My Letter To Marestail

[Michael Bey]

Dear Marestail,

I hate you.

Earlier this year I had grandiose visions of beautiful new food plots with large bucks frolicking in them during hunting season. I dutifully cleared the plots, sprayed them multiple times throughout the summer with 41% glyphosate, and even thought about getting a soil test.

And then you arrived. And brought your entire frickin’ family with you.

Not surprisingly, the repeated sprayings of glyphosate wiped out pretty much every form of vegetation surrounding you. But I’m pretty sure I heard you snickering at me each time I left the property after spraying. If anything, you responded to the glyphosate as a form of personal fertilizer, because on each successive trip to the property I was greeted by even more of you in my food plots.

As you know, I did the next logical thing and switched chemicals. How did you feel about that triclopyr cocktail I gave you last week? Did you enjoy that? Was half a gallon of chemical over a half acre food plot too much? Well, too damn bad.

Why did you and all your dysfunctional family members choose to take up residence in my food plots? Couldn’t you weasel your way into a spot on the Jerry Springer show?

Have I mentioned lately that I hate you?

You may have won these last few battles with me, but you're not gonna win this war. As a heads up, you may want to bring your “A” game because you’re about to have some serious company in the form of cereal rye. If 100 pounds per acre of rye is a reasonable dose, then I may broadcast 200 pounds per acre just to spite you. And next spring? You can count on a heavy application of buckwheat seed, followed by me rolling over you and the rye with my Kubota RTV and cultipacker. I think I’ll do the rolling part slowly so I can listen to you scream.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you’ve pissed me off and I’m not done fighting.

In short, I hate you.

love,
Mike

 

[maintenancetech]

Lol this is awesome I feel your pain!!!!


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[yoderjac]

I think I'm finally getting mine under control. I've been mowing before it goes to seed in the fall and spraying with 24D Amine in the spring and then planting a smother crop of buckwheat. After 2 years it is not eliminated by at tolerable levels.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Bill]

That’s hilarious.

I might send the same thing to pig weed:)

 

[gunfun13]

I switched from Gly to Liberty on several plots. Crazy how fast things (including marestail) brown down compared to gly.

 

[j-bird]

It seems like we all have one weed out there (sometimes more) that we just go round after round with!

You know you have an issue with a weed if your driving down the road and you see it in the ditch or the like and just get upset at the sight of it! Don't ask how I know!!!!

 

[maintenancetech]

So with all that’s been said what is the best corse of action to control marestail


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[SWIFFY]

Awesome! Add Water Hemp to the contact list!

 

[St. Croix]

I 2nd what gf13 said. Amazing how liberty knocks the snot out of some of these weeds. I had a pigweed/waterhemp issue for years. Use to manage it with flexstar in beans and status in corn. But that's what I was doing just managing the weed. 2 years now with liberty and it's all but disappeard. Crop rotation along with multiple modes of action should take care of most weeds.

I did have a field so invested with pigweed I had to seed it down to alfalfa and manage it by haying as it wasn't worth the headache. Haying/mowing/grazing for a period of time takes care of numerous weed species

 

[yoderjac]

So with all that’s been said what is the best corse of action to control marestail


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It all depends on your application. The method I've been using doesn't eliminate it, but I doubt anything will in my area. It is in our seed bank. I had been using RR beans with a light mix of corn to cover our summer stress period. I'm far enough south that most Warm Season annuals are tough because of the high browse pressure and weed competition. The RR crops worked great and with sufficient acreage, gly suppressed the competition long enough for the beans to canopy.

We then did a pine thinning and conducted controlled burns. Marestail popped up in our pines like crazy with the daylight to the soil. It wasn't long until the seed made it to our fields. In most fields used for cool season plantings it was not really problematic. However, in our beans where gly was used regularly, it was another story. Instead of marstail having competition from a variety of weeds, it only had competition from beans and it did not have the browse pressure.

One option would have been to move to Liberty crops. I considered that, but it is pretty expensive. Instead I opted for a strategy that would get marestail under control using a combination of methods. It has been pretty successful for me, but I don't expect to have marestail free fields. Success for me is reducing marestail to the point where my food plots still achieve their objectives rather than trying to eliminate it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill]

You know you have an issue with a weed if your driving down the road and you see it in the ditch or the like and just get upset at the sight of it!

I do that!

 

[Bill]

One option would have been to move to Liberty crops. I considered that, but it is pretty expensive.

Worth every penny the day after you spray....and the weeds that use to laugh at you are are buckled over.

 

[yoderjac]

Worth every penny the day after you spray....and the weeds that use to laugh at you are are buckled over.

