How to Enhance Grass with Wildflowers (for CSS Mid Tier AB8)

Robert

Member
Location
South East
I have opted for a simple scheme involving a lot of AB8 Flower Rich Margins & Plots to mainly take over from 5 to 10 years of ELS field corners. Whilst they have thrived well from being properly planted originally, they will need sprucing up a bit with some extra wildflowers and am looking for tips on how to introduce them reliably. They were cut and cleared quite low in the autumn and some are being used as fall back areas whilst grazing over winter cover crops so am thinking of going straight in with the JD 750A drill. On the basis that they are relatively clean weed wise what would be the best approach:

Spray off fully with glyphosate, stitch in new mix of Fine Grasses and Wildflowers?
Low dose of glyphosate to remove / suppress any competition then stitch in new seed?
No Glyphosate and only stitch in new wildflower seed?
Something else?

Any tips / shared experiences very welcome please, would like to minimise the chances of doing it twice! Thanks
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Is this you first year of the scheme? What kind of grasses do you have now?

Spray a good dose of glyphosate - you'll have plenty of grass seed in the soil and you need to avoid competition with the establishing flowers. Top the hell out of it every few weeks to stop the grass getting ahead and to avoid many birds setting up nests that you kill when you do next cut it.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Ir spray off fully and redo full mix in spring before the ground starts to dry out too much
We put 10 acres in Sept which owing mainly to luck with the the favourable winter is looking good although I Used a heavier than recommended seedrate which has also helped but I hope the flowers can cope

We power harrowed and rolled in tho because i like broadcast for good rapid ground cover.
Sainfoin and bit of clover in our mix as I was advised to usebutim not sure how the flowers will deal with any added fertility as I understood that they aren't keen on it being very good
 

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