When to spray 2,4-d?

[Kell-inKY]

I have a lot of weeds due to poor soil condition, still can't get lime until mid summer and I planned on spraying 2 4 d to control the weeds, already fertilized. I have my sprayer and sprayed a few acres last night but got to wondering if I should wait until I see more ragweed? Right now I have a variety of weeds with a lot of tall bulbous buttercup, but I can hardly find the ragweed that plagued me last year, but I know it's coming. I can't even identify 90% of the weeds I have, PH is way off and no way to fix it for awhile.

Should I wait?

Will bushogging have a negative affect on spraying?

What about my white clover which looks better than it ever has? I really hate to kill this off, lespedeza is getting ready to fill in too and the cattle love that stuff. I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by killing off half of my "good" grass leaving a not so great stand of mostly thin fescue.

 

[dun]

You can;t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. You need to decide which is more important, weed control or keeping the clover. Rehabbing a pasture to productivity isn;t a simple 1 year process. It will take at least 2 and maybe 3 to get where you feel you want to be.

 

[Tim/South]

2,4-D does not kill my clover but will make it sick for a while.
No matter what your Ph is right now the weeds are stealing nutrients from your soil. Grass needs to be unitizing those nutrients,
2,4D is relatively inexpensive. It has no residual so you would have to spray again when the summer weeds come out. If the cool season weeds have already gone to seed then it may not do much good to spray them now.
When we used 2,4D we would spray spring and summer until things got under control.

 

[Kell-inKY]

Thanks,
I went ahead and sprayed, probably 8 acres so far, and will do as you suggest and spray in summer also. Got to get this under control. I had read somewhere else that white clover is pretty tough so maybe I will get lucky. I only sprayed the worst areas of cool season weeds and will follow up when things pick up in the summer weeds.

I have a lot of what I think is honeysuckle in 2 really rough areas I cleared of blackberry bushes and other tall stuff (over my head on the tractor!). Sounds like this is a little harder to kill even though it is listed on the 2,4-d package? This stuff is causing a lot of ground cover even though it has nothing to climb up anymore (until you get to my fenceline).

 

[Bigfoot]

Thanks,
I went ahead and sprayed, probably 8 acres so far, and will do as you suggest and spray in summer also. Got to get this under control. I had read somewhere else that white clover is pretty tough so maybe I will get lucky. I only sprayed the worst areas of cool season weeds and will follow up when things pick up in the summer weeds.

I have a lot of what I think is honeysuckle in 2 really rough areas I cleared of blackberry bushes and other tall stuff (over my head on the tractor!). Sounds like this is a little harder to kill even though it is listed on the 2,4-d package? This stuff is causing a lot of ground cover even though it has nothing to climb up anymore (until you get to my fenceline).

That sounds like a job for surmount.

 

[littletom]

Did you get your new grass out? It has been real wet here till the last few days.

 

[Kell-inKY]

Looks like fall for me, been too wet here too, something about near record rainfall. I was gambling and I'm not good at it! Tried disking last month which was a joke, think I will spray my bumper crop of buttercups in the soybean fields with 24d and let the cattle graze the leftover grass weeds since they seem to like it whatever it is? Maybe plant some corn for grazing.

This farm is still in whack a mole mode. As soon as I try to get one thing done, 3 more pop up.

Walked around tonight and can already see the effects, lots of wilting. Don't see much effect on the honeysuckle or BlackBerry yet. Will lookup surmount.

 

[greybeard]

Honeysuckle is hard to control because of the way it sends runners out, and each one can and usually does root, and the older stems are pretty much hollow, which doesn't do much to help take the herbicide down to the roots.

 

[SJB]

In the grand scheme of things, clover is pretty hard to kill for good, and very cheap and easy to grow (in my part of the country anyway).

If yours goes dormant in the heat of the summer, that might be a good time to spray if you want to minimize clover kill.

 

[mnbryant2001]

To be honest never is the best time to spray it. When I took over I sprayed 2/4d 3 years ago. Dad was 85 when he had to give it up. Weeds had got a bit out of hand. The rate I used only stunted the clover. Like you I hated to kill it. Thanks to the seed bank in the soil, the next years weed crop was just as pretty. Money wasted. I broke down and bought Grazonext and sprayed 2 years ago. This spring I had about 80 percent less weeds. Where hay was fed being the worst spots. I sprayed again this spring. I've been 2 years without clover. I will reseed next February. Yes it cost extra in nitro...but it looks like a golf course right now. I can spot spray from here on.

 

[mnbryant2001]

Forgot 1 important note. Here in the south clover can be replanted in as little as 6 months. Up north in cooler climates it can take as long as 18 months. So using it could be more problematic for you. It basically has a post emergent in it. When it sprouts it dies for a few months afterwards. That might be an advantage for you. 1 spraying might do for you in 2 years what it took spraying twice to do for me.