It is a invasive plant called Bromus tectorum or dropping brome, is a winter annual grass native to Europe, southwaste Asia and northern America. It is a problematic annual weed can be grown at lowered soil nutrient status and multiplying very fast.

Yes, thank you for adding the botanical name to my question. What I am asking here, has anyone else tried permanently getting rid of this plant wherever its has become an exotic weed, like the Western USA, without herbicides, just by adding native seeds with fertilizers and sawdust, and in six months produce zero cheatgrass cover?

This is a huge issue here in the Great Basin where one 450,000 acre fire occurred in central Nevada this summer, and I visited the 50,000 acre "Perry" fire area in October, and saw that fire was remarkably carried by 5 cm tall cheatgrass plants.

Dear Craig, as it grows faster and within no time produce huge amount of seeds, I dont think without herbicides very difficult to permanently get rid of. For any regular cultivated plants , very difficult to compete with them as they need very low nutrient to grow.

Try my method of soil testing and adding fertilizers and organic matter, to permanently get rid of cheatgrass?. I like to do N-P-K-Ca-Mg-plus the micronutrients like the sulfates, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, boron, and pH. Plus, include a test for the percentage of organic matter in that top 5 cm.

1.) Test the soil nutrients and organic matter percentage in the top 5 cm of soil from where seedlings grow of the desirable replacement local native perennial grass plant, that you want to grow in the place of the cheatgrass. Those test results become your Soil Nutrient Threshold for the replacement plant requirements.

2.) Test the top 5 cm of soil for the cheatgrass area, and test the soil where the cheatgrass plant heights are the lowest. If you want to see the nutrient range for cheatgrass for that site, also take a test from where the cheatgrass is growing its tallest.

3.) Check the viability of the desirable seeds shortly before you sow them, with a germination test, and start with 80% or better germination. Sow seeds of the desirable replacement plant into the cheatgrass area, and do several test plots with wide range and varying sowing rates of the seeds. For example in a wild lands area, I use a range of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70 and 100 pounds of seed per acre for my seven initial test plots. You could use 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70 and 100 kilos per hectare, they are roughly the same amounts.

When you sow the seeds, you compare the Soil Nutrient Threshold numbers of the desirable plants with the cheatgrass soil numbers, and add nutrients and organic matter, so that you meet or exceed the Thresholds that you set.

4.) When the desirable seeds have been sown with adequate fertilizers and organic matter to meet that plant's thresholds, then no cheatgrass seedlings should survive, no matter how many cheatgrass seedlings are in the soil. There may be a flush of cheatgrass for six months, but after six months, the local perennial native grasses should completely take over, and stay cheatgrass-free for at least five years. See photos at http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an invasive plant. Please see the below given RG links.

Article Potential Spread of Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Other I...

Article Invasive Bromus tectorum alters natural selection in arid systems

Article Mapping Percent-Cover of the Invasive Species Bromus tectoru...

Arvind, Thanks for your reply. What I am asking if anyone has actually tested my question, by adding the fertilizers, and see if improving the soil nutrients and organic matter contents, allows more desirable local native plants to quickly grow and recover the cheatgrass areas--like 100% native cover and zero cheatgrass in six months? That is what we did for the 100-mile pipeline.

There are probably hundreds of research papers labeling cheatgrass as an "invasive" but what I am suggesting that it is only a "default" weed, only growing where the soil nutrient levels are too low for the native seedlings to survive.

Craig, sorry that I am late to this discussion, but I think that your suggestion has validity. Although I am not an expert on cheatgrass, this likely has been performed previously, at least to some degree, but I believe that this could easily be investigated further. In sub-tropical regions I have witnessed communal shifts occur in over fertilized areas that resulted in pH drops below threshold values. I think something similar could occur in the Great Basin region with macro- or micro-nutrients potentially being made unavailable due to the presence of plant secondary compounds in sagebrush and forbs, or potentially lost via mismanagement. Although I do not believe that this is the underlying reason for cheatgrass invasion, it certainly could have profound effects in specific areas. I appreciate you bringing up this topic and if you come across more information regarding this please share.

Aaron--thanks for your reply. We need world-wide to take a very close look at the impacts of domesticated animal grazing on the soil nutrient levels and organic matter levels, in relationship to what the thresholds are, that the local native plant seedlings need to survive?

That way, we do not accidentally start creating "Zombie-Ecosystems" where there still is a native plant ecosystem in place that looks OK, but when you do an age-pyramid survey, and do not find any seedlings? That means that the ecosystem stopped reproducing a long time ago, and is headed towards eventual extinction.

