Deer Resistant Short Prairie for Dry Soils

Cultural Details
Soil Type	Loam, Sand
Soil Moisture	Dry
Sun Exposure	Full Sun
Height	1' - 4'
Seeding Rate	10 lbs per acre; 1/4 lb per 1000 sq ft

Description

The Deer Resistant Short Prairie seed mix includes native plants chosen specifically for their lack of palatability to deer. If deer are hungry enough they will eat almost anything, but the plants in this mix are among the least likely to be browsed. For well-drained sandy, gravelly and rocky soils. Contains at least 12 wildflowers and 2 or more grasses.

Establishment Notes

Establishing a native plant community from seed can take 3 years or more. Read our Seed Mix Establishment Guide.

Pure Live Seed Notes

All seed is Pure Live Seed (PLS). One PLS pound is defined as the weight of seed required to equal one pound of 100% pure, germinable seed. This is calculated based upon each seed lot's purity and germination tests. We track the ecotype origin of our seed inventory and provide this information at customer request.

Shipping

Seed Shipping

Seed orders are shipped year-round, and are shipped within a week of your order.
Shipping rates for seeds

General Information

We are not able to combine a new order with a previous order, for shipping.
Plants and Seeds are shipped separately and have different shipping rates.
With all orders, credit cards are pre-authorized and charged when your order is placed.
We are not able to arrange orders for pick-up at the Nursery. All orders are shipped.
Plants and Seeds are shipped to destinations within the contiguous United States, only.

Components

Wildflowers

Pale Purple Coneflower

Round Headed Bush Clover

Grasses Sedges

Questions (3)

Product Questions

Does this seed mix require stratification?

If you are seeding a prairie seed mix in the fall, pre-treatment (stratification)is not needed, as the seeds will be exposed to cold, damp conditions in the soil over winter.

1. The Prairie GRASS seeds do not require moist stratification (cool moist pre-treatment). Only dry stratification (cool dry pre-treatment) is needed to improve the germination of prairie grasses. The grass seeds that you receive from us have been dry statified (stored in cool dry storage).

2. Most prairie forb seeds (WILDFLOWERS) will benefit from moist stratification. Some species will exhibit little-to-no germination without mosit stratification, while others will germinate at lower percentages. Some wildflower species germinate well with only dry stratification (Purple Coneflower, Yellow Coneflower, Purple Prairie Clover, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Bergamot, Black Eyed Susan, and Brown Eyed Susan). However, moist stratification can be applied to all wildflower seeds, whether or not they require it.

3. As a rule of thumb, if you are seeding a prairie in the spring, it is best to moist stratify the forbs (wildflowers) for at least 30 days, for the best germination.

I have a question regarding erosion control. We are seeding a slope on a lake, using your short prairie mix, with cover crop of oats. Looking for recommendation on covering -- will a curlex fiber blanket be too much cover or should we use double side straw matting?

We have had good results with the “Curlex 1” excelsior erosion blanket. A light duty straw blanket works well, too.

Do the seeds that need stratification come already having gone through this process? If not, how are the different seed varieties separated so this can be done?

Our native seeds are Dry Stratified, which means that they are stored in cold temperatures over winter, without the presence of moisture. This process helps increase germination rates in most prairie grasses, and for some of the wildflowers.

None of our seed is Moist Stratified prior to being shipped – a process in which the seed is mixed with a larger volume of dampened inert material such as fresh clean sawdust, builder’s sand, or similar substance, and placed in a refrigerator inside a Ziploc bag. Most prairie flowers and native sedges and rushes will show significant increases in germination after 30 days of moist, cold treatment. Some genera, such as Baptisia, Iris, and the grass genus Spartina, require 90 days or longer to show improvements in germination.

Seed mixes that are sold in quantities of ten pounds or more are packaged individually by each species. If the quantity sold is less than ten pounds, we pack the seed in three separate bags: wildflowers, “fluffy” grasses, and hard round grasses such as Prairie Dropseed and Switchgrass.

If you plan to broadcast your seed mix in the fall, all seed species will acheive moist stratification naturally, over the winter. You will not need to pretreat the seed for a fall seeding.

If you plan to broadcast a seed mix in the spring, the seed (germination rates) will benefit from being moist stratified prior to seeding. If combined, the different wildflower species in your seed mix package can be moist stratified together. The median number of days to moist stratify should be sufficient.

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