soonershooter

My spot is in SE Kansas and I just put in about a 7 acre plot of Imperial Clover and soil tested 6.7 prior to treatment with fertilizer. My question is we disked the ground by large tractor and seeded two weeks ago before our natural grasses germinated. Now the grassed are coming back in also yet is spotty. Did we miss a step and should we have sprayed roundup after working the ground prior to seeding? I was not wanting to use a preemergent for fear of hurting the clover. Can I still spray roundup and if so when so as not to hurt the baby clover? Thanks in advance.

whitetail1

usually i like to wait 2-3 weeks after discing my soil and then spray roundup before planting. if you spray now it will kill the clover that has emerged. wait till the clover reaches 3-4inches and spray with poast plus for grasses. mowing will help with any weeds that come up. another thing that will help next time is planting buckwheat the season before and till it under. it creates a natural herbicide and helps with weeds and grass.

texasaggiebowhunter

Round up is a contact herbicide and whatever it touches it kills what its labeled for. If you spray it on the disked soil it does nothing. It doesnt keep anything from emerging. It has no residual effect. Wait for a green up then use a burndown herbicide. What I like to do is disk then spray roundup if you didnt totally turn all the grass under. The disk wounds the plant and the up take of roundup is faster causing faster interveinal chlorosis. While at the same time I plant my plot using a the salad bowl effect.
Where the grass is coming up patchy might be because the clover is shading out the grass or that area was disked deeper and the grass is buried.
If i missed anything or not clear dont be afraid to ask

whitetail1

when i mentioned spraying roundup after discing i was talking about spraying the new stuff that came up.if its dry it will take it longer than if you had recent rain.

whitetailpredatorsizedoesmatter

yeah round up will kill what it touches. but the when you use tillage you expose new weeds to the surface. weeds can live in dormatsy in the soil for as long as 100 years for some seeds..i agree with texasagg.... maybe you could have used a herbicide that attacked to root system.

bowbow

If you plant clover and grass comes up I thought you could kill the grass with a product call Vantage. It's on the whitetailinstitute page http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/products/

PopGunWill

You can use Poast, Poast Plus or Vantage. Make sure your clover plants are a minimum of 3" tall before spraying. The most effective height to treat grass is under 12". It takes a stronger solution as the plants adds height. I try to spray at 6" and Vantage works for me.

All three products will kill the grass. The reason I chose Vantage is it comes in pints and gallons. The Poast and Poast Plus only come in 2.5 gallon containers. I don't have that much area to treat.

Remember once the grass passes 12" all three are less effective unless you mow and allow 2-3" of regrowth before you apply the herbcide.

rwilson

I have several clover plots and had been having trouble with ryegrass and fescue taking them over. Sprayed late last spring with Vantage..got spotty results. I think the hotter weather had slowed things down. Sprayed earlier this year..as soon as the grass was beginning to compete w/ the clover..early April. Got a fantastic kill. Even knocked out some
"turfy" fescue. May come back later but the clover is really shouting. Have a few broadleaf weeds that I think I can control w/ high mowing. In fact, I see sign that deer are nibbling on these weeds as long as they are still tender. One of these plots is in its fourth summer and looks great. It is from Alfarack seed(whtetail inst.) but the alfalfa is gone. Due to too much moisture the first summer. I think the alf. part would do better in a drier application. Missed a strip w/ the sprayer in one plot and the ryegrass is doing well there so I can tell what I would have if I hadn't sprayed. Got my chemical from local Southern States co-op. About 75% the cost that whitetail inst. charges.