Bromus (carinatus)

jtrindle USDA NRCS - Corvallis Plant Materials Center 3415 NE Granger Ave Corvallis, Oregon 58413 (541)757-4812 http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/orpmc

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Family Scientific Name:	Poaceae
Family Common Name:	Grass
Scientific Name:	Bromus carinatus Hook. & Arn
Common Name:	California brome
Species Code:	BRCA5
Ecotype:	Crater Lake National Park; 6,400 to 7.000 ft
General Distribution:	California, Oregon, Washington; with some races occuring as far away as the Dakotas and New Mexico. In Crater Lake, mostly in drier meadows and along roadsides.
Propagation Goal:	seeds
Propagation Method:	seed
ProductType:	Propagules (seeds, cuttings, poles, etc.)
Stock Type:	Seed
Time To Grow:	0
Target Specifications:	Clean air-dried seed free of noxious weeds, smut, and excess chaff. Germination has been variable; ranging from 31% (in drought years) to over 63%. Our seed lots ranged from 78,000 to 82,000 seeds / lb.
Propagule Collection:	Seed is fairly easily collected by hand-stipping into cloth sacks or by hand -sickle in more solid stands. Smutted seed heads were quite common in some years both in native stands and at the Corvallis PMC in increase fields - in this case selective hand-stripping was chosen to reduce the amount collected along with sound seed. Seed germination of native-collected lots varied widely between lots and years.
Propagule Processing:	Small lots could be threshed with a geared-down hammermill or small brush machine; larger lots were through a Kamman - Westrup or similar brush machine; then run through an air-screen with #14 round screen, medium-high air flow.
Pre-Planting Treatments:	Some references have suggested pretreating seed with antifungal seed pretreatments such as "Vitavax"' for smut control; otherwise no pretreatment is needed. Seven - day prechill was sometimes used for germination testing but was not necessary for acceptable field emergence.
Growing Area Preparation/ Annual Practices for Perennial Crops:	Seed can be direct sown at the rate of 30 to 40 PLS / foot row into a prepared seed bed in spring or early fall. This grass was grown as a short-lived perennial; after the 2nd year the stands became rather weak as they were not very tolerant of the heavy-textured, wet soils in winter. Annual applications of Tilt and Bravo fungicides were applied at label rates 3 times in early spring of each year prior to `boot' stage for rust and fungus control. Annual applications of light rates of N (50 lbs / ac) and S (15 lbs/ac) fertilizer were applied in early spring and fall.
Establishment Phase:	Irrigation was provided after seeding to promote stand establishment. Weed control was provided mostly by manual and mechanical cultivation as there are no selective herbicides available. Broadleaf herbvicides - maily 2,4-D were applied early on to reduce weed competition.
Length of Establishment Phase:	Germination is fairly rapid; stand emergence generally is very good at 21 days.
Active Growth Phase:	This grass grows fairly slowly at first and is susceptible to weed competition and pathogens especially in wet soils. Boot stage is generally reached by mid May; Seed fill occurs in late May / June in at Corvallis and the crop is harvested at the end of June / early July.
Length of Active Growth Phase:	April to June at Corvallis
Hardening Phase:	na
Length of Hardening Phase:	na
Harvesting, Storage and Shipping:	Prior to harvest, while most seed is still in milk stage, the field is hand-rogued to reduce the number of weedy grasses. This crop was mostly hand-harvested using sickles to avoid weedy grasses and smutted seed heads as much as possible. Ripe seed shatters very easily, so seed heads were collected direcly into buckets and barrels and taken to a sheltered location with good air flow to air-dry. Larger lots that were swathed and combined required extensive seed conditioning.
Length of Storage:	Seed stored for a few years at cool dry conditions at the PMC showed acceptable germination, but longer term storage was not conducted
Other Comments:	Soft chess (Bromus secalinus) seed was especially difficult to remove from these seed lots. In a few lots, the heaviest 5 or 10 % of the crop had to be discarded along with the unwanted chess seeds.
References:	Corvallis PlantMaterials Center Technical Report: Plants for Woodland and Rangeland Reclamation and Erosion Control 1980 - 1997 (includes Annual Reports to Mount Rainier National Park from 1990 - 1996 Link, Ellen, ed. 1993 Native Plant Propagation Techniques for National Parks Interim Guide; Compiled by Rose Lake Plant Materials Center 7472 Stoll Road East Lansing, MI 48823 Rose, Robin, C.E.C. Chachulski and D. Haase. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants 1998 Or. State U. Press, Corvallis, Oregon USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Citation:

Flessner, Theresa R; Trindle, Joan D.C.. 2007. Propagation protocol for production of Propagules (seeds, cuttings, poles, etc.) Bromus carinatus Hook. & Arn seeds Seed; USDA NRCS - Corvallis Plant Materials Center Corvallis, Oregon. In: Native Plant Network. URL: https://NativePlantNetwork.org (accessed 2024/07/01). US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Center for Reforestation, Nurseries, and Genetic Resources.