Since smartweed and watergrass are rice field weeds and most of my wetland projects are on previous rice, I don't typically plant anything. Because of the huge seed bank in the soil, all we have to do is target a Spring (mid-March to late April) drawdown to get a good germination. Follow this up with an irrigation 6 weeks later or so and you'll have all the smartweed and watergrass that you want. If smartweed is you goal, go with a drawdown on the earlier side (March in our area). Smartweed germs on a cooler soil temp than watergrass. This is why you'll notice smartweed growing around the perimeter edge of a wetland. This area is the first to go to mud flat when soil temps are typically cooler. With that said, I have planted smartweed and had good success the following year when we timed our drawdown.
Not sure about the Pennsylvania smartweed but the smartweed that we have in our area is called Lady's Thumb. It has a dark purple/black mark on the middle of the leaf, a pink and/or white flower and it's an annual. We also have another perennial variety that produces less seed and more stalk.
As for bamboo or arundo, it is on the top 10 most noxious and invasive weed list for all of my surrounding counties. I'd be tarred and feathered for planting it. Actually I've spent lots of project dollars trying to eradicate it. You want to make darn sure that it's dead if you use it. It's nasty stuff.
This advice may be relevent only to my area, so take it for what it's worth.
DD
Last edited by Duckdude; 03/05/10 12:59 AM.
