In my “wet” pasture, and around the creek, Reed Canary Grass grows. This is an invasive species. It does fine being submerged for part of the year but also does fine in drier conditions. It just grows and grows and spreads and spreads (albeit slowly).
It spread from the creek banks 50 feet up a steep hill, into my garden area, and then into one of the raised beds. I pulled it all out. I put it in pots. I have what I think is a terrible idea to plant those plants in a low-lying area in another pasture.
The thing about this grass is, it absorbs nitrogen really well, so it keeps surface and water clean, and it produces are lot of forage which my horses love. After some research, I found that it is a low sugar forage, which is rare to find up here in the PNW. Some research suggests potential toxicity, but my horses went to town on this stuff and no one had any problems.
So you can see why I’d like to plant it. But it’s invasive. And invasive is bad. So please talk me out of this!
Ah yes. I too went down a rabbit hole on toxicity after seeing some alarming data on sheep in New Zealand, but apparently there have never been issues in the PNW. I will say my horse ended up refusing some nice looking RCG hay after a few days but loves the grass until it seeds out and turns into actual twigs.
Our barn is in a wetlands park, and RCG is the dominant species in the wet areas. I am not sure how fast it spreads on dry proper pasture. I’m familiar with a number of older pastures that have had no maintenance for decades, where the RCG remains in the wet patches and the rest of the field is a mix of more quality grasses, Timothy and Orchard and Redtop etc.
RCG is indeed invasive in that it thrives in poor conditions where other grasses don’t grow. I believe it grows by rhizomes predominantly although it also has seeds. So it will creep. While it is invasive and creates a monocrop, there is debate on whether it is an imported plant. My fairly reliable plant guide says there is evidence it was used in indigenous basket weaving pre-contact.
I would say if your RCG is maintaining a stable territory in your wet patches and not eating up your higher quality better drained pastures then it’s not a problem for you on your particular microsystem.
I agree that RCG is a prolific forage crop, very palatable until about July, will regrow palatable shoots if mowed down in summer, and makes excellent use of the damp spots. Also there is something so luxurious about seeing horses in 5 foot tall grass! It’s not the best forage and I wouldn’t want it as hay, but I think as part of mixed grazing it’s fine. I’d rather have RCG than buttercups, which are invasive, natural and toxic!
I can’t speak to the wisdom of actually introducing RCG to a new wet spot on your property. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that, in large part because the RCG is already everywhere!
Re-reading your post I see you have indeed found it to be invasive on your property and up onto dry areas. Maybe not a great idea then to introduce it to other spots.
It’s a non-starter - invasives don’t get planted, ever.
Definitely contact your extension agency, or maybe better yet, see if there’s a local(ish) Native Plant Society who can help. There are lots of those
What state are you in? There’s also very likely a native plant FB group for your state or the PWN in general, so you can start there, and they can no doubt point you in the right direction.
Not all non natives are bad. I planted non native trees in my horse pasture because I needed shade immediately. I now have several nice shade trees, but they are not wind tolerant. They break in half in storms… then regrow. I don’t keep my horses in that pasture during bad storms so it doesn’t matter if they break off limbs. They are great trees because they are nearly invincible. For my purposes they work as intended. They are listed as invasive but they don’t really spread unless I take root cuttings and plant them elsewhere.
Non-natives aren’t all bad, many are very well-behaved, even if they don’t truly support native life. Even if they produce nectar or seeds/fruits, it’s not the nutritional profile that native wildlife evolved eating
But an invasive has no place being planted, ever.
Invasives are listed as such for a reason - they spread no matter what you do, whether via seeds or roots. I mean sure, you could have invasive bamboo in a pot on a balcony and its roots can’t spread, but that’s very different from what most do.
Most people don’t think something listed as invasive really is, because they’re mowing property and removing seedlings before they become a problem. What they don’t see is all the seedlings wildlife is depositing elsewhere - that’s how invasives become invasive.
You have a lot of great native plants to choose from. I’ll second asking your local extension office for suggestions. Reed canary grass is terribly invasive and can be problematic for livestock. Some people report good results, until something bad happens. Bales of RCG sell for less than a dollar a bale here at the hay auction. Too many locals have been burned.
The bottom line is that it’s an invasive plant and bad for your local ecosystem. Please use a native alternative.
One potential negative I see that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the unintentional transmission of seeds/roots.
I work in an industry that is very conscious of unintentional transmission, ie equipment must be pressure washed before leaving the site to avoid carrying a root or seed to another property.
The RCG may behave well at your property but perhaps if carried to a different location, (unintentionally) may become a problem.
Thank you for all of the replies. I particularly appreciate the comment about bamboo, because the previous owners planted spreading bamboo and I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to eradicate it. It’s a terrible plant, and the sharp shoots mean I can never use that space for horses. So that comment really resonates with me.
I can talk to the extension agent, but I have talked to her before and she was very much not willing to help. Maybe if I say “Hey I’ve got this RCG in pots that I was about to plant,” that might shock her enough to get her to give me some suggestions LOL.
It’s really interesting about this stuff. The horses loved it in the summer. I turned them out in that pasture after it had seeded out. They ate it down from five feet tall to nothing. But after it died down and is now slowly regrowing, they won’t touch it. I remember that there was something about it becoming toxic if over-fertilized. I don’t know if it’s that, or if there’s something else about the initial regrowth phase that maybe concentrates something toxic that will go away later. But I am grateful that they seem to be able to tell that for whatever the reason, it’s not something for them to eat right now. As for hay, I would never feed it to them as hay. Never never never.
Crabgrass is my particular foe. It spreads everywhere along the roads, then into my pasture and it slowly takes over more and more every year. The horses will not touch it. It stinks when mowed or stepped on. There’s no getting rid of it. We tried spraying. We tried pre-emergent. Nothing works. The spray turns it yellow and then it turns green again.
I’m sorry to hear that. You may be able to find a phone number for someone else in your local office.
Or try a different org like your local Soil and Water Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service, your state’s Department of Forestry, or even your area’s Master Gardeners Club.
Check neighboring counties/jurisdictions. Sometimes they have much better personnel and are willing to help people not living in their counties. I went to an excellent seminar on horse property management in a neighboring state and after I told them my local extension was…underwhelming, they told me to feel free to contact them with any questions.
Just be careful with these. There are too many nurseries who claim to have native plants, and while some of the plants may be, a lot may not be, and they may not really understand the difference. There’s “native to the US” and “native to your state” and even “native to your part of the state”
Sometimes one plant that’s native to one part of the state can actually be invasive to another part, as well as what’s native to one state might be invasive in a very different state’s climate
Honestly, a FB native plant group is likely your best bet, especially since the Ag Agent that PonyRiderMom talked to was less than helpful. I can tell you the NC Native Plant group is amazing in knowing alternatives to even non-native but not invasive, and knowing what nurseries or seasonal pop-up plant sales are legit.
There ARE excellent native-plant nurseries. I merely mentioned taking precautions to make sure they actually sell what they say they’re selling. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone realizing the “native” plant they got from a “native plant nursey” was anything but.
Crabgrass that stinks when mowed or stepped on? Can you elaborate?
Crabgrass is actually a more than decent quality summer forage option in the southern states. One of my undergrad professors once quipped that, if it weren’t for crabgrass, he’d have no pasture at all in the summer months. I’m not quite at that point yet but getting there after two drought years.
I’m curious about that “crabgrass” too, because it doesn’t sound like anything I know as crabgrass. It’s everywhere here in the South, and there’s at least 1 variety that’s sold specifically to mix in with more typical hay grasses. None of it smells bad either, I’ve pulled enough of it to know LOL
