​Stop 6 —​ Prairie Planting

​The Nachusa crew planted these twelve acres back to prairie on November 29, 2010. For decades prior, farmers had planted corn and soybeans here. The last field of corn was harvested in October 2010; then the corn stubble was burned in preparation for the new planting.
 
Nachusa Grassland plantings are super ‘rich’, each planted with 125+ species at a high rate of pounds of seed per acre.

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How many pounds of seed do Nachusa stewards plant per acre?
Bill Kleiman, Nachusa Grasslands Preserve Manager says, “It takes a lot of seeds per acre to make sure an area fills in with native plants, not weeds. Planting seeds too thin is a common cause for poor results. In a new planting that was a former row crop field, we are planting 40 to 60 pounds per acre.  We don’t clean our seed, so perhaps 40% of that bulk weight is chaff. The bottom line is this is a lot of seed per acre.”
 
This particular field was planted with 50 pounds of seed per acre, for a total of 600 pounds.
 
How many species does a steward sow in a new planting?
Bill Kleiman says, “Plant in year 1 all the species you want in year 100”. Nachusa stewards plant not only the tough native plants like indian grass, bee balm, yellow coneflower, and big bluestem, but also all the finicky or conservative species like birdsfoot violet, lead plant, pussytoes & shooting star.
 
This planting included 134 species. Cody Considine, Nachusa’s restoration ecologist, describes the day of planting: “Heather Baker, Kim Schmidt and I planted the area using the three antique gravity box seeders, pulled by the Big Red Truck, the Green Truck, and the Little Red Truck. We planted in concentric circles, starting clockwise with the first pass and counterclockwise with the second pass. Some seed still remained and a random cross–stitching pattern was used. The seeders were set all the way open. As the last seed hit the 

ground it started to rain. The rain was a perfect way to end the day. It was steady but not overpowering. The precipitation was not fast enough to wash the seed away or cause uneven seed distribution; instead it cemented the seed to the ground. The soil condition changed from dry and loose to moist and firm, locking our precious payload in the ground.”​

​As a final touch, in 20–degree weather, seasonal crew members Heather Baker and Kim Schmidt “hand–planted” acorns, hazelnuts, hickory nuts and plum pits.
 
What about weeds?
Nachusa stewards have discovered that there are only about 8-9 exotic weed species that can spread exponentially on the open soils of a new planting such as this one. These include white and yellow sweet clover, red clover, parsnip, Queen Anne’s lace, Canada thistle, bull thistle, etc. Stewards walk back and forth over the acreage with herbicide backpacks spraying out these problem species during year 1 and year 2.
 
WALK INTO THE PLANTING. In a square yard, how many different species can you spot? Stewards hand–collected the seeds of these species from May through November. The seeds are then dried on racks, run through a seed processor, blended into mixes, and then broadcast over the acreage with a tractor seed spreader as soon as the corn is harvested.

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