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.

Early harvest

In mid November the miscanthus grass had gone dormant enough to take an inital harvest.

 The local IKM-Manning high school ag department was interested in using miscanthus grass in part of its renewable energy study. They needed some of the material to attempt to make experimental cellulosic ethanol out of it. We chose a 10'x10' area of a good stand of miscanthus grass in the highest planted population area. A majority of the leaves and tops of the grass had already fallen off the plants. We cut the grass manually about 2-6" from the ground and put the harvested miscanthus is a tub.
The harvested miscanthus was weighed at 21.4lbs. This is the as harvested weight and moisture content still needs to be accounted for. At this harvest rate, it could be expected to record approximately 9,300 lbs of biomass per acre.
The entire acre plot would not record this.  This was from one of the best plots in the field, but a plot of how a biomass crop is expected to be when mature.
More to come on how the ethanol experiments go and how the miscanthus fares over the winter.

The harvested miscanthus

Fall year 2

The end of year two came with very little rain to speak of. Some rainfall did come in the end of August and into September that kept everything alive, but overall yields were reduced. The grass seemed very similar in growth and overall yield similar to year 1. There were certain patches that did very well in year 1 that did show a great final yield in year 2.

Field in late October - mostly volunteer grass is visible

By the end of October, a lot of the mischantus grass had begun going dormant. The tops of most of the plants had fell to the ground already.

A batch of really good year 2 growth with a 4 wheeler parked in front of it.

As can be seen in the picture above, the grass may have topped out at about 7 feet or so. It should also be noted that the grass did head out with whispy or cotton like seeds. It was expected the grass would not have a long enough growing cycle to ever go to seed, but apparently the drought may have affected the normal growth pattern of the grass.
it can also be seen in the picture that the tall grass was still a hue of green. The grass had begun to shut down, but was still in the process of going dormant. It would not be recommended to harvest the grass at this stage.

Another picture of the end of year 2 grass, one of the better stands. 

Late summer drought

Sorry I found this post in the draft stage. Should have been posted in August...

The widespread drought is also taking its fair toll on the miscanthus growth. Any new growth was stunted as the grass ran out of water and coped with 100F+ temperatures. There has been some rainfall in the past few weeks that has allowed the crop to wake back up, but the amount of growth that was expected for year two seems again to be a disappointing year.
 

 The picture shows the field taken in the middle of August. There is heavy volunteer grass pressure as there was last year. The miscanthus grass is as tall or taller than the volunteer grass in most parts which is a big improvement over the previous year.

Early Summer year 2

It has been very hot and fairly dry over the last month. Any kind of rain is becoming very important for all crops in the area. From June 1 to July 11, 2012, a total of 4.5" of precipitation was recorded which has been enough to keep everything going so far. There are a lot of worse off areas in Iowa. The extreme high temperatures have taken care of what rain we did receive. On July 7, 2012 I was able to go out and take some more pictures. The grass is continuing to grow, but seems slowed by the lack of adequate moisture. The volunteer grass is also filling in and it will be in competition with the miscanthus until the miscanthus can hopefully grow over it. Much of the good standing miscanthus is chest high (4'-5') which is significantly better than July last year. The grass is at a height comparable to late August of last year.

The sun was beginning to set, but this is the same straight on view that I posted for late spring. the increased growth is obvious.

Average Western Iowa precipitation and Iowa temperatures

 
 From NOAA

On a separate topic, a new rhizome digger was acquired for our test plot. It was an old potato planter that we can use to dig up rhizomes this fall. Looking forward to the testing with this old tool.

Late Spring

This post is a recap for late spring. We had a very warm spring and the grass got to a really good start. I was coming up very fast. The picture below was taken on June 1, 2012. Last year we were able to plant the rhizomes on May 18 and had barely began to emerge at this same time last year. It is quite different from bare ground of last spring. Also it appears that practically all of the planted rhizomes came up this spring. Many plants that were either too small or did not come up last fall have started to sprout this spring which is a very good sign. It is very clear that some rows are doing far better than others. This can be tracked to the variable of boxes that were used for each set of rows. Some boxes had great rhizomes while others did not. It is suspected that this is the cause of low population rows. We will continue to monitor population through the year.

