Fighting weeds in a new hay field that used to be corn

[moparguy55]

It does look better after a mowing doesn’t it? Good.

For your corn. For next year I guess:

Corn shoots out of the ground and grows about ankle high. 4 leaves or so showing. Then it sits still for a couple weeks. Actually it is feeding its root system and growing bigger roots. Then it takes off and grows crazy, several inches a day. It uses that big root it developed to collect the nutrients to grow rapidly.

The trouble is weeds don’t take that same 2 week break and stop growing. They take advantage and grow over the corn.

When weeds start shading corn at this root growth stage, the corn panics. It abandons its root growing and tries to keep up and grow ahead of the weeds. But now, even if it does outgrow the weeds, or if you come along and destroy the weeds, the corn is all messed up. It does not have the root system it needs, but the longer sunlight days are telling its time to grow tall and set an ear and tassel. But… there is no root system to make that happen, and no time for the corn to start over.

So…. The most crucial time to control weeds in corn is when about 3 leaves are showing on the plant, until about 5 leaves are showing. The corn must not have competition from surrounding weeds. Period. It needs to devote its attention to building roots.

More than you wanted to know, but it is something many first time corn growers don’t realize.

Paul

Much appreciated paul im soakijg it up like a sponge lol.

Where the garden is 1 acre about. If i want to spray it , that needs to be done before and cultivating is done right ? What kind of herbicide is usally sprayed on a food crop?

 

[Wdj]

It does look better after a mowing doesn’t it? Good.

For your corn. For next year I guess:

Corn shoots out of the ground and grows about ankle high. 4 leaves or so showing. Then it sits still for a couple weeks. Actually it is feeding its root system and growing bigger roots. Then it takes off and grows crazy, several inches a day. It uses that big root it developed to collect the nutrients to grow rapidly.

The trouble is weeds don’t take that same 2 week break and stop growing. They take advantage and grow over the corn.

When weeds start shading corn at this root growth stage, the corn panics. It abandons its root growing and tries to keep up and grow ahead of the weeds. But now, even if it does outgrow the weeds, or if you come along and destroy the weeds, the corn is all messed up. It does not have the root system it needs, but the longer sunlight days are telling its time to grow tall and set an ear and tassel. But… there is no root system to make that happen, and no time for the corn to start over.

So…. The most crucial time to control weeds in corn is when about 3 leaves are showing on the plant, until about 5 leaves are showing. The corn must not have competition from surrounding weeds. Period. It needs to devote its attention to building roots.

More than you wanted to know, but it is something many first time corn growers don’t realize.

Paul

Thanks. I learned something today .

 

[tom upton]

It does look better after a mowing doesn’t it? Good.

For your corn. For next year I guess:

Corn shoots out of the ground and grows about ankle high. 4 leaves or so showing. Then it sits still for a couple weeks. Actually it is feeding its root system and growing bigger roots. Then it takes off and grows crazy, several inches a day. It uses that big root it developed to collect the nutrients to grow rapidly.

The trouble is weeds don’t take that same 2 week break and stop growing. They take advantage and grow over the corn.

When weeds start shading corn at this root growth stage, the corn panics. It abandons its root growing and tries to keep up and grow ahead of the weeds. But now, even if it does outgrow the weeds, or if you come along and destroy the weeds, the corn is all messed up. It does not have the root system it needs, but the longer sunlight days are telling its time to grow tall and set an ear and tassel. But… there is no root system to make that happen, and no time for the corn to start over.

So…. The most crucial time to control weeds in corn is when about 3 leaves are showing on the plant, until about 5 leaves are showing. The corn must not have competition from surrounding weeds. Period. It needs to devote its attention to building roots.

More than you wanted to know, but it is something many first time corn growers don’t realize.

Paul

You reminded me of a time getting close to 60 years ago when we scuffled corn almost continuosly. Dad always said "if you can see the weeds you should have been at it sooner. scuffling the first time over was a long tedious job as you had to go pretty slow not to bury the corn. Often it would lull you to sleep watching those rows pass under the tractor. ( Dont ask how I know!)

 

[moparguy55]

Clover doing well but the damn ragweed started to bud again. Clover is probably 8 inchs high now.

