Purple grass ends

Grecco

hi all,
I walked the silage fields today and its ready to be cut:)
the thing is I noticed a share of the grass has purple/brown color about 3 inches along the top of the grass blades. Is there some deficiency in the soil, the ground was reseeded about 5 years ago and its still the reseeded grass (some type of rye grass) thats still growing.

I want to get a second cut so Ill be out with the spreader again a few days after cutting and would like to address the deficiency problem, has anyone any ideas?

Pharaoh1

Noticed yellow colour on the top of some of my grass. Could be nitrogen deficiency on a couple of paddocks but on very dry land in the midlands its more likely to be stress due to lack of moisture.
Its only in the last couple of days that we have got any quantity of rain.

Not sure about purple tips but it could be drought stress.

Injuryprone

It might be an early variety that's starting to head out? Aren't all ryegrasses purple at the root but I can't remember whether there's some purple in the seed as well

Muckit

Injuryprone wrote: »

Aren't all ryegrasses purple at the root

They reckon that's a good way to know when to reseed. Pull out a clump of grass. If there's alot with white roots they're more likely to be weed grasses. Ryegrass has a purple tinted root system as you say

cattle man

i think it is a phosphorus deficiency if the tips of the leaf are a purple colour.

newholland

cattle man wrote: »

i think it is a phosphorus deficiency if the tips of the leaf are a purple colour.

I think so too.

bob charles

phosphorus deficiency in the leaves. It is either caused by inadequate P in the soil for the growing plant or Phosphorus becoming locked up because when soil temperatures are low, there is a much reduced P available to the roots

Grecco

Ive been spreading nothing but a bag of urea to the acre with the last 5 years so I guess theres deficiencies by now;
I spoke to an elderly neighbor, he reckoned that they used to spread slag on the land years ago. I know slag has phosphorous in it but what exactly is slag? and where would one get it?

bogman_bass

Slag is a by-product of steel smelting. I dont know if you can still spread it. I suppose it would have a lot of trace elements in it

blue5000

Grecco wrote: »

Ive been spreading nothing but a bag of urea to the acre with the last 5 years so I guess theres deficiencies by now;
I spoke to an elderly neighbor, he reckoned that they used to spread slag on the land years ago. I know slag has phosphorous in it but what exactly is slag? and where would one get it?

Fekkin China where EVERYTHING is made these days, wouldn't be too sure about what trace elements:eek: you'd be getting though.

Grecco

I wount be going to feken china anyway!!

bob charles

I see someone offering slag in Ireland recently for €140 a ton. €30 a ton should be the price of it to consider spreading it. Most probably coming from North of England. Was wonderful stuff for grass with all the trace elements (except some of the heavy metals) and around 50kgs per ton of P + lime. its a non starter nowadays and another funny thing is that it can be used by organic farmers.