glyphosate doesn't work that well when the ambient temperature goes below 50 or above 80. Always use it in the dilution suggested on the label.

Tilling will expose more weed seed to light, which is what it needs to germinate! Please do not till!

Here's what I did...

I used Round-Up starting in mid May. I used it at 5 or 6 week intervals until the 2nd week in October. Then, at Thanksgiving weekend...I planted prairie seed. The label directions state that you should wait 2 weeks between the last glyphosate treatment and seeding.

1-2 2% roundup solution 3x a year. let the stuff grow somewhat or the whole of the plant may not die. and dont over spray and 'top kill' the veg. if one top kills all thruout their prep season, there are many things in an oldfield that live thru that process.

3 seed in the fall. the more years of prep the better. u say u had an old field and those can be full of tough weeds. maybe 2 years is a better start.

4 if u were gonna till it, i would have liked to see that started last fall already for 2005 fall planting. yes, it brings up weedseeds but isnt that what the roundup is for? given that there are many many diff kinds of soils, i think the jury is still out on this step but im in the camp of leave the soil surface alone, man has worked it enough...

5 u get what u pay for. i dont think $1700/acre is too little. u also dont need to put everything on all at once. maybe a more basic $1300 this fall and slowly adding in $3-400 worth of specific spp. into the future. but being a novice, this maybe more advanced than u need.

6 there are many, many in wisconsin. and price does not always = quality or quanity. remember PLS is ur friend. u have all summer, maybe visit some nurseries and check out what they got... most of us prairie ppl dont bite and like to talk about our wears.

froggy

A good place to read about the year-long process of preparing and seeding a prairie is the Prairie Nursery catalog.