I don't doubt the effectiveness. I've been looking for lower cost/effort to the beans/corn plots I was using to cover the summer stress period. Most warm season annual mixes don't stand a chance between the browse pressure and weed competition. The approach I'm using to control the marestail is offering me a chance to experiment with a Buckwheat/Sunn Hemp mix. I'm slowly starting to convince myself that they are fast enough (if I get the seeding rates right) to favorably compete with my summer weeds. The seed cost would be a bit lower, but my herbicide use and cost would decrease in the long run. More importantly, both of these have low fertilizer requirements to produce well. Fewer herbicide applications means less food plot time and more time for other projects as well.

Once I get the buckwheat/sunn hemp approach working (presuming I do), I may consider rotating into liberty beans every few years.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Bill]

I hear you. I look at some of the mixes in the throw and grow thread and wonder why I’m messing with beans still.

Old habits.

 

[yoderjac]

I hear you. I look at some of the mixes in the throw and grow thread and wonder why I’m messing with beans still.

Old habits.

Throw and grow works well for most of the fall cool season crops. If I was up north where summer is not much of a stress period, I wouldn't worry about warm season annuals at all. Down here, summer is a slightly greater stress period than winter. I need some way to cover that gap.

 

[pinetag14]

Dear Marestail,

I hate you.

Earlier this year I had grandiose visions of beautiful new food plots with large bucks frolicking in them during hunting season. I dutifully cleared the plots, sprayed them multiple times throughout the summer with 41% glyphosate, and even thought about getting a soil test.

And then you arrived. And brought your entire frickin’ family with you.

Not surprisingly, the repeated sprayings of glyphosate wiped out pretty much every form of vegetation surrounding you. But I’m pretty sure I heard you snickering at me each time I left the property after spraying. If anything, you responded to the glyphosate as a form of personal fertilizer, because on each successive trip to the property I was greeted by even more of you in my food plots.

As you know, I did the next logical thing and switched chemicals. How did you feel about that triclopyr cocktail I gave you last week? Did you enjoy that? Was half a gallon of chemical over a half acre food plot too much? Well, too damn bad.

Why did you and all your dysfunctional family members choose to take up residence in my food plots? Couldn’t you weasel your way into a spot on the Jerry Springer show?

Have I mentioned lately that I hate you?

You may have won these last few battles with me, but you're not gonna win this war. As a heads up, you may want to bring your “A” game because you’re about to have some serious company in the form of cereal rye. If 100 pounds per acre of rye is a reasonable dose, then I may broadcast 200 pounds per acre just to spite you. And next spring? You can count on a heavy application of buckwheat seed, followed by me rolling over you and the rye with my Kubota RTV and cultipacker. I think I’ll do the rolling part slowly so I can listen to you scream.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you’ve pissed me off and I’m not done fighting.

In short, I hate you.

love,
Mike

Hilarious! I hope you win the war!

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Throw and grow works well for most of the fall cool season crops. If I was up north where summer is not much of a stress period, I wouldn't worry about warm season annuals at all. Down here, summer is a slightly greater stress period than winter. I need some way to cover that gap.

The thing is, those warm season annuals produce seeds that are high in fat and carbs that carry the deer through the winter stress period up here.

 

[yoderjac]

The thing is, those warm season annuals produce seeds that are high in fat and carbs that carry the deer through the winter stress period up here.

True. I'm much less familiar with dealing with harsh winters. Our biggest issue seems to be ice storms for short periods, not long periods of cold with deep snow that doesn't melt till summer.

 

[yoderjac]

Worth every penny the day after you spray....and the weeds that use to laugh at you are are buckled over.

Bill,

I was hoping that a couple years of 24D and the smother crop would get my marestail under control. I has helped immensely, it is still by farm the dominant weed in my summer plots. Since you've got some experience with Liberty and marestail is listed, I'm wondering if it makes sense for me to use it for burn down prior to spring planting of non-liberty-link crops like my buckwheat and sunn hemp. I'm not ready to go back to soybeans or the cost of liberty-link beans. They are just too attractive for my situation and deer have been doing well with my buckwheat sunn hemp mix. This year I upped the rates and added milo.

Does liberty herbicide have a ground residual effect like 24D that requires a wait period before planting? I'm considering using it next year.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tap]

It seems like we all have one weed out there (sometimes more) that we just go round after round with!

You know you have an issue with a weed if your driving down the road and you see it in the ditch or the like and just get upset at the sight of it! Don't ask how I know!!!!

Yep, I do that as well.
With some weeds, I can resist looking off into the ditch at it (it aint easy to not look, but with fortitude it can be done).
The problem with Canada Thistle is when it's floaters are flying. I would have to drive with my eyes closed. At times its like a snow storm of floaters in the air. Pretty hard to ignore that. :-(