Herbicide for mustard weed in clover

[dipper]

What do you guy think, 24DB? This is on my second farm, so I don't want to be running out there to mow it all the time. However, it's a low spot and it is going to take a while to dry up. That dang mustard is growing like crazy, and it might be too mature before I can get out there to spray.

I've always pulled this stuff out of my fields, so I never really had a problem with it. But this is a new property and the Amish farmer 50 years ago didn't appear to worry about managing it. Now there is a 2 acre explosion, that I don't think I'll be able to control by hand.

I might try cutting it as soon as I can get out there, and spraying. I hate this stuff.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Mowing works well for me. Anything that grows tall and is a broadleaf is perfect for mower. I try to mow at least 3 and sometimes 4 times a year on my clover plots. Mowing is the best and cheapest herbicides for "most" broadleaves.

 

[Brenn]

Just

What do you guy think, 24DB? This is on my second farm, so I don't want to be running out there to mow it all the time. However, it's a low spot and it is going to take a while to dry up. That dang mustard is growing like crazy, and it might be too mature before I can get out there to spray.

I've always pulled this stuff out of my fields, so I never really had a problem with it. But this is a new property and the Amish farmer 50 years ago didn't appear to worry about managing it. Now there is a 2 acre explosion, that I don't think I'll be able to control by hand.

I might try cutting it as soon as I can get out there, and spraying. I hate this stuff.

Just need to mow before it sets seed.

 

[wiscwhip]

If you mow it and do nothing else, there is a chance that it will try to set seed at a lower height each time it is mowed. It doesn't always do this and with due diligence it can be cleared from your plots by just mowing. Be very careful that you stay on top of it after you mow it each time and watch for secondary flowering at a lower than normal height. There is a chance that after it is mowed it will put on a new flush of growth and start to re-flower after only growing an inch or two. It can and will set seed regardless of whether or not you mow it short. A farmer I help has an ongoing issue with it in one of his pastures. He almost had it under control through mowing, and got busy and forgot to recheck on the new flush of growth and within 2 weeks after his mowing, every bit that was left in the pasture was flowering or had started to set seed, by the time he mowed it again, it was too late. He was back to square one the following spring and is just now getting it to the point it was before. He said never again, he wants to get at least 1 if not 2 more seasons out of this pasture before he turns it to a year of corn. He is planning on nuking the whole thing with a cocktail before moving to corn, and then he feels he will have no worries with it after going into RR crops for a year or 2.

 

[dipper]

He'll be right back to square one if he tills it too. This plot was dense quack and goldenrod for 45 years. There wasn't any mustard growing in it. I spilt this plot in half originally. One side I tilled, the other I didn't. There has been a few plants on the untilled side, which I have been pulling. There is an explosion on the tilled side.

 

[wiscwhip]

He'll be right back to square one if he tills it too. This plot was dense quack and goldenrod for 45 years. There wasn't any mustard growing in it. I spilt this plot in half originally. One side I tilled, the other I didn't. There has been a few plants on the untilled side, which I have been pulling. There is an explosion on the tilled side.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was saying to till the plot, I was more looking towards mowing with supplemental spraying, not tillage.

 

[dipper]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was saying to till the plot, I was more looking towards mowing with supplemental spraying, not tillage.

I wasn't saying that either. haha That seed appears to be able to stick around for decades. I only owned this spot for a year before I started planting food plots, and I never saw the mustard growing in there.
From what I've seen, everyone is spot on that when you till, you are replanting that unseen weed seed.