¦POWER That work—which includes plot establishment in multiple states including Illinois, Nebraska, Kentucky, New Jersey and Virginia—has been done with mechanical planters similar to tobacco setters or vegetable transplanters, Voigt says, and thus has been fairly labor intensive and expensive. “We’ve had good success with rhizomes though, provided they are in good shape and fresh, and there are mechanical planters out there that get a lot more acres done with a lot less labor. I don’t know that anybody’s developed a mechanical planter for plugs, but if there were one, that could reduce the labor involved.” The cost of rhizomes is generally less than the cost of plugs, Voigt adds, but he reiterates that there are many more skips or holes in the field, due to nonsprouting rhizomes. “That’s not a big problem long-term, but if a farmer is accustomed to growing row crops where every seedling comes up and looks the same, using rhizomes might be a little off-putting, especially if they’re comparing it to corn or soybean seedlings where
every plant pretty much looks the same as it emerges,” he says. Rather than plugs, the University of Iowa has chosen rhizomes as its propagation method, and has established its first of several miscanthus plots to use as one of several cofired coal replacements to help meet the university’s goal of 40 percent renewable energy by 2020. The work UI is doing has garnered a lot of interest, according to Ferman Milster, principle engineer of renewables, which began with the planting of 16 acres of miscanthus last June.
Digging In
“We picked miscanthus because of its relatively high yields of dry-matter tons per acre, its proven track record in Europe, and the knowledge and expertise we have here in miscanthus agronomy,” Milster says. UI purchased rhizomes from Leamington, Ontario-based New Energy Farms, which were lifted in April from a farm in Georgia where they are grown for propaga-
tion. The rhizomes were cleaned, transferred into two super sacks and transported to the university, where they were kept in a refrigerated trailer, Milster says. “We wanted to get them in the ground mid-May or so, but it would not quit raining, so the rhizomes— about 15,000 per sack—sat in the trailer for six weeks.” Periodically watering the rhizomes kept them in optimum condition. When the sacks were opened, some had sprouted, but overall were in very good shape, according to Milster. “As long as you keep that material cool and wet, they’ll store okay,” he says. June 22 ended up being planting day, and a NEF-supplied, European rhizome planter was used. On the planting process, Milster admits that it was time-consuming, mainly because it was the first time the contracted farmer had used the planter. “There was a learning curve calibrating the planter and figuring out how to use it,” he says. “It took almost all day to get the 16 acres planted, but once one has
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16 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2014