Growing Miscanthus: Slow and steady

On July 3rd, I was able to make it out to the farms and have a good look at the miscanthus plot. We were also lucky enough to have Emily Heaton from Iowa State University meet us to have a quick tour. We were able to discuss the plot, growing expectations, equipment & labor, and talk about general practices and shared lessons learned over years of growing miscanthus as well as other research and personal projects. I look forward to sharing our experiences into the future with what works, what doesn't, and how to logistically make a biomass crop really work.

As traditional Iowa farmers, my dad and I can easily look as our new grass plot and say that it looks terrible. The nearby corn is approaching shoulder height, and the grass is far behind other nearby established brome grass. But this is a new plant, and we have to change our mindsets. Upon closer inspection, there are a lot pf plants coming, and they seem to be doing well.

First view entering the plot. Quite a bit of foxtail in this area, but this is right next to the driveway entrance to the field. Same vantage point as many other previous pictures.

This is at the top of the hill in the middle of the plot. A few really good rows are visible without a lot of weeds around. The tall skinny grass is the miscanthus, everything else are weeds.

There needs to be a broad-leaf pesticide application soon, but it really looks like the miscanthus might make it! Emily assured us that the stand of first year rhizome grass looked really good. Her pleasant surprise helped calm our original doubts.

I got a yardstick and took a couple pictures of a few plants. I would guess that about 75% of plants are up, and of them 50% or better look like these plants below with the rest still very small as if they just came out of the ground. It will be better to see again after the broad-leaves are killed off.