All land owners, managers and hunters who want to improve their properties will at some time or another resort to a herbicide to manage invasive weeds, plants and brush from their properties. For beginners, this can really be confusing. While I am by no means an expert on herbicides, there are a few basic points worth repeating.
First and foremost is safety – these chemicals are poison and can be deadly. When using herbicides, use basic precautionary measures such as; rubber gloves, dust mask, and eye protection. Mixing many of these chemicals in the field will cause spills, leaks and the like. Being prepared to protect yourself is vital. Too many hunters and farmers get sick annually by not taking a few minutes to protect themselves.
There are basically two types of herbicides; selective and non- selective. A selective herbicide targets specific plant types while a non-selective kills everything. The most common type of this is round-up – Glyphosate. This is an affordable and readily available herbicide that will kill everything you want gone from your area. Glyphosate works through the foliage of plants, direct contact to the leaves is essential to perform at its peak. The Glyphosate reacts through photosynthesis and kills the root of the invasive plant. When using a herbicide to kill everything in an area, grasses, broadleaf, brush, etc. its really hard to beat Glyphosate.
The selective herbicides are a lot more confusing. There are herbicides that will kill broadleaf vegetation and leave the grasses, and others that will kill the grasses and leave the broadleaf plants. Using the wrong one on your land can really make for a bad day.
A colleague of mine made this very expensive mistake last season when he sprayed his 10 acre clove plot with a herbicide (he thought) would kill the grasses and not clover. When he returned to see the damage, his entire plot was dead. Further investigation showed, he grabbed the wrong herbicide and mixed in a broadleaf herbicide and killed his clover – but his grass looked great! –
As far as application goes – boom sprayers with tanks are the easiest and most efficient manner of application. From big thirty foot booms with a few dozen nozzles to a small six foot boom attached to an ATV all will get the job done. As will a back pack sprayer for small plots also works great. Many of these are available for rent from farm supply stores and rental centers.
Herbicides are a necessary tool to maintain good plots. Being careful what you spray and when to spray are critical. Some herbicides are “pre-emergent” meaning they treat the dirt and not the plant. These herbicides are great for using after plowing and before planting. They will get into the dirt and effectively kill any germination of weeds and invasive non-target plants. Carefully reading these labels is also important to ensure you don’t plant too quickly after the pre-emergent is applied or you will kill your crop before it begins to grow.
Whatever you decide to use, use it sparingly, but use enough. Herbicides are an essential tool for land owners and land managers. To have a good clean plot, we must incorporate these into our plan.
