Weed control
Competition from weeds is one of the major limitations to successful establishment of native grasses. Some studies have shown that fallowing for over a year to reduce the size of the weed seed bank may be necessary to give satisfactory establishment of native grasses in run down pasture or cropping paddocks. Therefore it is critical to have some idea of the weed seed bank of the substrate in which the seeds are to be sown when the project is being planned. Substrates low in weed seeds will give the greatest chance of success. Raw mine spoil (as opposed to topsoil) and the newly formed landscapes following highway construction often have low weed seedbanks and so weed competition is often not an initial problem. On the other hand, weed seeds may be the only ones to survive in topsoil that has been stockpiled for several years. The use of such topsoil may be counter-productive and it might be better to sow directly into the substrate.
Little information is available on the response of most native grasses to either pre-emergence or post-emergence herbicides. Obtaining such information is expensive, as is the use of herbicides for weed management in extensive sowings. As an example, there have been some studies on herbicide tolerance of established stands of M. stipoides in pastoral situations but the results are largely unpublished.
