Must be the time for buttercups. We have had our soil tested and did add some lime but overall it was just a little bit off. It seems like we have had a bloom of buttercups. My pastures are not overgrazed and are rotated often. I just replanted the pastures not in use but the darn buttercups are taking over. How do we kill them w/o killing other grass.
We planted max q fescue with a clover.
if the new growth has not broken the surface you can use 24D…
otherwise, buttercup and sheep sorrel have to be killed when they are less than 3 inches tall (once you see the color it’s too late as they say)…normally mid mar-april to really waste them
Tamara
I used Milestone on my pastures this spring and was amazed at the total kill rate of the buttercups. I have a neighbor with cattle that never does anything about the weeds in his pastures and the buttercups at my place have steadily worsened. I don’t really know if the seed can drift to my place or not but I prefer to blame him rather than my own laziness.
Anyway, I finally broke down and bought a tow behind spray at SC for $259 and a Qt of Milestone, recommended for equine pastures for broadleaf weed control. I added a surfectant as suggested to get better adherence to the leaves and went to town spraying. the buttercups die immediately and the curly dock and other weeds took a few days longer. The grass is fine and it looks like some clover survived.
I was happy with the spray and the width of the spray from the small boom allowed me to get a decent overlap as I crisscrossed each small field on my compact tractor.
chicamuxen
You want to be very careful with Milestone. If used for hay that ends up in compost and perhaps even horse manure, it will stunt and kill vegetable crops (tomatoes and beans particularly) for up to 4 years later. I believe it’s either been pulled off the market in the UK or they are working on it. Just a heads up.
we are not allowed to use poisons on our land here in green green lalaland. I spent the weekend digging buttercups out from under all my fruit trees. Nasty things. They are in the burn pile now. a tractor bucket full. And my arms shoulder and back are sore.
I’m planning to buy a tow-behind sprayer this weekend and start attacking them. We have a product the name of which is eluding me but it’s a broadleaf herbicide and the horses can go back out after a couple of days. I can’t imagine they will eat dead buttercups when they don’t even eat live ones, but I’m wondering what I’ll do to get rid of the debris. We are going to experiment, starting with a small area.
Tamara, when the buttercups are 3 inches tall or less, our pastures are apt to be under 3 inches of water or more! At least that’s the way it has been the last couple of years with flooding and lingering groundwater. The buttercups are now knee-high and flowering but I can’t believe it wouldn’t help to do SOMETHING. Again, as I said, we’ll experiment. Spray, toss down some lime, leave the pasture for 2-3 weeks?
I’ve had Crossbow suggested…
Hubby sprayed our 4 acre pasture (by hand, poor guy!) with 2-4-D this spring and we’ve had great results. This was after the buttercups had already bloomed. They are now completely gone, and the grass does not seem to have suffered (it’s suffering from drought, but that’s another story).
I’ll see if I can get him over here to post his method. I don’t know if he was spraying just the tops, or the roots, or what.
Crossbow will work, sort of. In the land of permanent wet (PNW), buttercups are a perpetual nemesis. Round up kind of makes them (and daisies) look a little peculiar for a few days, then they perk back up. I haven’t found anything that will really kill the little bass-turds.
Mr. CC is hoping for a 2-3 day stretch of dry weather (ha!) so he can spray the daisies, bcup and blackberries all in one go. He uses Crossbow and a surfactant, plus a dye, so he can see where he’s been.
[quote=tucktaway;5623436]I’ve had Crossbow suggested…
[/quote]
That would be the name that was eluding me!
Buttercups have taken over my horses’ paddock too. Any suggestions for non-toxic/safe ways to get rid of them? I only have the one paddock, so I can’t use anything that might be toxic to the horses. I started pulling them up in the top half of the paddock where they are more sparse, but the bottom half is pretty much covered and it seems pretty futile…
WOW, I was just going to post the same question. They sure are pretty, I’ve never seen so much yellow in my fields. I don’t want to use anything toxic to the horses, but they sure can’t be allowed to just continue to grow and thrive. This is the wettest spring on record here by far, so bumper crops of weeds and bugs for sure.
I have the same problem - when they’re less than 3", my fields are waaaay too wet to get into. So how do we kill them after they are tall and taking over??
[QUOTE=Calvincrowe;5623481]
Crossbow will work, sort of. In the land of permanent wet (PNW), buttercups are a perpetual nemesis. Round up kind of makes them (and daisies) look a little peculiar for a few days, then they perk back up. I haven’t found anything that will really kill the little bass-turds.
Mr. CC is hoping for a 2-3 day stretch of dry weather (ha!) so he can spray the daisies, bcup and blackberries all in one go. He uses Crossbow and a surfactant, plus a dye, so he can see where he’s been.[/QUOTE]
I would love to know how to get rid of blackberries! It has to be non-toxic to horses though because I dont have anywhere to keep my gelding other than his paddock right now. I tried Round-up that said it was for blackberries. They just laughed.
Last I looked (it’s been a couple decades) Buttercups were indicator plants.
You might to best by having a soil sample done, maybe airate the pasture/paddock.
As I recall (I could be wrong on that) Buttercups like a somewhat sour dense soil.
ChickenBritches-
A non-toxic way to kill blackberries, would be goats, applied repeatedly, combined with human and clippers.
We’ve safely used Crossbow and a spreader/sticker (helps keep herbicide on leaves for better uptake) in pastures/paddocks. Horses off for a few days is safest. It kills blackberries very effectively. Seriously, they require heavyduty killer. They spread by suckering and by seed. They are spawn of the devil.
Blackberries: mow regularly. The good thing is that the horses will eat them when they are young and tender. Goats are even better, but then you have goats. I’d rather have blackberries.
at least blackberries are good to eat! nASty buttercups have no such redeeming feature.
The best cure for blackberries is a bulldozer and a burn pile. That may go for buttercups too. spent another morning diggingthem out- this time from the rose garden adn potato patch. That would be two tractor buckets full now.
This is a slight detour; I hope someone is still reading! In the last several points I’ve seen three things listed as having been put in with the herbicide:
I’m wondering if (1) and (3) are similar? I can see why something to stick the herbicide to the leaves and stems might be needed for blackberries… they are TOUGH! But what about buttercups – and if you think any of these things would be good for the war on buttercups, can you please explain what you used and how?
Same with the dye – sounds like a great idea but what sort of dye? RIT, lol? Food coloring? Something specifically made for this purpose?
Thanks again.
[QUOTE=JoZ;5623393]
I’m planning to buy a tow-behind sprayer this weekend and start attacking them. We have a product the name of which is eluding me but it’s a broadleaf herbicide and the horses can go back out after a couple of days. I can’t imagine they will eat dead buttercups when they don’t even eat live ones, but I’m wondering what I’ll do to get rid of the debris. We are going to experiment, starting with a small area.
Tamara, when the buttercups are 3 inches tall or less, our pastures are apt to be under 3 inches of water or more! At least that’s the way it has been the last couple of years with flooding and lingering groundwater. The buttercups are now knee-high and flowering but I can’t believe it wouldn’t help to do SOMETHING. Again, as I said, we’ll experiment. Spray, toss down some lime, leave the pasture for 2-3 weeks?[/QUOTE]
yeah, I want to mow mine, but I can’t even get the tractor in yet, it would sink… I’ve tried spreading fireplace ash and I think it helps, but I still have plenty. I asked the extension agent how to get rid of it and he said “move”
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