), Dot’s Knob on the northeast, and the Dot & Doug Wade Prairie 1994 restoration on the east.

Soil types: According to the Ogle County Soil Study, soils include

#727B Waukee loam, 1 to 5 percent slopes – gently sloping, well drained soils on uplands and slightly elevated terraces along streams

Topographic features: The planting is quite flat, with no more than a few feet difference in elevation from one end the planting to the other

Site History:

This planting probably had been in row crop production since 1939.  The 1939 aerial photo is a little dark over this planting, but it looks to be in row crops already.  The 1958 aerial clearly shows that the planting was in row crops at that time, and continuously until about 1994.  In 1994 Bill Kleiman, Kevin Kaltenbach, and a few other stewards spread combine mix, not hand collected mix, over the entire field that includes this planting.  This was mostly little bluestem.  They did not plant enough seed, nor did they cover the planting evenly.  They had expected to add more seed but ran out.  This planting did poorly, filling in with cool season grasses, some native prairie plants, and a lot of Rubus, invasive honeysuckle, and many, many box elder seedlings from the fence line to the west.

Bill wanted to put the field in corn a year later, but Gene St. Louis wanted to over-seed it, and he did. That field languished for a decade.  They mowed it once or twice a year to knock down the woody plants.  Gene over-seeded a good mix of species, but there was no apparent improvement.  About seven years after Gene's over-seeding, Bill had Farmer Colwell spray it in the fall with a mix of Crossbow and Roundup. Then they plowed it and planted corn in the spring.  The corn was in this planting for three years.

Site Preparations:

After the 2006 corn crop was harvested, the corn stubble was mowed and then burned off on November 20, 2006.  Later that week, the field was harrowed. The field was not harrowed again after the seed planting was completed.

Seed planting:

Planting was performed by Alan Meier, steward of the Dot & Doug Wade Prairie.

Seed planting began on November 27. The seed was mixed in the middle of the planting prior to spreading the seed. The majority of the seed was planted using a pendulum seed broadcaster attached to a small Kubota tractor. Two full passes of the planting were made on November 27 using settings on the broadcaster of 12 and 15. Seed barrels were used to mark the areas where the seed was being sown. That night there was an extremely heavy rainfall, and much of the planting was too wet for the tractor that next day. So on November 28, Illinois Tick Trefoil, Whorled Milkweed, and Thimbleweed were broadcast by hand.

On December 1, a ten inch snowfall blanketed the area. On December 9, the pendulum seed broadcaster attached to the Kubota tractor was again used for broadcasting the remaining seed mix on a rapidly melting snow-cover. Three additional passes of the entire planting were completed that day using settings of 18, 24, and 27 on the spreader. Due to the snow-cover, there was no need to mark the areas that had been seeded that day. The total of five passes over the planting between the two days when the tractor was used ensured a very uniform distribution of the seed.

On December 16 and 17 additional hand-planting of seed was performed, including the inserting of 1200 porcupine grass seeds into the earth. Also, 9 Wild Plum (Prunus Americana) plants provided by Chris and Jennifer Hauser were planted.

Seed list:

Approximately 314 pounds of seed (including chaff and stems) were planted. A total of 128 species were included. Most of the seed was hand-harvested by Alan and Mary Meier. 77 pounds of the seed were picked in the 2005 season and held over. The remaining 236 pounds were harvested in 2006. The mix included 24 pounds of little bluestem which was machine harvested by the crew. The bulk seed per acre average was 52.33 pounds.

Click here to download a printable (PDF) copy of the seed list shown below.

Click a column header in the table below to sort the table by that column.

Map:

Picture taken April 4, 2008.

Lessons learned:

A setting of 12 is too low on the pendulum broadcast spreader. Although a very thorough and even spread of the seed was accomplished by making 5 complete passes, an excessive amount of time was taken to complete the mechanical portion of the planting. A setting of 15 or 18 done in 3 passes is probably better

Follow up notes:

In June of 2007 a flat of Arrow-leaved violets (Viola sagittata) were hand-planted in the planting and were watered by hand for a couple of weeks.

In mid-summer Bill Kleiman started to mow the planting, making just three passes with the tractor and mower attachment. At that time it was decided not to continue mowing because the small prairie plants did not appear to be adversely affected by the tall weeds. It will be interesting to compare the mowed with the un-mowed areas to determine if they show any differentiation in the quality of the vegetation in the future.

In the summer and fall of 2007, the planting appeared to be a success with a large number of native plants throughout the planting. The planting was aided by an exceptionally large amount of precipitation throughout the summer months that year.