HELP Needed "Buttercup Infestation"

[GAM]

Invested with Buttercups, now that they have flowered what is the best method now to control them? I am going to cut the field and clear the grass off.
When do I need to spray, or what's the next thing to do?

 

[oilymuck]

Lime

 

[toquark]

There was a thread on this the other day. Buttercups usually indicate acid soil, get the pH up and slarry it with muck.

MCPA is cheap and will kill off the buttercups.

 

[Exfarmer]

There was a thread on this the other day. Buttercups usually indicate acid soil, get the pH up and slarry it with muck.

MCPA is cheap and will kill off the buttercups.

It is an old wives tale that buttercups only thrive in acid soil, they do perfectly well in both, they also like high fertility

 

[ollie989898]

I would probably go with envy but wait some time for the sward to recover from topping/mowing before applying.

Big infestations will not be controlled by a single application. Use envy first and then full rate MCPA for any survivors.

 

[Bury the Trash]

There was a thread on this the other day. Buttercups usually indicate acid soil, get the pH up and slarry it with muck.

MCPA is cheap and will kill off the buttercups.

MCPA wont kill buttercups.

 

[toquark]

MCPA wont kill buttercups.

I have (had) 6ac acres of them that would beg to differ

 

[Bury the Trash]

I have (had) 6ac acres of them that would beg to differ

Cosmetically maybe. or some other factor involved

Established Creeping Buttercups have stolons that need to be exhausted/killed totally else they will pop up new plants/restart old ones and the herbicdes that ive found over the years to properly wipe it out is glyphosate , Fluroxpyr (and florasulam) and Aminopyralid because they translocated to/through them roots .
whereas Mcpa is just a hormone herbicide that kids/speeds up the plant into running to seed and naturally senescing

 

[ollie989898]

I have never found fluroxypyr does much to buttercups.


Forefront is hellish expensive and has several peculiar restrictions on it's use. For buttercup alone I personally would not use it.

Full rate MCPA I would say is 'good'. Full rate 2,4D would not be far behind it.


ALL grassland products require good growing conditions for their use and steady spraying with decent water volumes. I have always found adjuvants useful, particularly when using stuff like forefront in close proximity to people's gardens where drift is a very real concern.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I have never found fluroxypyr does much to buttercups

i have found It does mixed with aminopyralid.
but like you say not really good to use, pity all the really effective ones cause extra curricular issues

and Mcpa wont kill creeping buttercup.

 

[toquark]

Cosmetically maybe. or some other factor involved

The field was limed twice and mucked several times so I’d like to think that that might have had something to do with it

 

[Old apprentice]

Plenty of fert will shift buttercups usually lack of fertility.

 

[Boohoo]

Hard to beat Envy for buttercup. I used it the year it was launched after failing to control buttercup in one field with MCPA, 2-4D, then the two mixed.

 

[Bury the Trash]

The field was limed twice and mucked several times so I’d like to think that that might have had something to do with it

Thats good then.
last season /12months ago i sprayed a particular field with straight MCPA to desiccate spear thistles which were rife it took them out nicely in their particular growth stage but it hit the W.clover really hard ,just walked across it now letting some ewes out and the clover has come back to a degree but not as thick (yet) as it was and pretty similar to that with the creeping buttercup i note. its had no other treatments like yrs tho, just sheep grazing there.

yrs ago we used to spray pony paddocks which tend to be rife with CB and the best thing we found back then was Forefront herbicide, unless it was a restart with Glyphosate as that starting point .

A suitable adjuvant/wetter in the mix can help mind you .

 

[Exfarmer]

Have killed hundreds of acres permmanently with MCPA, but it must be done at flowering too often it is put on too soon

 

[Bury the Trash]

Mcpa label ...

Thats in a cornfield

beyond being only moderately susceptible .....supressed only top growth usually killed ....well what that means is if its well established and theres a good lot of stolons .....then like Arnie " it will be back"

 

[Sharpy]

Mcpa label ...

View attachment 1039581
Thats in a cornfield View attachment 1039582
beyond being only moderately susceptible .....supressed only top growth usually killed ....well what that means is if its well established and theres a good lot of stolons .....then like Arnie " it will be back"

View attachment 1039583

Strange, I have had great results with mcpa 24d mix.

 

[ollie989898]

Strange, I have had great results with mcpa 24d mix.

The trick of it is to sting the buttercup/weeds back hard and the grass will smother them out. Obviously this won't work if the field is bare, gappy or impoverished.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Strange, I have had great results with mcpa 24d mix.

nothing strange about that ,it was a label recommendation from 750g/l of Straight MCPA


Could have just used the 24d and still had "great results"

 

[Exfarmer]

I think buttercup is a plant which puts all its energy into the upper plant so hitting it at flowering is when it is most susceptible. You will never catch it at this stage in a cereal crop