This is one of the more common questions lots of people ask……
Question: I'm trying to avoid spraying the whole fields. What has been your experience with planting and not spraying first?
Answer….It can be done a couple of ways. For anyone just starting out this process I would suggest just to go ahead and spray so that this variable doesn’t screw you up on your first runs….As you become more comfortable and start seeing the whole picture better then that’s when I’d try and take the step to cut out spraying if you choose to do so.
That being said…..when you do get ready…..Being able to plant without spraying with depend on a couple of things…..
1) It will require you to be patient when fall rolls around and not run out and plant too early. You need to hold off just a little bit and rotate your fall cycle with the natural cycle that occur. Depending on your location north to south that will be mid to late Sept through October or even later if you choose....you can plant into November and many farmers do wait to plant cover crops…..I’d rather be a week late than a week early but you plant when moisture is coming once your within that planting window…..Waiting until the natural time to cycle allows all the summer stuff time to fully run its course and start dying….If you jump in there too early your gonna be fighting fully grown plants with fully established root systems…..Hard for lil seedling to compete with that. If you wait though..... the summer vegetations life cycle will be over and it will be taking its final breaths as new life emerges....your seedlings
2) The species of plants growing in your field is gonna play a big role in this as well. If all you have is annual summer broadleafs and the like….Those things run an annual cycle that grows a new plant from seed each year….it produces offspring at the end….dies... and new growth comes back from seed the next year…..All of those are finished at the end of summer beginning of fall….. ….If thoe plants make up the majority of your species composition then you'll likely be fine to plant without spraying if you just wait and plant at the right time.....Some of the plants that WILL be likely to give you issues are nutsedge, bahai grass, Bermuda……Those have been the ones I’ve dealt with but there’s likely others…..You'll see which plants try to bounce back in your particular situation once you do it a time or to...ITs likely to be your grass species or whatever the hell nutsedge is considered....i forget.... The more of these species that are present though…..the more you’ll want to spray ……If its just a small smattering of them then you can get by without it if you can live without things being pristine clean. As you manage for better soil long term these type plants won’t be so abundant.
Like I said in the beginning though…..if your just starting out then make it easier on yourself and go ahead and spray ahead of time and just eliminate the possibility of this being an issue for you in the beginning.....Concentrate on recognizing some of the other important variable first like soil surface condition and biomass management
