Spraying herbicide??? Tell me how

[HCJtractor]

I plant about 20 food plots every fall, rarely in the spring. Although I have a little clover left alive, the grasses are really taking over this year from so much rain. I bush hogged and started to plow, but the tough grass really clogs up my plow. I believe that I could get a better food plot if I kill all these grasses. Do you guys do this? My food plots are usually long and narrow or oval. Total acreage of them all is about 10 acres.
Questions:
Does it help? When do you apply?

Will the grasses reseed themselves and be just as bad each year or is there a residual effect?

What kind of sprayer? 3 point hitch, trailer style, or 4 wheeler? Advantages of each? i am kinda leaning to the 4 wheeler style. A trailer style would have to be able to withstand some rough washed out roads. But a three point can be larger, but do I need a big volume? What specific sprayer and at what costs?

Boom or boomless? How tough are the booms?

How many gallons per acre and what chemical?

Somebody please walk me through what you have success doing. Thanks!!

 

[Rford]

Go the Iowa Deer Quality Management site (google it) and you will find everything you need to know about food plots and weed control. There is a great thread by a guy who goes by Dbltree. It's called "Dbltree's Corner"

Dbltree's corner - Iowawhitetail forums

 

[GaryCrowell]

I have a 15 gallon atv sprayer that I bought about 10 years ago. It was designed as a spot sprayer with a want but I wanted a boom for the same reason as you. Last year I decided to make my own boom because I didn't like any of the commercial ones for sale (too flimsy) and they were too expensive. I ended up making one with five nozzles spaced 20" apart. The boom itself is a piece of 1" square steel tubing and it's seven feet wide. Given the spray pattern it'll actually spray a nine foot path, but the boom itself is 7'. You can buy all the parts at tractor supply company, that's where I got mine. The salesmen there can help you with all the stuff you need, I walked out of there with a bag full of parts and all total it cost me about $70 to build the boom, but it's better than any commercial one costing $150 or more. I mount it to the bottom of my rear ATV rack using zip ties, then just cut them when it's time to take it off. It works REALLY well and I use it all the time. I've never hit anything with the boom I built but it's pretty solid, I doubt I'd hurt anything if I did and the zip ties would just tear off. You can get the boomless kinds but I believe the boom does a much better job.

By far the most popular herbicide for purposes like yours is Roundup, it does a real good job of killing grasses. They make it in generic and that's the way to go, it's much cheaper than the branded roundup. Your local farm supply should have it but I've found it's cheaper to buy it off the internet. The generic name is glyphosate. Here's where I get mine:

Drexel Imitator Plus Glyphosate 2.5 Gallon Jug w/ 15% Surfactant America's Farm & Home Store

I usually buy 5 gallons at a time, it's cheaper that way and with shipping it's about $90 for five gallons of the 41% concentrate. 5 gallons will spray about 20 acres at the rate I mix it.

For grasses I use a quart of 41% roundup per acre. In my sprayer I'll go through about 15 gallons of mix per acre so I mix one quart into 15 gallons of water. It works out to roughly 2 oz. per gallon. I measured how quickly my sprayer flowed and did all the math until I figured out that I can spray an acre in 12 minutes if I go 5 mph on the four wheeler. 12 minutes is how long it takes my sprayer to empty if the 15 gallon tank is full.

It does help a lot with the disking, especially if it's a field that hasn't been worked before. The roundup kills the roots along with the grass. The roots are what holds the soil together and makes it so hard to till. The grass will come back the next year but the roots won't be as deep as the first time so it'll be easier to till. You need to spray the grass at least two weeks before you get ready to plow/disk in order to give it time to die and the roots to degrade a bit, and 3-4 weeks would be even better. I'm going to plant food plots at the end of september and I'll spray in the next few days, whenever it quits raining. I won't spray all my food plots, the ones that have I've been planting for years I'll just bush hog and disk, they'll break right up. I've got a couple of plots that are new and they've got a lot of tough grass on them so I'll spray them.

 

[hrcarver]

Get a boom. I believe fimco make a 25 gallon atv sprayer with a 7 nozzle 10' folding boom kit. Much better cover than boomless nozzles, and it is spring loaded wings to fold back and not break it you hit a tree or post.

Chemicals?

To kill only grass use clethodim(arrow,select) mixed with 1% crop oil. One gallon jug will do ~15 acre of clover at 8oz/acre.

To kill everything use generic glyphosate. It will take around a month for it to "burn down"" good enough to make your tillage easier. I'd go with a higher rate, around 3 qt/acre to get a more effective kill of mature weeds, and that stuff is cheap. You want your sprayer set up(calibrated) to put out at least 20 gallons of water per acre, you can get by with 15, but I like 25 better. That ensure even coverage.

 

[forester2]

I just started with the clethodim this year; its a good way to resurrect clover plots.

 

[djradz]

Yes, absolutely kill the grasses (and weeds) with herbicide. I like Roundup, or one of the imitation glyphosate brands. There's several out there so shop around. I have a 25 gallon tow-behind sprayer with a boom that covers about 8 to 10 feet, but I'm only doing a couple of relatives small 1/2-acre plots. ... and the trailer bounces quite a bit on the uneven ground. For your size parcels - totalling 10 acres) I think you'd want something a bit more substantial, like a 50 or 100 gallon sprayer that mounts to the 3-pt. ... just my two cents, but otherwise I think you'll be frequently stopping and refiilling/remixing. Seems like TSC and Northern Tool have a good selection, but I'll bet there's many more out there.

..By the way, consider a marking additive, like Hi-Light or Blazer blue die. You'll be able to easily see where you have and have not already hit. I like Hi-Light because it washes of your hands, clothes, spray equipment relatively easily.mitate

 

[clemsonfor]

Use Glyphosate get the 41% kind and get it from a landscape supply or TSC you should be able to get 2.5 gallon jugs for under $50, if you buy round up in this quantity (lowes has it) it will be well over $150. This stuff will kill about anything at 4oz/gallon.

Spray with a 4 ft boom sprayer on your 4 wheeler or tailgate of your truck or rig up a carryall on your tractor for it. Spray in the fall for best work. Id spray now and give it 2-3 weeks for good kill then disk it. You will have weeds next year from the seed this year but if you spray again next year your field will be pretty clean the next years where only inported seed will sprout and old seed in the soil. By imported i mean by your tractor implements birds and wind.

 

[jbford]

I got a real good deal on Poast + at a local farm store. It was $125 for 2.5 gallons. It is very similar to Arrow/Select. It will only kill grass.

Another one for grass only is Fusilade. Believe it is a lot more expensive.

 

[hrcarver]

True, but I've had better luck with 8 oz arrow than 32 oz poast plus.

Clethodim $4-$6/acre

Sethoxdim $8-$12/acre

 

[HCJtractor]

Some 4-wheeler sprayers are "boomless" yet put out a wide swath. Others have foldable booms. I have been told that the foldable booms may give more accurate even coverage but for food plots, the boomless style is "good enough." From what I can see, Tractor Supply only sells the boomless style. Any thoughts on which is better overall?

We also spend a lot of time on the edges of roads and plots that keep closing in every year. Does anyone spray laterally to minimize this? Just wondered. Thanks for all the info. Keep it coming!!