Great Feats Eastern Gamagrass Seeds and Roots

Gamagrass is an indigenous warm season bunch grass once found in great abundance in the Midwest. The thick wide blades as well as its ability to penetrate deep in the soil even going through hard pan make it a valuable high protein forage grass for livestock. I found out about eastern gamagrass through a seed and nut supplier called Shepherds Farm in Missouri who feeds it to his buffalo herd. I have since grown two selections -one from seed and another from cuttings. The seed version called "Pete" is widely available from the USDA and seed companies specializing in forage seeds. This one was selected as a find during an extreme drought where everything around was brown except "Pete". I think this selection was created for its vigor and drought tolerance. It has done well in the midwestern U.S. and at my farm in Michigan and is considered a composite of other similar plants. 

Since then I grew out many plants in the field and some in my polyhouses where I found a plant that flowered at one year old. I moved this plant to the field and noticed it was more compact and heavily rooted with thick almost tuberous type roots. I believe this to be even more drought tolerant than "Pete" and hope that individuals could grow this out and create a seed bank of it for others to grow. 

'Pete' --USDA germplasm, this seed selection was a composite of plants found to be totally green and vigorous during the drought of '88.I will no longer be selling this or plants from this selection as it is widely available. 

Varietal : 'Great Feats'  Found as a chance seedling from 'Pete' of a small plant with seed set on one year old plants. Great Feats was named after the roots of this plant which are very thick and almost tuberous in nature. I believe this plant will be even more resistant to drought than other gamagrass. (Not many plant breeders pay attention to the roots of the plants they are working on.)  The grass blades are wider with this selection too. I am not entirely sure on the yield of seed. In general, seed production is low for this species and "Great Feats" appears to be similar. However there does appear to be more stalks produced per plant. More has to be done to look at this.

Gamagrass makes a great ornamental grass and stays green here in Michigan until October. We believe both Pete and Great Feats are one zone colder in hardiness as we winnowed the plants destroyed by minus 27F. I see this plant being used in mixed plantings and eventually seeded where it could be mowed periodically to capture the nutrients and put back into the soil to feed nearby orchard plants. (Not burned) 

Roots and seeds of this selection are combined in each collection.