Talk:Panicum virgatum

message: What's the "(C4 carbon fixation)" thing about ?  What does it have to do with the fact that we're talking about a "warm-season plant" ?
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Almost all warm-season plants have the Kranz leaf anatomy (C4 carbon fixation).  Why is this important?  When scientists say a warm-season plant, this means this plant can tolerate high temperatures, are more water use efficient, are more nitrogen use efficient than cool-season plants and do not photorespire.  The management and growth habits of warm-season grasses and cool-season grasses are different.
"Grazing sheep and horses on monoculture swtichgrass stands should be avoided."  Because ?
   - Fair point, I've removed this.  I trust that anyone who replaces it will cite a source.
I agree, this article makes some interesting statements (eg. 1000 gallons of ethanol per acre), but without references it makes the statement feel meaningless.  What other references on the ethanol yield per acrea for this stuff exist?  Can it be used to make biodeisel as well?
Thirded. The "1000 gallons" statement appeared after the 2006 State of the Union address. I'm going to have to call shenanigans ont aht one, unless we can see some references.
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Is that "1000 gallon of ethanol per acre"  per year?  per harvest?
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There was an article on NPR tonight (February 1, 2006; http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5183608). An expert on switchgrass (David Bransby, professor of energy crops at Auburn University) stated it can produce 5-10 tons/acre and "at least 100 gallons of ethanol per ton" with the best technologies. Dsm 07:19, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  C4 carbon fixation 

message: The references section included:
*Acres of farmland in the United States
and
*www.carbohydrateeconomy.org Ethanol energy balance calculations
... neither of which seem particularly relevant.  The latter, in fact, doesn't even mention "switchgrass".  I've zapped them on this basis.  mdf 22:38, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Relevant references

message: Total energy in the universe is conserved switchgrass energy comes from the sun photosynthesis
"He argues that for every unit of energy input, switchgrass yields four units out. The viability of switchgrass-derived biofuel as an alternative fuel remains contentious." —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.252.32.31 (talk • contribs).
:The energy spoken of was probably the fuel to run the tractors and so forth, not the energy from the sun ArrowStomper 08:26, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: See EROEI. For a source of energy to be worth using, it must have an EROEI greater than one. EROEI is not the same thing as efficiency, although the two concepts are related. --Teratornis (talk) 22:40, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Energy efficiency

message: The question / comments below come from "wd0dyg@hotmail.com" : 
If switchgrass can be clipped and used to produce ethanol, then how about using ordinary grass clippings from people's lawns?  It gets clipped anyways.  Maybe there are more grass clippings  available than can be used for composting alone.  Maybe more ethanol is more valuable than any composting.  Grass clippings might be more useful than a person realizes.  Maybe city waste and sanitation will have to forbid people from using the garbage for their grass clippings and make it mandatory to make all of their grass clippings available for collection sites.  The people in charge of the collection sites (with more grass than ever) can determine how much is used for composting and how much is used for the production of ethanol.
:See cellulosic ethanol. Yes, many forms of cellulosic plant waste including wood chips, leaves, grass clippings, etc., can be feedstock material for a biorefinery. However, that technology is not very far along yet. A simpler way to process a wide variety of plant waste and sewage is to make biogas, suitable for domestic heating and cooking. As the price of petroleum continues to climb (possibly because the world is at or near peak oil), there will be lots of interest in recovering as much energy from biomass as possible. However, the energy from typical suburban yard waste is probably only a fraction of suburban energy use. Liquid fuels from petroleum are an extremely concentrated form of energy. As declining oil production forces a large-scale switch to biofuels, we will see the immense scale of cultivation and material-handling necessary to compare to the energy we used to get just by poking holes in the ground. More than likely, biofuels will not fully replace petroleum, so energy conservation will also be very important. We need to get way, way more efficient. --Teratornis (talk) 08:10, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Yard waste to biofuel 

message: I removed the Seed suppliers section, because:
* It is not a standard section in WP:LAYOUT.
* It appears to violate Wikipedia:Lists, which says a list in Wikipedia should point to entities for which Wikipedia has articles, or might eventually have them. Few or none of the seed vendors appear to be notable enough to be subjects of their own articles. They might be, but there is no hint that they are going to be. Lists should not link to external sites, but to Wikipedia articles. 
* It violates WP:EL. Wikipedia is not a linkfarm, nor a platform for advertising. See Wikipedia:Spam event horizon for a summary of the undesirable process by which inexperienced but often well-meaning Wikipedia editors tend to spam up an article.
* Raw external links are less desirable than footnote citations.
* The list did not even follow list format. 
* Wikipedia is not a suitable venue for writing a how-to guide for growing switchgrass. If someone wants to grow switchgrass, they will need to look elsewhere. Wikibooks might possibly be a suitable venue for writing a grower's guide to switchgrass, and we could link to it from the Panicum virgatum article with the  template. However, Wikibooks also gets squirrelly about how-to guides, I think. Personally I have some discomfort with Wikipedia's rejection of procedural knowledge; I think that is somewhat elitist. Not everyone is a gentleman scholar who reads for mere intellectual amusement - many people also have to work for a living, and they need information too. However, that's a larger issue than I can resolve. Other wikis specialize in procedural knowledge, for example wikiHow. There is also a User:RaffiKojian who is starting a wiki specifically about plant cultivation; see the recent Help desk discussion: (permanent link) and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants#Plant and Garden wiki (non-WP).
* The list would almost certainly not survive a featured article review.
I userfied the Seed suppliers section at User:Pvirgatum/Sandbox. Anyone who is new to Wikipedia should read Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. --Teratornis (talk) 00:39, 12 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Seed suppliers 

message: This article: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3379 has some new information on pests of switchgrass. Smartse (talk) 13:19, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pests 

message: 67.190.27.217 (talk) 02:17, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Why is it  Called Switchgrass?

message: It seems like it must have been incredibly rich habitat when it was pervasive. Almost like a grass jungle. Could increased agricultural use help various animal populations?
67.190.27.217 (talk) 02:19, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Switchgrass as Habitat?

message: Otherwise, why is there such a well-cited, positive reference to corn? It doesn't seem to make very much sense; if people want to read about corn, they can follow a link or something.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.222.232 (talk) 23:30, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  I feel the corn industry has messed with this page. 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified