Best spray for ragwort in grass

[Ed590]

Evening everyone, we are looking at spraying a couple of fields of established grassland that have a fair bit of ragwort in them, as it’s still growing well we were hoping to hit it now and then again in the spring to try and get rid of it.
What chemicals are best?
I’m pretty sure the last time we did it was with Grazon?
Thanks in advance

 

[neilo]

Pretty sure Grazon is the only commonly available chem with a label rec for ragwort. I would think it would be a waste of money spraying it in mid-November though. Leave it until it’s actively growing in the Spring, or stick a bunch of store lambs on it perhaps?

 

[ollie989898]

You aren't going to kill anything in grassland any sense now. It will be half asleep. Leave it well alone. You shouldn't be spraying clopyralid this late either, it is ending up in watercourses recently.

Forefront will do ragwort, as will a stiff dose of 2,4D (and Dicamba together, Ideally), so think along the lines of Nufarm's Thrust.

None of this (from memory at least) is licensed for knapsack use mind.

 

[mushnt grummmble]

Hit it cheap n cheerful now and in the spring

 

[rjchapma]

I think Thrust is OK for knapsack use. And from memory if sprayed as per the timing on the label it's reasonably effective.

 

[bruce9001]

We done alot of our glens this year with Grazon in the spring and since then it has NOT Yet resurfaced!

 

[DrDunc]

Sheep

Graze hard in the spring so they eat the crown

Sell the woollies in the autumn before they realise they're poisoned

 

[Pan mixer]

Don't forget that ragwort is biennial so you have to do it at least 2 years, usually 3.

 

[Brisel]

2,4 D now. Forefront is pricey so I'd wait until spring when growth is faster to get the most out of it.

 

[Goweresque]

Be careful- a lot of chems will burn ragwort off for a season, but not kill it properly, and it comes back. As @Pan mixer says, ragwort is biennial - when its in the rosette stage you can kill it with 2,4D/MCPA, but once it gets to the 2nd year and the seed head stage, most chemicals will just stunt the growth, prevent it flowering for a season, then it resumes growing and comes back the next year (sometimes flowering again later the same year). As you'll have a mix of plants in both growth stages at any given point, its very hard to spray once and clear it up entirely.

Sadly you've probably missed the best shot, which would have been a dose earlier in the autumn, then a second one in the spring.

Forefront T is probably the best anti ragwort spray but it is dear (£30/acre) and its only licenced for grazing land, not forage grassland.

Edit: the best way of getting rid of ragwort is still pulling it by hand............there's no magic bullet.

 

[ollie989898]

It is way too late for hormones to work on persistent weeds like ragwort! It is not warm enough either. Go and pee on them instead, at least it will be free.