For example, if you conduct seedling-surveys of the grasslands of the Great Basin and the Southwest USA, maybe 8 out of 10 of those grasslands are already "Zombized" and on the path to extinction!

We need to start doing these native grassland "Zombi" surveys, especially in the arid and semi-arid grasslands of the planet, right away!

I think that an age-pyramid survey would be a good way to look at the generational exchange, but there are so many factors in play that it is hard to say with confidence what caused the generational gaps.

As for domesticated grazing animals causing a reduction in soil fertility and organic matter status, I cannot say that I can fully agree with this. I do think that in extensive systems there is a greater likelihood for nutrient loss/heterogeneous distribution due to nutrient exportation via the animal, this coupled with slower mineralization rates and lack of fertilizer utilization could result fertility islands near watering and loafing areas. But the vast majority (~80 -90%) of nutrients consumed are returned to the system via the excreta, albeit generic and typically not accounting for losses to volatilization or run off.

Personally, I do not think that when managed properly domestic grazing animals have a negative influence on semi-arid and arid grasslands, but I can understand the argument that they are not part of the natural system. I do agree that a greater understanding of the status of these systems is needed so that managerial regimes can be put into place to assist in regeneration.

Aaron, thanks for your answer. I am not talking about using the age-pyramid to see generational gaps, but to find "Zombi-Ecosystems" that are created when the ecosystem stops producing seedlings for a long time.

In New Mexico south of Albuquerque, I saw Galleta (Hilaria) grass populations that may have not produced any seedlings for 100 years or more, based on that population's basal diameters.

North of Reno Nevada and south of Pyramid Lake, the 100 square mile Bluebunch wheatgrass prairie had ZERO SEEDLINGS in October 2018, and all of the existing plants were old to very old, based on the measurement of their basal diameters: (In inches across, at ground level, number of plants in each age-group)-

0 to 2 - zero

2-4 = 0

4-6 = 0

7-8 = 3

8-9 = 4

9-10 = 6

9-10 = 6

10-12 = 8

12-16 = 9

That is an upside-down age-pyramid, that is also the sign that you have a "Zombi-Ecosystem"

Here in California and where I have done soil tests the Great Basin, the grazing animals, when those animals were taken away and eaten, walked away with hundreds of millions of tons of soil nutrients and organic matter over time, in their meat and bones.

And dairy operations are worse, because the milk that is put in the bottles and shipped away, "mine" out the soil calcium and soil phosphorus very quickly. When you remove enough calcium, you start changing the soil pH so that it can become 50-100x more acid than the local native plants can thrive in.

Here is a very simple test to confirm that you have a Zombi-Ecosystem due to soil nutrients and organic matter--1.) Find a "Zombi-Ecosystem" that does not have any seedlings growing around mature plants. Easiest to do with grassland species, but could also be done to check for Zombis lurking in shrub and tree communities. 2.) Put the top 5-10 cm of that soil in containers, from bare soil areas nearby where the mature plants are growing. 3.) Harvest seeds from the Zombized species. 4.) Test 10-20 of those native seeds on top of moist cotton, to check germination percentage. 5.) Plant seeds in the containers of soil, and see if the seedlings survive to produce mature plants, or if they run out of nutrients and die at only 5 cm tall within a couple of months?

This might become a standard test for Zombis--"Craig's Zombi-Ecosystem Test"?

And if you do not believe that domesticated animal grazing has no impact, please visit California--Where in only a couple of human generations, we went from 100% native grassland cover in our unplowed hills, to today, is probably less than 1/100th of 1% native cover, and the natives are now 99%+ extinct, solely from grazing?

In my question, I list a website where you can see where I found my first "Zombi-Ecosystem" located north of Reno in 1993, by doing the test planting of local native seeds in boxes of soil, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html

We got to realize that ALL domesticated grazing animals are going to "mine" organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium out of the soil over time, so we need to check those levels periodically, and do not allow them to drop below the thresholds needed by the local native seedlings to survive? Otherwise, we will have created a Zombi-Ecosystem, that is on its way out, going down the path to extinction.

If I was going to survey the native grass populations in Texas for example, I would divide the State in half, and work on the western half. And since Texas is already divided into nice neat squares for the counties, measure at least one Age-Pyramid of a native grass population, in each county.

You might find that at a certain annual rainfall rate, say below 26 inches, the Zombis might start appearing frequently, and then you might hit a whole bunch of Zombis below 16 inches or so?

If you get out to measure any grass-population age-pyramids in Texas, or if any readers of these message go out and measure their grass age-pyramids in other countries, let us all know what you found?