Prairie Cordgrass Yield Response to N On Marginal Land.

Prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) is a high yielding warm-season grass that grows naturally in low lying marginal land throughout the United States. Our objective was to determine biomass production potential of prairie cordgrass (PCG) at two locations in South Dakota and one location in Kansas under varying levels of N. Previously established ‘Red River’ PCG near Bath, SD (two locations) and ‘Atkins’ PCG near Manhattan, KS was fertilized with 0, 56, 112, and 168 kg N ha^-1 in four replicates in South Dakota in 2008 and 2009 and in Kansas in 2009. PCG was harvested around a killing frost in October 2008 in South Dakota. Subsamples were taken from each plot for dry matter determination and for chemical composition analysis. Biomass production at the two South Dakota locations averaged 7.72 and 11.17 Mg DM ha^-1 in 2008. There was no difference between N application rates at either location, although yield in N-treated areas tended to be higher than the 0 N control. This experiment will continue for several years at both South Dakota locations. In addition, an established field of ‘Atkins’ PCG at the USDA Plant Materials Center in Manhattan, KS will receive the same treatments beginning in 2009.