Cleth Spring Spraying Questions
- Thread starter Derek Reese 29
- Start date
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I agree it is always better to spray Cleth when the grass has just greened up and is actively growing. It will work on taller grasses (cant speak to "Swamp Grass"), just takes longer to see the affects. Make sure you mix it with crop oil.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
Not the same thing, because I don’t know what swamp grass is either. But multiple studies show that cleth won’t even thin mature grass stands, much less terminate them. It will yellow them for sure, but I’ve never seen it take out any mature grasses personally.
You know, it will take out tall annuals pretty easy like grain rye. So what I said above has some caveats. Guess I’m talking about mature perennials.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
Loving your blog btw.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I do know the grasses need to be actively growing, but we routinely spray grass in our Christmas tree rows that is 2' tall and it kills it. I would guess that it varies from species to species to some extent and possibly annual vs well established perennial types.
I just looked over the publication you mentioned, thanks for that link it is a very well written publication and I will save that one to my files for future reference. It does reference the fact that mature perennial grasses are harder to control with Cleth and may require multiple applications. I can see that especially being the case in dense stands of mature grass, as the chemical is not reaching alot of the living plant tissue I would guess. Also they mention spraying in September, which by that time the NWSG is definitely mature and may already be semi-dormant. I am pretty sure that unlike trees which typically send plant reserves into the roots at the end of the growing season, grasses do so on a continuous basis when they are actively growing. Otherwise repeated mowing or haying would kill off grasses. We are more or less spot spraying, actively growing taller grasses in our Christmas tree rows.
I just looked over the publication you mentioned, thanks for that link it is a very well written publication and I will save that one to my files for future reference. It does reference the fact that mature perennial grasses are harder to control with Cleth and may require multiple applications. I can see that especially being the case in dense stands of mature grass, as the chemical is not reaching alot of the living plant tissue I would guess. Also they mention spraying in September, which by that time the NWSG is definitely mature and may already be semi-dormant. I am pretty sure that unlike trees which typically send plant reserves into the roots at the end of the growing season, grasses do so on a continuous basis when they are actively growing. Otherwise repeated mowing or haying would kill off grasses. We are more or less spot spraying, actively growing taller grasses in our Christmas tree rows.
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omicron1792
5 year old buck +
That’s all good info my man. I do spray it and Simazine over my eastern red cedar screens and it does keep it clean.
Check out Tennessee stuff it is so good. A guy named Craig Harper there has put out the best stuff on habitat management I have seen. Has one on Forrest stand improvement and another on food plots, both very organized and comprehensive.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I have read his stuff and have listened to a number of podcasts that he has been on. He is a knowledgeable guy with lots of experience.
matinc
5 year old buck +
By swamp grass I mean the grass you see in this cleared lane. By end of summer it can be 4 feet tall. Curious if it would be smarter to plant buckwheat, crimp and then spray cleth or gly. Or plant buckwheat spray and then crimp. Incidently this quarter acre area was ferns n huckleberry. Super low ph and after 1500 pounds of lime the soil is actually growing some clover.
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NorthWI
5 year old buck +
Derek Reese 29
5 year old buck +
As far as I could tell it didn’t have an impact on them? I think cleth is grass specific..definitely wouldn’t spray gly like I did around those fruit trees.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
matinc,
Swamp grass? I'd that better. Sedges can grow in seasonally flooded areas well. Cleth does nothing to them. IF it is sedge, gly stunts them and grows back from the root system, much like clover.
Take a look at mace sedge and yellow nutsedge online. IF it's that, you got a battle ahead of you. Spray gly and respraying about 3 weeks later can set it back alot. otherwise you need sedge specific treatments. Thankfully, its got a good seed propogater. It will come back again at some point.
matinc
5 year old buck +
Bigbore. Your correct after doing the research it is sedge. The area I am taking about is on the inside of a 20 acre spaghum leather leaf swamp with huckleberrybushes . This is the first higher area outside of the swamp. Which I made into 2 shooting lanes. Clover has not done well even after adding 1200 pounds of lime to a quarter acre. Another 250 pounds will go down next weekend of lime but it is improving. The sphagnum swamp is at the end of both of these pictures the third picture is both lanes in the winter.
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Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
I have sprayed grasses around all of my apple trees with no issues.
