Essential Products for Cool Weather Herbicide Applications
Up here in my neck of the woods, technically it might be the armpit of the woods (geographically speaking), but I digress. Anyhow, around here in the Midwest, many of us will be spraying later than usual this season, which means there will be considerably more cool weather herbicide applications than in a typical fall.
Because of these conditions, we may have to rely more on esters to get the job done. Some great choices are Cool Power, 4-Speed XT, SpeedZone, and even Escalade which is a hybrid amine/ester formulation. Others will choose to spike a three-way type herbicide with an ester like Triclopyr 4, Boulder 6.3, or Fred Sanford’s sister-in-law. Just seeing if you’re paying attention, but she is an “Esther” too.
You can also add Foliar-Pak Foundation Forty, which is an amino acid package that affects guard cells and allows the weed’s stomata to open. Adding this will result in increased uptake of herbicides and fungicides. That is a lot of mumbo-jumbo terminology that really means super deader weeds more faster! It pained me to write that last sentence, by the way.
Increased water volume has a benefit overall, especially now. The winter annual broadleaf weeds like hairy bittercress, black medic, and speedwell are already here. They are taking hold in the newly-formed thinned areas and bare spots left behind from the tough summer. These weeds are still very young and small so getting herbicide to them is not always easy.
However, using higher volumes will help get the herbicides down into the canopy and onto the target more effectively. How much volume? The simple answer is as much as you can stand, within reason. At any rate, we can continue to treat for weeds deep into the fall as long as we change our tactics. Bottom line is we should spray them now so we won’t have to deal with the angry phone calls next spring once they start to flower.
Contact your local sales rep to start tackling the problem of broadleaf weeds now so you won’t have a headache this spring!
Aaron Bucci
Sales Manager