Late spring stand of rhizomes

Soil samples were taken and submitted to Iowa State Soil Analysis Laboratory. The ground was not too dry, but was beginning to dry out in areas. There has been a total of 11" of precipitation from January to June 1, 2012.

A single giant miscanthus plant.

Another group of healthy plants

Harvesting rhizomes

In late March we attempted to harvest rhizomes of some of the miscanthus plot. A patch of miscanthus was dug up in order to investigate the complexity, yield, and process of harvesting the rhizomes. Since this was a small scale effort, a Bobcat was used with a tine tooth bucket to dig a shallow trench along a row of miscanthus grass. The root balls fell out of the tines very easily. The effort was minimal thanks to the machinery used. Some were dug by hand and was a much more physical task that would be unreasonable in a large plot.

One small 10x10 foot area cleared for rhizome harvest

An example of a plant to be harvested. This was done in early spring but this past winter and spring have been very warm compared to normal and some growth has begun.

An area dug up

The tool used to dig up rhizomes

A rhizome pulled from the ground

All harvested rhizomes set out from where they were dug from

A collection of rhizomes dug up

Same group of rhizomes washed off.

Early spring

The spring season has started and it has been very unseasonably warm in western Iowa. As of March 30, new growth is visible above ground on many plants.

New growth on a plant as of March 30, 2012

A smaller plant beginning to grow again.

The total field at the start of spring

The total amount of biomass was not large enough to justify a harvest. The dormant biomass form the field will be left in the field as cover.

Small harvest

A small harvest was made in late winter of the miscanthus grass for analysis. There was a significant difference between the stem and the leaf portion of the grass. The stem was very stiff and long.The leaves were similar to more traditional grass and was loose and stringy. Harvesting the stems is most desirable, but might prove to be difficult.

The two pictures above are the harvested miscanthus stems

This container has the leaf portion of the harvested miscanthus

A small harvest

Back in November we were able to attend and present at the Small Farm Trade Show and Conference in Columbia, Missouri. This was a great experience and we were able to make an initial presentation on our project so far. We were able to also meet some very interesting people who are very concerned with the environment as well. I learned quite a bit about raised bed gardens and using humus to enhance soil. It really got me in the mood for making biochar. Then I met a researcher at the conference who was doing just that. John Topic had also won a grant through SARE and was researching improving soil by the use of biochar. Very interesting stuff and we hope to collaborate someday.

Following that not much to do on the farm but wait for the grass to dry out and drop the leaves. On December 28, 2011 I was able to go out to the field and try to hand harvest some of the plants. It was an unusually warm winter thus far, and not much had changed with the field since October.

Miscanthus field in late December

I used a rake to remove the weed grass that had now laid down nicely to reveal the miscanthus grass that was still standing tall.I got a spot about 15'x15' cleared out so I could harvest neatly without contamination of the other grasses.

Small cleared patch.

I used a corn knife to hand cut the miscanthus just above ground level. I took the plants whole in a bag back home. The biomass will need analysis for mineral and energy content.

Harvested bunch of miscanthus - single plant, first year

After I was complete, that left a fairly bare patch in the field.

So I raked the grass back into the spot to help prevent any soil erosion during next spring.

What I really found interesting with the miscanthus plants is the very different physical properties of the plant stems versus the leaves. The stems separated very easily from the rest of the plant. I assume this is what should happen after winter with leaves have fully dropped from the plants. We will have to wait to see what winter brings us in terms of snow to see if that is true or not in the spring. Also, this field is first year growth that is practically an unharvestable quantity. We will have to wait until next fall to determine the final weight and volume percentage of the harvested grass is leaves compared to stems.

Mid October

This post is for the end of season pictures I was able to get in mid October. Miscanthus is easy to spot as the foxtail had all died out. Many of the plants were doing really well, but the population of miscanthus plants was not what we had hoped it would be. This first season was a great learning experience. Basically no biomass to harvest this year, we hope to see a tremendous regrowth in the spring.