Orchard grass. who carries it?

[jason_mazzy]

It isn;t listed on lowes website. I want seed so I can plant my newly bushhogged yard.

 

[jason_mazzy]

Anyone know of ocal places or am I stuck buying from the internet?

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

I think you'd be more likely to find it at a feed store than at a home improvement type store. But alot of feed stores carry seed seasonally... is it the right time to seed with orchard grass? I don't know for sure, but I was thinking it was a warm season grass. I could be totally wrong about that. But you might call some of your local feed stores, I'll bet they can tell you.

 

[patandchickens]

Ya, it is an agricultural product not a home-gardening product, you need to be talking to feedstores.

First though you need to confirm whether it will do well on your site (soil, moisture, climate, that kind of thing) and make sure it is what you really want -- it isn't a great lawn grass, it is meant to be a hayfield And as previously mentioned find out the best way of seeding it for your area (maybe you have and maybe it *is* typically seeded now, but if you haven't talked to feedstores about availability then I am guessing you maybe haven't talked to them about how to plant/manage it either?)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jason_mazzy]

it is for open pasture for my 2 cows. I just cleared an aditional 3/4 of an acre that goes around the property on the ridge line. I have fescue so I am going to plant rye and wanted to mix orchard for the shadier tree parts (which it grows well in). This way the combination of fescue rye, and orchard would provide a blend of nutrients. I was asking here because I have never had to specifically look for grass before in this state. Rye and fescue I can pick up at lowes, so I had assumed errantly, that orchard would be available also.

 

[patandchickens]

A thing to be aware of if this is *pasture* you're seeding is that you really ought to keep stock off it for at least 6 months after seeding, ideally a year. Otherwise the plants never get really well established and they tend to get excessively killed back by even normal levels of grazing, with the result that you get a sparse unhealthy and/or weedy stand instead of a good dense resiliant pasture.

Maybe you're planning that anyhow, but if not, thought I'd toss it in.

I would be careful of buying fescue from a home improvement store (for one thing it is likely to be much more *expensive* than from a feedstore!) because oftentimes people want endophyte-free strains for their livestock which are only going to be from feedstores not from the garden department. (Strains of fescue sold for lawn purposes pretty much always have endophytes, rather vigorous ones in fact, that's what helps make them more tolerant of mowing and foot traffic)

Of ocurse if you do not mind the endophyte thing, like if these will be beef cattle who I'm not sure are affected, then garden-dept seed would probably be fine (although still possibly more expensive, you should compare prices!)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat