Hi everyone ! I have four Ladino clover plots located in Northeastern PA at an elevation of around 2000 feet (mountainous). One is well established in its second year (September 2001) and the three others were planted last September (2002). All four of my plots were planted with rye as a cover crop to help nurse the clover. Well now I am having some trouble getting rid of the rye in my two year old plot and have just mowed the other three where the rye was chest high. I am assuming that the rye will come back in these plots also (thought rye was an annual?).

I am also having some fairly heavy weed infestation [:' (] in all four plots maybe due to the excessive amount of rain we have had this year? In all of these plots I followed the same protocol where I killed everything with Ag roundup in August, waited a month, plowed and planted. I am having a great deal of activity in all plots as are filmed by my deer cams. Should I be controlling these weeds and the rye now? Or should I just let them go? My feeling is that I should rid these weeds now so that my clover can flourish.

Does anyone have any help for me. Should I be using a POST product to do this or does anyone have a better recommendation. Also when should this process of weed killing be done. I have a sprayer with booms for the back of my 4-wheeler, I just need to know what and when to use with it. HELP

If you let the rye mature and seed out then it will tend to come back the following year. The rye would have to be mowed before it has a chance to seed out to controll it from coming back. As for the weedes in your clover, there are a few sprays that can controll the weeds and not damage the clover and I believe one is post which you mentioned. Maybe some of the other guys will help you out, many of them are more familiar with these chemicals than I am. I have been working on a wick applicator to use in my food plots maybe lawnfarmer can give you some help with that as he has a wick project that should be about complete. Good thing about a wick applicator is you can use roundup to control the weeds and not affect your desired plants. Only drawbacks you might run into is you need level ground while using a wick and the target weeds must be higher than your desired planting so as not to damage your clover.

cleeby - the rain has helped some grasses and broadleaf weeds grow faster than normal this year. Rye will continue to come back if you mow before it heads out. hopefully someone didn' t talk you into Perenial Rye Grass instead of Cereal Rye.

I' d let the Rye grow until its mature (4-5ft tall) even if other weeds grow in the plot grow as well. Once the seed head has formed, and the plant is actually losing its green color - then I' d mow. If the clover is well established within the rye (its growth should appear stunted somewhat) it will quickly take over most weeds after mowing.

Personally, I hear about letting a rye field go to seed, then mow and it will re grow from the seed - I' ve never had that happen, probably because there is usually an undergrowth of clover.

If the weeds you have are mostly annual weeds, (mustard, goldenrod, dock. lambsquarters, ragweed, burdock, etc) mowing should take care of them all in one year, it may take several mowings.

If its grasses (redtop, orchard grass, quackgrass, rye grass, etc.) spraying with poast is probably the way to go. Though I' ve never done it - I' ve always replanted when the grasses get too far ahead (2yrs - 5yrs is the normal lifespan of a clover plot - 4 years should be your goal.) I will say that some weeds in the field is not all bad, as long as you can control them - or keep them from overtaking the plot.

I' ve done the same field prep as you many times, and have had varying results as well. One time 10% weeds, next time 40% - I think it has alot to do with the amount of residual weed seeds in the soil. If you have time, the best way to handle fields like this is to prep the field as usual, then let it sit two weeks or until a good bit of weed germination has occurred. THEN Spray roundup. Then seed in your clover (and nurse crop if you wish - 1/3 -1/2 the normal planting rate) and roll it in (do not disturb the soil any if you can). This treatment can reduce some of the weeds that come back.

One last note: About the time you know what your doing - you' ll mess up. So much of this is trial and error, even with good advice it can be difficult. In a cool,wet Spring like we had - things can be Boom or Bust - its all about timing and luck. This spring I lost about 1/2 my corn crop due to the cool wet weather, and a good bit of what did make it is spotty and weed infested because I could not get on the field to cultivate ( the corn that did germinate - grew 4" and stopped for almost 1 month due to cold weather - the weeds however kept a growing.) .

Poast can be applied with great results. I use a 25 gallon sprayer, and use about 20 gallons of water-I think it' s 1.5 pints of Poast, 2.5 pounds of Amonium Sulfate, and a couple pints of crop oil(the mixes are in the directions).

I was out at the Biologic' s northern research center near Bath, NY a couple of weekends ago. I was able to view 2, 1 acre fields of clover, side-by-side, planted 3 years ago. The one on the left had been treated with Poast each year, mowed, and was beautiful. The one on the right was just mowed, and was 70-80% weeds. Huge difference! The have 1 field on the property that is 8 years old, maintained with Poast, and a Round-up wick for broadleafs, but mostly just poast.

In the spring you can let your broadleaf' s grow higher than your clover. You can then go in with something like a board wrapped in carpet and soaked in a Round-up solution, suspended from a front-end loader or a boom on an ATV, and just " brush" the tops of the weeds.

Don' t wait until it' s too late though!

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan

I would like to pass along something I was told last week by an ag-dealer for whatever it' s worth. We were talking about weed control in clover and he said you could spray your clover/weeds with a diluted mix of Roundup or Honcho Plus and it would kill the weeds but only burn the clover. He didn' t say how much you should dilute it from a regular weed kill rate. I have never read or heard of anyone else advising this method.

How are you making out Cleeby? Did mowing Help?

Ask him if he will stand behind that.....he wont...if he does he is an idiot. IMHO...

Well I was back at the ag-dealer that told me about using Roundup as a weed killer on clover plots and there were two persons that backed him up. One does spraying for a living and the other was a hunter with a farm. Both say that they spray a deluted mix of Roundup on clover, one was talking about his plot of Alfa-rack, and both say it works great. []

JKT,
What is a diluted mix? Is it half, or even less?
Russ

I will find out the next time I' m there, it' s about 40 miles from where I live.