Yellow Buttercup

[Chuckie]

Here they come again. If only alfalfa seed had the same will to compete with grasses. It grows in soil that holds decent moisture is and comes back each year by seed. Anyone have good results slowing it down by keeping the flowers clipped down.

Last year, I tried to stay on top of it, and it appears to be less flowers this year. I considered the ropewick, but by the time it gets up high enough to wipe them, it has already flowered. I am not sure at what point the seed matures enough to germinate.

Anyone had good results from keeping the tops knocked down or ropewicking with Roundup?

Chuckie

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Here they come again. If only alfalfa seed had the same will to compete with grasses. It grows in soil that holds decent moisture is and comes back each year by seed. Anyone have good results slowing it down by keeping the flowers clipped down.

Last year, I tried to stay on top of it, and it appears to be less flowers this year. I considered the ropewick, but by the time it gets up high enough to wipe them, it has already flowered. I am not sure at what point the seed matures enough to germinate.

Anyone had good results from keeping the tops knocked down or ropewicking with Roundup?

Chuckie

when you see the bloom its too late to treat. and clippin they will rebloom in a few days and a huge waste of diesel and equipment. they will go dorment the end of may. and start back growin late fall. best to hit em first warm day in middle feb. or march. 2 pnts per acre of 2-4-D. will kill em. but rest assured they will be back if you dont stay on top of em.

 

[Chuckie]

ALACOWMAN,
You were supposed to tell me of a well known kept secret how to get rid of this super invasive crud without having to kill the field out.

The ground is fertile where it sprouts, but has a tendency to hold more moisture. That is supposed to be a dream to someone keeping a pasture up.
I wonder if I overseed it in clover this fall if it would choke it out or not let enough light in for it to grow.
Some seed have to have light to sprout, and some must have total darkness. If they have to have light to sprout, then there must be enough moisture in the soil to let them grow. I have noticed in the fields that seeded with Durana clover, the buttercup is not seen. The Durana really makes a dense mat. If I seed it this fall, it will give it a leg up on the spring of next year. But I have noticed the Durana not totally taking over until the next following spring after it is planted.
I may knock it down a time or two till it warms up to just keep the B.C. from getting so large, then attack it this fall with the seed.
Chuckie

 

[ALACOWMAN]

feller's around here are complain'in about it being worse this spring and it may be. but it's mostly due to the drought. and it allowed it to compete for moisture. the plant has a shallow root system and gets the benfits of what moisture we got. they see more of it because it more visable than most years, you can hit it hard a couple years strait and let it go a year but as long as its around... it will be around. just like the fire ants

 

[Chuckie]

So far, the fire ants haven't reached us. They are about 60 miles Southeast of here.
If honey bees can be wiped out by diseases and pests, then where it the disease for the fireants?

You are right about it sucking the water from the soil. It starts growing out sideways till it gets the ground covered and shading out anything else that might want to grow, then it sends out those shiny little yellow flowers. The stems and leaves almost look like a succulant and stores water which lets it thrive when it turns dry.

I wonder how long the seed will hold out to germinate? Hopefully one year. If it will still germinate years after it drops like Cockleburr, then it will be hard to get rid of.
Looks like I will have to sacrifice some clover to kill this nasty weed. Surely it has some medicinal quality so that it can be harvested from to cure warts or bunions. He-he!! Or that it is an aphrodisiac. I guess people would be out there pulling up by the roots.
Chuckie

 

[Bama]

I'll try to get a pic of a couple of fields for you. They are next to each other. One was treated with 2,4-d and one with grazon 2 years ago. The picture is worth a 1000 words on which is best.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I'll try to get a pic of a couple of fields for you. They are next to each other. One was treated with 2,4-d and one with grazon 2 years ago. The picture is worth a 1000 words on which is best.

Iwould have go and look it up but I thought buttercups were a sign of low ph pasture needs liming as well.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I'll try to get a pic of a couple of fields for you. They are next to each other. One was treated with 2,4-d and one with grazon 2 years ago. The picture is worth a 1000 words on which is best.

