Experience with Pre-emergence herbicides

CarolinaDawg

A good 3 year old buck
I’m considering using Prowl H2O (pre-emergent) this year on my summer plots. My method of planting is throw-&-mow. Most herbicide use for those-&-mow is round-up at the time of planting. I’m considering using both Round-up and Prowl this year to really get ahead of the weeds and hopefully never have to do it again. Have any of you guys used Prowl or any other pre-emergent in the past when no-tilling? If so, I’d love some feedback on your experience with it.
 
I’ve only used prowl H2O around spruce trees and not in a food plot. It’s going to depend on what you’re planting and see if it’s labeled for your crop. My understanding is that it also needs contact with or incorporated into the soil. That might be difficult if you’re not tilling or doing a burn down first. Roundup should kill most everything green for throw and mow then cleaned up later if needed with another product Crop specific and you don’t have to worry about residual problems.
 
Not to put too fine a point on it - using pre-emergent herbicides requires something of a different understanding and strategy compared to post-emergent contact herbicides.

Only referring to pre-merge here...
1. The herbicide needs to be in the ground where it can stop weeds from germinating. Rain is the number one way it happens.
2. The spraying routine and necessary outcome is different. Use "lots" of water. Change your spray nozzles from flat fans for contact to flood jets for pre-merge. The idea is to bomb the heck out of the soil.
3. Soil characteristics like pH and amount of organic content has profound impacts on effectiveness. The label address this with different rate usages.
4. Be sure you know what weeds your attacking. Certain herbicides work better than others. I guess it goes without saying the same goes for the crop you are growing. Some can metabolize the herbicides, others not so much.
 
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