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.