Wondeting when is best to weed spray it ? Clip it again in a few weeks then hit it? Or wait till spring and spray then? Or even sprsy it ince this year and again in spring ?

 

[moparguy55]

Seeds popping out

 

[flying belgian]

Clover doing well but the damn ragweed started to bud again. Clover is probably 8 inchs high now.

Wondeting when is best to weed spray it ? Clip it again in a few weeks then hit it? Or wait till spring and spray then? Or even sprsy it ince this year and again in spring ?

I would mow it right now. Bale it up. No spraying necessary.

 

[Handsome Devil]

It is real easy to obsess over weeds. Unless your a real farmer who is depending on milk production, I might just keep mowing it. Not like your yard, but eventually the field will take care of itself. I had same thing happen when I bought my farm years ago. By the time we closed on the farm, the weeds had a very good hold on my worked fields. I mowed them down, disced that field and planted the next spring oats and corn. Had a serious drought going on {1988}. Spraying depended on some rain and we didn't get any period that summer the only thing that did well was thistles. My corn was an embarrassment, the spray about killed it without rain and the weeds were abundant to say the least. Tried to cultivate it but without rain it was a lost cause. My oats looked real good in the beginning but some of the "Atrazine" left from previous renter hurt the oats along with no rain. Weeds came up and I lost 20-25 acres as what oats I got heated up and got moldy. Oh ya farming is a lot of fun and there are multitudes of lessons to learn. Ah yes the good old days. But my point is if you keep mowing a few times your field will level out and not be so bad. Letting the weeks go to seed was a mistake that I paid for over and over. I really planted weeds but thought I was planting oats, pasture mix and corn. One of the harder lessons I created for myself. Good luck.

 

[da.bees]

I've always done like flying belgian says and sold it to someone looking for cheap hay. If you want clover you aren't going to get suitable result with spraying. On the other hand a good stand of Arrow Leaf Clover can choke out early weeds and make a good cutting of hay in time to allow Summer grass to grow. After baling the field looks bad as result of me intentionally leaving clover plants here and there to produce seed. Clover produces hard seed that germinate over following 1-5 years. You don't need much nitrogen but need to put down phosphors to keep clover healthy.

 

[560Dennis]

Plowing turns up dormant weeds seed . Going to take several seasons to correct unfortunately .

 

[Ray,IN]

A few years ago I suddenly got a great stand of Goldenrod in a hay field. I chopped it up with my bush hog, then drove my ZTR mower there and mowed it again and again, until cold weather set in. The next year what Goldenrod that sprouted from the spreading root system was puny. I mowed it again with my ZTR that summer. That ended my infestation of Goldenrod.
Mowing does work if you keep after it, as others have already said.

 

[trackrat]

24d will kill clover

 

[flying belgian]

I'm glad this came up again. I had forgotten about it. How did it turn out?

 

[Destroked 450]

24D will kill a newly established clover crop, it will stunt a well established clover crop but not kill it
That’s been my experience with ladino clover, I got tired of reseeding red clover every couple of years and haven’t raised sweet clover in a long time

 

[moparguy55]

I hate it when i come across threads or topics with no outcome. So last year i cut it twice or maybe even 3 times i forget now. The last time i cut it was juat as much ragweed as the 1st time and pigweed.

So this spring i saw the green start in april. I said ah hell weeds starting already but noticed where i hadn't seeded was still just brown.

I didnt pick up what i mowed last year just bush hogged and left. I assumed was gonna have to spray it this year or plow and atsrt over.

To my suprise it was clover. Its been growing strong. Not looks like some timothy is sprouting out. Didnt see any ragweed!! A couple yellow pig weeds popped up but not much.

Looking to sell it standing.
1st pic is from today and 2nd was a week ago another section.

 

[paul]

That looks nice!

Clover is kind of a hard sell here, when dried it ends up not so much per acr as well some buyers and some species don’t like it very much.

The grass tends to really multiply about year 3 it seems.

Good luck with it, looks like you did a great job.

If you need to hit some weedy spots, there is that one old school spray that doesn’t harm grasses or clovers and alfalfas, it is a relative of 24d but a little weaker. It has so many generic names, I can’t think of them right now…. Smacking my forehead.

Paul

 

[560Dennis]

Thanks for feed back on the fields