Iwould have go and look it up but I thought buttercups were a sign of low ph pasture needs liming as well.

its a opportunistic weed. it dont care were the soil ph is. it just needs moisture and cool weather.. and its on. heck you can kick a new plant and knock it out of the ground

 

[Chuckie]

I wish it was a weed of low ph, then it would be a little more easy to crowd it out.
Bama, I would love to see your pictures when you get them posted.
Chuckie

 

[Stepper]

I have a 20 acre hay meadow that i have been tring to get in good shape now for going on 3 years. I have been taking soil samples in late summer and early Spring every year. The first year i had it. It had a area of about 3 acres that was covered with butter cups. I had to put out about 2 1/2 tons of lime per acre the first year. And i spray every year.

This year when i got the soil samples back the ph was running a 5.9 which is suppose to be about right for bemuda grass to grow. It did not call for lime or anything else except for the usual fertlizer reccomendations for the amount of tonage you would like to get.

And for some reason this year the entire 20 acres was covered with butter cups. I just sprayed the feild Monday. The only thing i done different this year was that i wintered cows on it. I dont know if they spread the seed or what happened.

But the 20 acre meadow right next to it for the last couple of years has always been covered up with butter cups. And the guy who owns it wintered cows on it also. And he did not have a butter cup one on it. That really has me puzzled there. And he never sprays his feilds or nothing.

A guy who puts litter out for me came by and i was talking to him about it. And he said that guy starves his cattle and that was the reason he did not have any butter cups( saying the cows ate them) But now that guy always put out plenty of hay for them. They might have ate the butter cups but it was not because they were starving.

I dont know why my feild was so infested with them this year ? But i dont think it was because of the ph.

 

[Stepper]

Bama,

I dont know which does the best the 2-4d or the grazon. But before you post the picture i have been using nothing but grazon on mine.

And you know i just thought of something. The guy with the feild next to me has not ever done anything to his feild as far as i know for alot of years. And if i had to guess i would think the ph would be low if anything on it. He has not ever put out fertlizer i know for the last 5 years and no lime. All he has done is cut hay off of it until last winter.

 

[Stepper]

Chuckie,

You mentioned killing the feild out to get rid of the butter cups. Well i done just that early last Spring right before the bemuda grass started to green up. I sprayed the whole feild with round up. Killed everything, when the guy come out to spread chicken litter on the feild. He ask me where was i going to cut hay at because there was not going to be any on that feild. But i did wind up getting two cuttings off of it.

But killing the feild out did not get rid of the butter cups. For some reason i just got more of them this year ? It dont make sense. But right after i killed the whole feild out. I had horse or bull knettle one come back really bad. I wound up having to spray for that to. But this year so far i dont have the horse knettle at all. And it is suppose to be bi annual. Suppose to take about 2 to 3 years to get rid of that ?

 

[dun]

But this year so far i dont have the horse knettle at all. And it is suppose to be bi annual. Suppose to take about 2 to 3 years to get rid of that ?

Horse nettle is a summer weed, butter cups are a spring weed.

dun

 

[Chuckie]

Stepper,
I'm glad you told me that your buttercup still came back. I wondered about the seeds and how long did they hold germination. A cocklebur I have heard can come up years after it is in the ground. If you turn your soil over, it activates a lot of seed that have been underground.
I wonder if the yellow buttercups that you got were from the prior years seeding.
When you sprayed it, did you see any flowers at that time? I guess timing might affect it too. If you sprayed it real early when the leaves started showing up, then you still might of had more seed that hadn't sprouted. Then if you spray it after you see flowers, then there are seeds there somewhere.
It might be one of those that you need to hit a couple of years in a row to get rid of any seed that might have been left behind.

The man next to you, if his cattle are eating it, they must be poor. It is supposed to be noxious. When I cut it one year, it made me sick inhaling the pollen and getting it in my eyes. It was windy that day and the mower had turned yellow from it.

