Cotton versus Herbicide Question

[Howard H.]

Hi All -

Dad has some cotton that looks like it got stung by 2-4-D. Three fields about 7 miles apart all seem to have gotten hit at the same time with about the same dosage.

Some crop consultant from down on the South Texas Plains was up here giving a talk a couple of years ago and said 2-4-D could drift and damage cotton as much as 20 miles. We sort of laughed at that at the time, but now are wondering if that might have been true...

Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge or experience one way or another how far 2-4-D might drift and ding up a crop??


Thanks,
Howard

 

[Anonymous-0]

Howard, In the old days 24D- Butal-Ester, Yes, just uncork the a bottle of Butal-Ester and someone 20 miles down wind will loose cotton. But inthis day and time 24D-Amine is the norm and it will burn back broad leafs for a 1/4 mile but that is about all.
Remember about 87 when Kautzs planted Soybeans just S. Of Loren Burdge's house on those 2 circles there on Stateline Rd?
County boys came by spraying Amine in the ditches for broad leafs. The S. half of those 2 cirlces were surenough burnt back hard while the N. half of those circles were not hurt very much at all. They shut off the water and declared disaster and got damages from the county and Ins too, so I heard! There are 2 parts to this story and I will relate the rest to you on the phone, Not here where wash can get aired in public. Hollar at me if you like. 512-577-3837 is my cell #.
Later,
John A.

 

[Burnie]

A 20 mile drift would not surprise me at all. Drifts of this type are usually caused by some one spraying in what is known as a temperature inversion. Normally, air tempature will decrease the higher it is above the surface of the earth. However, during periods of hot days and still, cool nights (eg,late summer and early fall) a layer of cold air near the earth's surface will get trapped under a warmer layer. Inversions tend to form in the evening, are strongest around dawn and break down by mid morning. If you drive down a dirt road on a still summer evening you, may see your dust trail just hanging above the road instead of blowing away or falling back to the ground. The dust particles are suspended in the cold dense air and are trapped under the higher warmmer layer. If you are spraying under these conditions, small spray droplets get suspended in the same manner. They can stay this way until the inversion is dispersed by the morning breeze. Because the chemical droplets can be suspended up to 40ft above groundlevel they can be blown a great distance before dropping to the ground. If that ground happens to have cotton growing on it, then you have a bit of a drama on your hands. As we all know, cotton has only got to get a wiff of 24D and it will start to curl up it's toes. Inversions will not form if there is any wind, so that is one of the reasons that you should spray in a slight breeze. 24D hits on cotton is a big problem where I am, nowdays more and more farmers observe a self imposed ban on 24D during the cotton growing season.