# Killing quackgrass



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I have a field of fescue/orchard mixed grass that has a lot of quackgrass in it.....when I got the field 3 years ago the quackgrass was just in smaller patches but in the last year it has really spread. I have not let it go to seed. The stand of grass is not the best so I'm wanting to kill everything and replant orchard and MaxQ in a few weeks. I'm hoping I can get a good kill on the quackgrass so I don't have it reappearing in my new stand. Will a heavy dose of roundup fully kill the quackgrass or is there something else that would be better to spray?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Glyphosate will not faze Quack grass.....it just kills the surface appearance and then rapidly comes back. Quack has a dense matt, rhizome root system. The only thing that will kill Quack that I have found is Pastora....applied at 1 oz. per acre.....and probably taking two treatments ten to 12 days apart. I treated a 3 acre area last spring and it layed fallow until this week and I am re-planting this week. It kills most grasses. You could treat this fall as Quack should be appearing now.....and let lay fallow until spring. Re-plant waiting is 4 month for grasses and 6 months for legumes.

Regards, Mike


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Anything like that, if you can rotate out of grass for a year you're better off. It will really open up your chemical choices.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I'll have to check out that Pastora. Does it work on Kentucky bluegrass? We've always done two years of corn on new breaking that has quack. Spraying it with roundup twice a year for two years seems to give a fair level of control but it doesn't kill it, it will come back. Bluegrass can be a tough SOB to kill as well.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

This quackgrass sounds like it is worse to get rid of than Johnson grass.....it has smothered out all other grass where it has formed a carpet over the ground. I might have to think about possibly putting this field into beans for a year to make sure I get rid of the quack before going back with grass.....I really wanted to keep this field in grass hay though.

Mike, if I remember correctly I think you said last year you sprayed pastora in crop on orchard and fescue to control grass weeds as a trial. How did the orchard and fescue stand up to the pastora? This could be an option if the quack would show back up in my new stand of grass.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

If there is even a Slight possibility that after you spray the current stand of you may want to go to row crops . I would not use a product like Pastora. This product not sold in our state but I remember the active ingredient being discussed at growers meeting they said figure one year plus for planting row crops .


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

FarmerCline said:


> This quackgrass sounds like it is worse to get rid of than Johnson grass.....it has smothered out all other grass where it has formed a carpet over the ground. I might have to think about possibly putting this field into beans for a year to make sure I get rid of the quack before going back with grass.....I really wanted to keep this field in grass hay though.
> 
> Mike, if I remember correctly I think you said last year you sprayed pastora in crop on orchard and fescue to control grass weeds as a trial. How did the orchard and fescue stand up to the pastora? This could be an option if the quack would show back up in my new stand of grass.


You will not get rid of the Quackgrass by cropping beans....I have a friend who has a infestation in a river bottom. He rotated RR corn and beans for 4 years and only made the infestation worse by allowing it to continue to grow.

If you spray Pastora one time it will not kill Orchard grass....if you have to spray again 10-12 days later the second spraying will kill the Orchard grass.

Regards, Mike


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Where I farm you can easily eradicate crabgrass with RR soybeans by including "Poast Plus " herbicide.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> Where I farm you can easily eradicate crabgrass with RR soybeans by including "Poast Plus " herbicide.


 I have used poast before in beans to get rid of Johnson grass and crabgrass and it did an excellent job but will it kill quackgrass?


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Vol said:


> You will not get rid of the Quackgrass by cropping beans....I have a friend who has a infestation in a river bottom. He rotated RR corn and beans for 4 years and only made the infestation worse by allowing it to continue to grow.
> 
> If you spray Pastora one time it will not kill Orchard grass....if you have to spray again 10-12 days later the second spraying will kill the Orchard grass.
> 
> Regards, Mike


This is the problem with the RR mindset. Sometimes you actually need to use other things.


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