Right now, I am keeping it clipped down. There is too much Ladino clover and fescue out there for the cattle. But I think the Durana might have the head start on it and hold it back.
That will be my plans for this fall. No matter how you do it, "expensive" is the word.
Chuckie

 

[Stepper]

Chuckie,

Yes the butter cups were already flowering when i sprayed everytime. And the guy next to me, well his cows looked to all be in good body condition to me. And from what i have read about butter cups they are suppose to cause cows to get some types of blisters in their mouths if they eat enough of them. Maybe if they eat them when they are really small right before they start flowering they are not as toxic ?

I have herd other farmers say that cows will eat them but you have to brush hog them first. And one guy told me they even made descent hay if you let them dry out right before baleing them. I really dont know about none of this wether or not what they are saying is true.

But you know i got to thinking about something else. My hay meadow joins the 20 acre meadow next to it.( It was a 40 acre that was divided and then sold) Ok then their is a 40 acre hay meadow right behind both of our hay meadows and it has alot of butter cups on it. They always use it to graze cattle on. I dont know of them ever spraying it or limeing it or anything else. Then on the opposite side of my 20 their is a 40 acre hay meadow and there are some big, big trees growing on the property line with alot of cedars. And this 40 acre meadow does not have any butter cups at all. They use it to cut hay off of. They dont lime or fertlize it. So i dont know what the ph would be like on it.

But i kind of wonder know if maybe the seeds from the butter cups might not be scattered from one feild to the next by the wind ?

dun,

You could have went all night and not told me that horse nettle is a summer weed and not a spring weed. I was hoping i had seen the last of them. Maybe this screwed up cool weather will keep them from coming up this year.

I know that i had to spray twice last year because the first time i sprayed they were not in blooming and i was told by the extension agent that i needed to wait until they had the purple blooms on them before spraying them to do anygood.

You know i did not have any trouble with them until i took out some terraces. I must have got into a seed bed of the things. Because they were scattered all over the pasture.

I had six terraces on the 20 acre feild that i tore out and built a new pond ( about a 1/4 acre pond.) and i guess between the two projects i must have scattered the horse/bull knettle seeds all over the feild.

 

[Bama]

I did try for a pic today but the batteries in the camera were dead. I'll get it tomorrow maybe. One field was treated with 2,4 -d only and the other with Grazon ( 2,4,-d and picloram) 2 years ago for 2 consecutive years. The 2,4-d side is full of buttercups. The grazon side did not have any last year , but it has a few this year. Last year I did not have enough to justify spraying. On the grazon field I could probally go another year as there ain't many. I have to wait for them to bloom as I also have some dog fennel. If I sprayed the buttercup before blooming I would miss the dog fennel. With grazon I have about a 2 week window I can spray and get everthing. That window is approaching in about 2 weeks. I could use surmount as it has a wider range of opertunity to kill both but its is more expensive. I will use Grazon if I can get in the fields. I'll try the pics again tomorrow If I can charge some batteries.

 

[Bama]

http://cattletoday.com/photos/showphoto ... mit=recent

http://cattletoday.com/photos/showphoto ... mit=recent

Both pastures were sprayed two years in a row. One with 2,4-d and the other with Grazon. Last year I didn't spray as there wasn't many weeds. The second pic was taken this morning, as you can see there is a major differance in the two fields. The one on the left is the one with 2,4,-d only ( 2 years ago ) the one on the right is Grazon 2(years ago). I did this to see if there it was really worthwhile to spensd the extra for the Grazon. As you can see the Grazon is worth the extra dollars. I have to let the wildbuttercup bloom or I would miss the dog fennel. The dofennel is about the same as the buttercup. More in the 2,4-d only field.

 

[Bama]

Hey I tried, I can't get the pic's to show up for comparison. Someone know what I did wrong?? at least you can click them.

 

[MikeC]

Bama, In the picture with the big tree in the middle of the field.

Are you calling those yellow flowers in the forefront "Buttercups"?

 

[Stepper]

Bama,

Did you use both feilds for the same things(grazing cattle or anything else) ?

I can not figure out why the grazon worked so well for you. How much chemical per acre are you using when you spray. I put out 1 quart of grazon per acre.

The pictures of the two feilds that you posted looks just like my feild and the neighbors. Except he does not spray period and i spray every year. He does not have any butter cups and my whole feild is covered up this year for some reason.