Fall 2013

The past year was a good growing year for the giant miscanthus, yet after year 3 it still has not filled in as well as initially expected. The overall growth is also limited, far below 10' or 12' tall, 8' is a more realistic height of the best stalks, with a majority of the mass topping out at 6-7' high. Here are some photos from late August.

At the best part of the field. This was where 8' high grass was found

The rest of the field. Good amounts of growth, but not significant to justify the cost in my opinion. Obviously the weed pressure may be too significant. 

A video of me walking though the best part of the field.

Here is a photo of  three rhizome plants I transplanted into my yard after year 1. So this is 2 years later. Notice they did multiply very well, but height in my yard (with water and fertilizer) limited to 6' (fence height). I assume based on very shallow topsoil and poor subsoil.

Here is the field after the killing frost and plants started to go dormant. I was surprised to find how much moisture was retained in the stalks. I had seen this in previous years as well. Although he plants look brown from a distance, there still is a good amount of green on the stalks and a lot of moisture in the plants. I don't have a precise moisture reading, but it seemed above 10% from my experience.

This is the same view I get for most pictures. You can see the plants well. They are not as tall as expected, but they are staring to fill in nicely. 

Here is a view at the low population area. It is clear that this area is not progressing anywhere close to the other areas. I would be hard pressed to plant at this population of 8,000 rhizomes per acre to establish a new crop. 

2013 spring/summer update

The blog was in desperate need of an update. Growth this past year started out slow with a cool spring, but has progressed nicely since. Overall the production of the miscanthus is somewhat disappointing as this is now the third year and growth is marginally over 6' in height and there is significant gaps between plants. Only in the high and mid populations of original planting could a feasible crop be had. The low and more recommended population is still a long way from production ready. We are lucky only one acre was used for this experiment. I did try to apply for an extension to the project by proposing to collaborate with another farmer to make biochar from miscanthus and study its effects on soil fertility. Sadly, we did not receive the grant. I plan to self fund and continue the miscanthus study but on a very financially constrained budget until we can work out a way to do something with the biomass. I hope to continue the work, else we may need to return the field to crop production if we do not see any type of gains from the Miscanthus crop.


These pictures were taken in the end of May 2013. This was similar to the date it was planted 2 years earlier, in 2012 it was almost knee high by this date. It was clear the cold weather slowed the emergence in the spring.

 This group then was taken on the fourth of July, Another common date for past pictures. The significant gaps can be seen here in the full field views. This is from the entrance. High population to the right, low to the left. There is some good growth happening, but seems to be lacking the high level of production expected.

 

and this one was from the back of the field this is mostly the medium and low population area

The one really good performing area in the high population area is below. This is also at July 4 time frame and I think shows the best results that could be expected from a similar plot. 

Then the last group of pictures I have are from July 27. It is amazing to see how much less the miscanthus crop (although showing the best growth yet) compares to even the poorest end-rows in the corn crop growing right next to it.

Here is another picture from late July.

Through the fall I will continue to monitor the growth and post another update when the information is available.