Roadsides and Non-crop Areas:
Perennial Weed Control (Non-crop Land)
Excerpt from 2010-2011 Chapter 18, Publication 75,
Guide to Weed Control, Order
this publication
Introduction
CAUTION: Unless otherwise recommended, do not
use these treatments in crop situations. Avoid using if the chemical is
likely to wash or leach into areas occupied by the roots of desirable
trees or other plants. Follow all precautions to avoid spray drift onto
non target vegetation.
The use of atrazine, simazine, bromacil, or diuron non selectively, as
described, is generally limited by cost to the handling of small patches
of perennial weeds. The chemical either leaches down to the weed root
system or makes the surface soil toxic for a period of time varying from
a few months to several years, depending on the chemical, rate of application
and soil type. Generally, crops cannot be grown successfully until the
effect of the chemical has disappeared. Corn, however, can be grown safely
when high rates of simazine and atrazine are applied.
Some perennial weeds, such as field bindweed, horsetail, goldenrod, milkweed
and bracken fern, are difficult to eradicate at the lower rates of diuron,
simazine, atrazine and bromacil. Follow the manufacturer’s directions
carefully if the area is to be reseeded. The amitrole treatment is of
value in spot treating patches of quackgrass in a field that is not entirely
infested.
While the tops of many perennial weeds may be controlled by doses of 2,4-D
that may be selectively used in resistant crops, heavier doses, as described,
must be used if eradication is to be attempted. Several applications upon
successive stages of regrowth will probably be necessary. Generally, treatments
with 2,4-D during rapid development of the weed at about the early bud
to flowering stages of growth are most effective. Apply spray to thoroughly
wet all foliage.
Heavier doses of 2,4-D on patches of weeds may be applied during normal
selective spraying operations merely by slowing down the sprayer speed
in the infested areas. Expect local crop damage where this is done.
Perennial weeds are more difficult to control than annual weeds because
regrowth occurs rapidly from underground parts after the top growth is
removed by chemical or mechanical means. In non crop land they pose a
special problem because cultivation cannot be used for their control.
Chemicals must kill the root system as well as the above ground parts
to give effective perennial weed control.
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