CNC I know you have more experience in this than I, but what do you see in stages growing in your plots and what do the plants mean? My small field (3 acres) is pretty even throughout with. BlackBerry, dewberry, broomsedge, and alot of stuff I cant identify. My big plot (6 acres) is all over the place. About 1/2 acre of it has been pushed off for 5 years and it's made up of blackberry, dewberry, a little broomsedge, silver plumegrass, and other summer growth. The back 1.5 acres is mainly low to the ground stuff and woody stuff. About 2 acres of it is broomsedge and a couple other things. And the other 2 acres is almost all broomsedge. I know what the broomsedge means but at this point, the plot gets sun from daylight to dark and it dries out quickly. It grows wheat, rye, clover, and radishes good so I'm not really concerned. And the broomsedge lays down alot of good biomass. I'm not gonna attack it until the plot starts getting some shade to hold moisture. In my experience with the 1/2 acre that's been plotted for 5 years, it will go away naturally as it was 90% broomsedge its second year but what causes it to go away?

Broomsedge is a tale of low ph. Lime it heavily

I would try and get rid of the blackberry and try to establish grassy plants.

I’m still figuring out a lot of this myself. I would guess that a lot of has to do with a change in the microbial community….likely a swing from being bacterially dominated to being dominated by fungi....or vice versa.... However, there are a lot of variables that can change about the growing conditions that will also change species composition. Degrading or improving soil structure could effect things….I think this is what happens in a lot of fields where folks use heavy tillage. They basically set the stage for “nasty weeds” to dominate over the other plants and then beat their head against the wall fighting what they consider to be the “nasty weeds”. Lack of O2 in the roots zone could effect species composition…..An increase or decrease in organic matter could change things. moisture availability…….the amount of sun/shade….nutrient availability…Is there excess N or a lack there of…..pH…Lots of variables to consider both chemically and physically…...Also, some plants are pioneer species and designed to come in first when succession is reset or a disturbance occurs. Other plants are considered to be climax species and come in later on after conditions have been changed to favor them.

Yep, I know about broomsedge, like I said the plot grows things well so I'm not gonna try to rid the plot of it until it starts getting shade from somewhere other than the broomsedge. The broomsedge went away naturally in the other parts of the plot after 2 seasons, so I'm anxious to see what happens with this naturally anyway.

I don't feel like there is any reason to get rid of the blackberry, it's not thick and its awesome deer browse. One thing I have noticed, is that grains and brassicas grow extremely well in spots where BlackBerry grew thick. I'm not sure what the relation is, but there is one somewhere.

If broomstraw grows on low ph soils than why is it covering blackbelt prairie land, like everywhere on ph ranging from 8-9?

Because it's a native grass and people just give it a bad name? Probably considered a "pioneer species"?

Truth be known, most weeds will leave on neutral ph. A landscaper told me to keep most weeds out of your yard, keep a neutral ph.

Depends on what you call a weed?

I’ve read that on here 100x and thought, “I’m not even going to touch that. Nothing I can say.”

It’s presence or absence has ZERO to do with soil ph.

Well we can mark that as a old wives tale.