# chickweed



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

55 degrees Plus 1 inch of rain took care of the snow cover on our farms yesterday . I am out this morning looking at some alfalfa orchard grass mix fields and I see some chick weed. does anyone else see any if so what are your plans.


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Henbit is terrible here this year.

Regards, Mike


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Vol said:


> Henbit is terrible here this year.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Since I made that post I found a hay field with henbit big time


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Two years ago, I had chickweed so bad in one alfalfa field, that it smothered the first cutting out.

I kept waiting and waiting for the alfalfa to come out, never did.

I thought I had lost that field, so I had the bright idea to mow it ff, bale it and dump the bales in a ditch to get rid of a lot of the seeds, then put it to corn. Got two round bales off of 10 acres.

A week later the alfalfa is coming on strong! Field didn't seem to get hurt--just lost the first cutting.

My understanding is, AND I HAVE NOT DONE THIS, so it is hearsay only, that you can spray it with 2,4DB amine and it will not hurt the alfalfa.

Ralph


----------



## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

A big problem here every year. The crap has really flourished since the advent of "round-up farming". Row crop guys are all spraying canopy, 2,4-d, simizine or whatever else in the fall to control it. I sprayed Sencor on my alfalfa last spring before it broke dormancy and had really good control and first cutting was clean. Otherwise, chickweed, henbit, and dandelion will choke out first cutting.


----------



## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

rjmoses said:


> Two years ago, I had chickweed so bad in one alfalfa field, that it smothered the first cutting out.
> 
> I kept waiting and waiting for the alfalfa to come out, never did.
> 
> ...


Ralph- don't know about out your way with the temperatures you have but here in the northern Shenandoah valley of va- when you need to zap henbit and chickweed is march and 2-4 d just does not seem to work then. I had it so bad in orchard grass 4 years ago it almost choked it out-finally have control of it now by doing fall pre-emptive spraying with chapperell or similar products-guess that would not work too well on alfalfa.

Back in the day, we used banvel on wheat yield plots to control henbit applied in feb and march. Not sure what that would do to alfalfa in dormancy-local coop does not use that now on hay- may be off label.


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Have not noticed chickweed too bad but henbit and purple deadnettle is pretty bad. I have not had any luck controlling these with 2,4d....I tried weedmaster which is a mix of 2,4d and dicamba and it did okay but not great. I have thought about trying just dicamba. This is in orchard, timothy and also in one of my winter oat fields.


----------



## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

FC-look at Peak for the oats. Labeled for wheat-coop says they mix it with roundup pre-plant but I was also told several years ago when I had cw and hb in timothy that peak was the trick, just wasn't labeled for it. Was told by unidentified folks to broadcast a bag of oats on it and they could use peak on the oats and oh, well if it worked on the timothy, that was a plus! Best control on winter annuals is in the fall mid oct when there is a small plant but it gets it since they are actively growing and small. Gave up entirely on spring spraying for that stuff-waste of money.


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Looked up the label for Peak and it won't work because there is a 10 month waiting period before you can plant soybeans or forage grasses. If I can possibly persuade someone to combine for me next year after the oat hay is made I will plant soybeans....if not I will be planting into orchard grass next September.

Spraying in the fall on would not have helped me as it was November before I planted the oats and the henbit has come up since then. I did spray my orchard grass in October with weedmaster but there is a lot come up since then....seems like most of it doesn't start germinating until later on in November here.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

rjmoses said:


> Two years ago, I had chickweed so bad in one alfalfa field, that it smothered the first cutting out.
> 
> I kept waiting and waiting for the alfalfa to come out, never did.
> 
> ...


Ralph yes 24,d-B can be used on alfalfa make sure of the b or you got trouble it is better known as Buyrac200 . that being said it wont get henbit and is very weak on chickweed


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

On our alfalfa O/G mix fields that have henbit and chickweed I think I will go with Gramoxone Inteone tank mixed with Prowl H20.. Prowl does suppress some grasses but I will do a February application should be ok, it would be a labeled use


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

FarmerCline said:


> Have not noticed chickweed too bad but henbit and purple deadnettle is pretty bad. I have not had any luck controlling these with 2,4d....I tried weedmaster which is a mix of 2,4d and dicamba and it did okay but not great. I have thought about trying just dicamba. This is in orchard, timothy and also in one of my winter oat fields.


Look at Harmony Extra for your oats.


----------



## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Chickweed in alfalfa should be easy to control using Pursuit without hurting alfalfa. Check the label.


----------



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Lot of guys around encourage henbit and chickweed as a winter cover crop to control erosion. Don't like the idea myself, but.....it's not my ground.

I'm wondering if it would be too late for endrow to spray Sencor?

Ralph


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Bonfire said:


> Look at Harmony Extra for your oats.


 Looked Harmony Extra up....it sounds like it will work for henbit and chickweed control on my oats and it can also be mixed with 2,4d which I still have to use to control the cornflower. I normally spray 2,4d the first of march....I guess that will be the time to use the Harmony Extra also. The way I understood it there was a 7 day wait before grazing and a 30 wait before making hay.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

I tank mix Osprey, HE and a surfactant. I spray after I get a flush of young weeds. Grasses here are as much of a concern as broad leafs.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

I've heard people jokingly call roundup Chickweed in a bottle ;-) Seems like everywhere you use it the first damp cool spell you have you have a bumper crop of Chickweed and Henbit whether it's in the field or around the house.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

FarmerCline said:


> Looked Harmony Extra up....it sounds like it will work for henbit and chickweed control on my oats and it can also be mixed with 2,4d which I still have to use to control the cornflower. I normally spray 2,4d the first of march....I guess that will be the time to use the Harmony Extra also. The way I understood it there was a 7 day wait before grazing and a 30 wait before making hay.


The longer you wait to spray that Henbit, the harder it will be to control.

I'm of the opinion that using 24 d to help control Henbit is not very effective. I do like adding Dicamba to the tank mix.


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Bonfire said:


> The longer you wait to spray that Henbit, the harder it will be to control.
> I'm of the opinion that using 24 d to help control Henbit is not very effective. I do like adding Dicamba to the tank mix.


 Yeah, the 2,4d is to control the cornflower which was not listed as something that Harmony Extra will control. I saw last year 2,4d didn't do much to the chickweed. I'm glad you suggested the Harmony Extra as the place I buy my fertilize and chemicals has not mentioned it as an option.


----------



## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

Harvest it!. We grow a small amount for my wife. She is an herbalist, she dries it and makes a dry skin salve that she sells. Chickweed is the anti-itch ingredient. Her stuff even clears up eczema.

Anyone still flame their fields for weeds. We have a couple of old school farmers in our area that still have a flame rig.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Someone told me the neighbor just did a hundred acres dry fertilizer impregnated with Sencor, When is it too late for Sencor


----------

