Spraying grass in clover plots
Whitetail Deer
I started spraying clethodim and crop oil to knock the grass back in my clover plots. Noticed my 2015 late crop of turnips greened back up and are bloomed out. Looks like I'll get some free seed for this years planting.
MK, how do you spray ? Tank on a tractor or ? And how strong do you mix your Cleth ? Ounces of Cleth to gallons of water ?
I ask because I have sprayed with Cleth before and had less than desirable results, but this year I lost my measuring cup and just adlibbed and killed the hell out of the grass and the clover is fine. Makes me think I have been going too weak.
This my 1st time of attempting to grass spraying. I spray with a 25 gl. tank pulled behind my golf cart. Getting my ATV up and running for later use. Mixed 1 pt. each of Cleth and crop oil per 25 gl. Your clover plot looks great. Areas of my plots look the same but one 1/2 ac the grass has almost taken over. I'm hoping for the best results. Frank
MK, that's about what I used. I had to use an empty water bottle to measure my Cleth and I used a bottle and a half for 40 gallons of water. Sprayed a little earlier this year also which I think was beneficial.
How long will it be before the grass starts dying back? I want to re-spray ASAP. Or is re-spraying a good idea?
MK, in my experience, it takes Cleth a couple weeks to see the results you want.
2015 turnips greened up and seeding out. [URL=http://s1132.photobucket.com/user/MK11111/media/4-17-16%20clover-turnips_zps2mogxilu.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m561/MK11111/4-17-16%20clover-turnips_zps2mogxilu.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
How many acres csn you treat with 1pint/1 pint/25 gallon mix?
OK, so try this at your own risk. I quit using the specialty herbicides on clover-too expensive for me.
I use a 1.5% solution of Gly on mature clover, second year or older plot. I spray with a boomless sprayer either with my tractor (PTO driven) or with my ATV and 35 gallon tank which I also fitted with a boomless sprayer using a 4.1 GPM electric motor.
The clover will take a hit and wilt some; however, with Fall rains it bounces right back. I have NEVER done this in Spring or early summer as I would be too fearful of killing some clover.
Anyone else try this? Good luck!
Habitat, I have hit clover with gly kinda by accident ( wind drift ). It was the full strength and did not kill the clover, but I've always been afraid to do it on purpose.
You can spray your clover with Roundup or Glyphosate will work great weed killing in your plot.
Mid May, or when your weeds are 6 inches tall, use one quart of Roundup or Gly per acre. I've done this with great success and will again this year. We are experiencing an early green up here in Wisconsin so I may have to do it a couple of weeks early.
I started doing this after reading Ed Spinozzola's book: Ultimate Deer Food Plots. Ed does recommend that the soil moisture be normal or above normal. In other words do do this during a drought. He has been doing this long before anyone ever even thought of it. He says to add granular ammonium sulfate to your spraying. It's a type of fertilizer that I'm sure would be a benefit.
BC
What Bow Crazy said. Pat you forgot more than I know but I never do this in the Spring. Late summer, early Fall right before a rain if possible within the next 24 hours. It stunts it but comes back strong in the Fall, at least that is my experience.
Make sure to frost over-seed that late winter and you should be good to go.
Best wishes.
MK,
I use 41% generic glyphosate. Make sure it has a surfactant already in it, most do today. The surfactant basically gives it more viscosity to spread over the leaf. Here is my formula depending on tank size;
tank size in gallons X 128 ounces per Gallon X .015
That will give you the number of ounces of gly to mix into your tank of water to achieve a 1.5% solution. Travel speed is important, the leaves should be wet but not dripping.
I have Ed's book referenced above but first learned this from a farmer, who did it accidentally. I tried it on a plot that I was going to redo anyway, and it worked well enough that I regularly use it now.
If grasses are an issue in your food plots spray with clethodim but i'm not sure why people are so roundup happy with their clovers. I helped bring generic roundup into the united states but like with any drugs or chemicals you always want to rotate chemistries every couple years or your setting yourself up for roundup resistant weed issues. Anytime you stunt weeds your setting yourself up for a problem.
I get nervous as hell to tell anyone to spray glyphosate on clovers. Yes it can be done but a high percentage of people don't know exactly how many gallons of water your spraying per acre nor are their measurements close enough on the glyphosate. What happens when someone sprays 2 quarts per acre instead of 1? What happens when some of the weeds your trying to kill require closer to 2 quarts of glyphosate per acre to kill them?
Not many people know about brox, bucktril nor pursuit. If people follow the label directions and use proper timing, these are great options to consider. I posted labels of these products on here before.
SIDE NOTE..u can use pursuit to spray on your soybeans to either use alone or tank mix with your glyphosate for more effective kill and residual.
Good points nutritionist.
The procedure outlined above I only use to extend the life of my clover plots, which are then rotated to another crop(s) so there is not much chance of resistance build-up.
Mowing regulalry also helps immensely with weed and grass control.
And I am not one who feels a plot needs to be a homogenous field of no weeds or grass. A little diversity is better imo.
I sprayed glyphosate on my Durana clover at the rate of 32 ounces of concentrate/acre during a dry hot spell in August. This is supposed to kill all of the weeds but not kill the clover since it was dormant. Everything including the clover died about a month later.
I hated the loss but had several clover plots so the next year I tried several concentrations on the remaining plots. I found that proper timing (dry and hot) combined with 12 ounces of concentrate/acre gave a very good kill of the weeds (not complete) and only stunted the clover. The clover came back well.
From this I learned that glyphosate is a poor choice for weed control in clover plots. Now I spray with clethodim as nutritionist stated above.
