Will it Grow? Comparison of wildland planting methods of native forbs. Alison Whittaker, Bracken Davis, Danny Summers, Jason Vernon What piece of equipment do we use? Study Design Randomized complete block design 2 sites North Site South Site 2 years – Treated in 2008 and 2009 2 blocks 5 treatments Control Aerator Chain Drill Pipe Harrow Total of 40 plots Study Sites Site Layout Plot size = 150’ x 100’ Methods Planting Methods Aerator Pipe Harrow Ely Chain Truax Rangeland Drill Seed Mix Species Munro Globemallow Blue Flax Utah Sweetvetch Silvery Lupine Palmer Penstemon Utah Astragalus Arrowleaf Balsamroot Firecracker Penstemon Tapertip Hawksbeard Total Rate (lbs/acre) 0.5 1 1 1.5 0.5 0.6 2 0.29 0.16 7.55 Seeds/sq.ft. 4.32 6.04 0.60 0.27 4.86 2.03 2.28 3.18 0.48 24.04 Data Collection 100 ft. Transect with 5 100 ft cross belts. 1 m 2 quadrat placed every 5 feet along the quadrat 100 quadrats per plot Cover – Modified Daubenmire cover class Density of perennial species June 2009 Results Density of Seeded Species 1.4 1.2 Density/sq. meter PEPA8 1 PEEA LUAR 0.8 LILE HEBO 0.6 CRAC CLSE 0.4 BASA 0.2 ASUT 0 Aerator Chain Drill Treatment Harrow Density of Seeded Species 0.8 Density/sq. meter 0.7 PEPA8 0.6 PEEA 0.5 LUAR LILE 0.4 HEBO CRAC 0.3 CLSE 0.2 BASA ASUT 0.1 0 Aerator Chain Drill Harrow Treamtment *Excluding data from the 5 outlier quadrats where the seed box was repaired Control Aerator Harrow Drill Chain Density of Seeded Species by Site 1.2 PEPA 1 Density/sq. meter PEEA LUAR 0.8 LILE 0.6 HEBO CRAC 0.4 CLSE BASA 0.2 ASUT 0 North South Aerator North South Chain North South Drill North South Harrow North Site 1.2 Density/sq. meter 1 PEPA8 PEEA 0.8 LUAR LILE 0.6 HEBO CRAC 0.4 BASA ASUT 0.2 0 Aerator Chain Drill Treatment Harrow South Site 0.12 0.1 Density/sq. meter PEEA LUAR 0.08 LILE 0.06 HEBO CLSE 0.04 BASA ASUT 0.02 0 Aerator Chain Drill Treatment Harrow Cover of Sagebrush 12 Averate Cover (%) 10 8 6 4 2 0 Aerator Chain Control Treatment Drill Harrow Cover of Annual Species 18 16 Average Cover (%) 14 12 Aerator 10 Chain Control 8 Drill 6 Harrow 4 2 0 1 2 North 1 2 South Summary Consider you overall objectives. Consider the threat of annual species. Consider the site conditions. Continued data collection. Additional Plant Material Work Great Basin Wildrye Tetraploid plants from the Great Basin were selected for harvest in 2008 and 2009. Seed is in production on Benson Farms Additional Plant Material Work (cont.) Bluebunch Wheatgrass In cooperation with USDA – ARS Currently working on data analysis to select the top Great Basin accessions. Additional Plant Material Work (cont.) Muttongrass In Cooperation with the USFS Shrub Sciences Laboratory. Problem: Variability in seed production timing. Can we select for timing of seed production? 3 groups of plants were selected according to the timing of seed development, early, middle, and late. Acknowledgements Additional funding from the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid Grant W-82-R