Can Prairie Roots Plug Drainage Tile?
Tile line investigations
One of the questions most frequently asked by landowners when discussing native plantings in agricultural fields is, “Can prairie roots plug drainage tile?” The goal of this project was to identify some of the common species, native or not, infiltrating agricultural tiles under Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plantings. Over five years, we purchased a sewer/tile camera and locator, and inspected multiple agricultural tile lines at different times of year and in dry and wet periods, and under both row crops and prairie plantings. We matched the recorded footage with locator readings and identified any plants above all significant root intrusions into the agricultural tile.
Tile camera videos
Findings and Recommendations
- Most tile lines under prairie showed minor root incursions similar to tile lines draining adjacent crop fields
- In places where significant prairie roots were found in drainage tile, there had been some prior damage to the tile
- The most significant tile blockage was from woody plants invading older CRP fields, not prairie species
- Recommendation: monitor and control weed trees and shrubs such as mulberry, cottonwood and willow