I agree with Pat. Why spray glyphosate on your clover plots when there are other effective herbicides that are registered for use on clover? Yes you may save a few dollars as generic glyphosate is cheaper than most of the alternatives, but is it really worth the risk? You have a lot of time and money invested in establishing a good clover plot. Use chemicals that are registered for use with that crop...and then follow directions.
My cost difference doesn't seem that important to me. I paid $96 for one gallon of Clem and one gallon of crop oil delivered. I used one pint of each for 25 gallons tank. So that's a $12 cost to spray my 1.5 ac clover plots. I understand a lot of you guys spray a whole lot more acres than I do and the cost is higher. The generic glyphosate is about $50 for 2.5 gl on special and I use 1 quart per 25 gallons. So the cost there is $5 per 25 gl tank. At 72 yrs of age I don't want to run the risk of loosing a years crop by saving couple dollars in expense. Hell in 2015 I spent over $600 in food plots and harvested one doe. But I enjoy my life style.
One of my good problems is my farm and hunting woods and food plots adjoin a 110 ac horse hay baling farm. We have a excess of deer but pulling then onto my farm has been a project. Since I started planting food plots in 2012 I've bee see many more deer and the number of bucks searching for does has increase 10 times. Since buying the farm in 1994 I've never seen over 3 deer in a group, but now it's not unusual to see 12-15 deer at a time feeding in the food plots. I've always said 'where the girls are the boys will come looking'. And it surely is working well. I'm enlarging my food plot on the west side of the farm on a N-S main trail that goes through my over grown cedar pasture. Nice thing this trail is only 100 yds from my house and totally enclosed in brush the whole way.
For me it is because I am cheap and not rich;)
I have had good results with it extending the life of my plots and the ease of the mixture blend to remember also is a consideration. I have my spraying down to Gly and Remedy Ultra for broadleaf weeds in NG.
I like clover and have had great results with it for both deer and turkey. Now though for time and money I have gone to one plot that is a continuous and windy 6.25 acres and I split half between the brassica/radish/beets/bean mix and the other half in cereal grains/winter peas/radishes.
I am in agriculture country and so trying more for plots that offer something different than what everyone else has growing. Occasionally use clover but found it is more work than I really want to do.
One of my good problems is my farm and hunting woods and food plots adjoin a 110 ac horse hay baling farm. We have a excess of deer but pulling then onto my farm has been a project. Since I started planting food plots in 2012 I've bee see many more deer and the number of bucks searching for does has increase 10 times. Since buying the farm in 1994 I've never seen over 3 deer in a group, but now it's not unusual to see 12-15 deer at a time feeding in the food plots. I've always said 'where the girls are the boys will come looking'. And it surely is working well. I'm enlarging my food plot on the west side of the farm on a N-S main trail that goes through my over grown cedar pasture. Nice thing this trail is only 100 yds from my house and totally enclosed in brush the whole way.
It help to have the correct type of nozzles , fine high pressure nozs work the best, verse those systemic large droplet ones . my set up for gly covers half acher and I use 41% , but only 6-7oz mixed in 30gal and 10 oz of anti freeze and one pound suger . Down south here in sc my clover needs little to no attention from December to june, as it grows better during the winter, it actually dies back during the summer once the heat cranks up , and the same ground is over seeded with beans and brassica type pants . there is so much dormant seed in the soil that it begins to reappear in October . 15/4/5 fert and some lime boom it 8" high and beins to choke out all other plants including ALL grasses . I only cut it once come May . And good luck guys , my condition differ like night and day compared to zone 5 .
My one 1/2 ac plot is almost taken over by grass so I may try spraying with glyphosate if the cleth doesn't do good enough job. I'll spot spray gly in my other plot to get the big patches of grass. Thanks guys it's been a big help to a new planter.
I went down with a backpack sprayer and sprayed glyphosate on the grass clumps. Then along the fence where was almost total grass. I'll see how much damage I did to the clover there.
Clover is about 3-4" tall and good coverage in this plot. I'll do the other plot after the rain. The 2nd plot is about 90% clover so I want to knock down the grass that is there.
The 3rd plot is 75% grass so I just might just spray that with glyphosate and hope for the best or just start over.
I checked my clover plots I sprayed with clethodim on 4-17 and I have a decent grass die back. Then on 4-20 I took my backback sprayer down to the one plot that has clumps of grass in and sprayed generic roundup on the clumps. Those sprayed clumps are dying off real well. So today I took the backpack sprayer and sprayed every clump of grass that I missed.
I tried posting pictures but only came up with nothing. I went through photoshop, isn't that supposed to work?
I checked the clover plots today and have good kill off. I got a new sprayer nozzle head and will respray to get the spots I missed and new growth.
Today I went down and sprayed clethodim and crop oil on my clover plots. Good kill on the grass from the 1st spray but my RK 2 sprayer nozzles were acting up and got hit and miss coverage.
So I got a good single Black Rain sprayer nozzle from boomless-sprayer.com. Great nozzle and well worth the 49.95 price with free shipping.
It's been so wet haven't been able to plant my spring turnip-beets-radish crop. I also sprayed the grass in that plot to empty the tank. Maybe next week if not too much rain over the weekend.
Picture from 4-17-16 when I did the 1st grass spraying. I'll get a new picture of the dead areas. The turnip blooming batch has been mowed down.
MK, mowed my clover plot about a week ago, and it's already blooming again. I love clover !
Grass in clover sprayed with clethodim on 4-17. Good kill in 30 days.
Other clover plot sprayed on 4-17. Got to love the results. This plot the grass had just about taken over. I'll let it go this year and decide next spring what to do. I will frost seed clover in Feb.
