I had asked some herbicide questions on here earlier in the year; can't find the thread now. My question was regarding the yellow nutsedge I have growing in my chufa patches and how to get rid of it. Turfgrass told me to get halosulfuron to spray on a field where I was growing RR corn to try and keep the nutsedge killed for a year. Its been an interesting experiment.
First, I found that gly won't bother yellow nutsedge at all. I tried 2 quarts an acre, then 4, and it thrived. I had found a place that had halosulfuron, but 10 oz cost $380 and I was to cheap to buy it. I finally decided I had to.
After only 2" of rain the first 60 days, I thought the chufa crop was doomed, but it suddenly started raining and they have recovered very well. And I want to say thanks to all the posters on here that have helped me develop a spray program that will keep them free of weeds. After years of experimenting with all sorts of stuff, I believe I have a mix that will work. I spray one acre with 25 gallons of water in an atv sprayer. In that tank I put 1 pint of 2,4-DB, one ounce of Milestone, 3/4 ounce of Aim, 1/2 ounce of Escort, 10 oz of Clethodim,and either crop oil or Top Surf for a surfactant.I think I will use some of both in the future. This may not be ideal, but here is the result:
This is a field where I have battled sicklepod, crabgrass, ground cherry and all sorts of other stuff, but there is nothing of significance growing in it now except nutsedges. Here's a pic of 3 different sedges:
The closest plant that is bunching up is chufa; that is yellow nutsedge behind it. The chufa turns into clumps as it get older, but the yellow nutsedge sends up single stems that are close together. Its hard to tell them apart when young, but easy now. And there is another sedge that is smaller in this pic; I think it is purple nutsedge but I'm not sure. It doesn't compete much with the chufa and gly will kill it. There were several big clumps of yellow nutsedge in this field, so I used the halo on them:
I used the hand sprayer on these 3 weeks ago and its killed the tops. I've no idea if they will come back. Not sure what I ought to do at this point. The chufas will have made what they are gonna make in about 3 weeks, but the yellow nutsedge will thrive until frost. I was thinking I might wait a few weeks and hit it again. All of my fields have yellow nutsedge growing in patches, and one field is almost taken over by it.
So I have finally figured out the herbicides to grow chufas, and now yellow nutsedge is taking over. Its always something. Hope this is of some benefit to the chufa growers out there, and thanks again to all that have helped me.
