Reseed/Spring Barley Quandary

[Arceye]

In a bit of a pickle, I have a field bad with blackgrass so I decided to grass it out last August with a 5 year clover grass mix. It didn't fully germinate until well into October and then at best very patchy. Of course a lot of blackgrass did germinate in half the field and grew readily away. The clover managed to poke through quite late. I did reseed some other ground in November guessing this stuff was going to fail and the new seeds(IRG) grew well so I have a backup plan for forage.

Should I spray off the whole clover ley with 4 or 5 li/ha roundup and drill spring barley with a GD drill?
Should I spray off with a lower roundup rate, kill the grass and hopefully not kill the clover, drill spring barley and maybe the clover will be good enough to leave as a companion to take over once the barley has gone?
My worry is the clover is not robust enough to take the hit of roundup that will be necessary to kill the bg.
If the clover did survive could the spring barley clover mix be used for silage?
Has anyone much experience of clover and spring barley, years ago we used to spring undersow but that also included grass.
Seems like sacrilege to kill clover.
Ian

 

[Bury the Trash]

It would'nt take much to kill that relatively poorly established clover I think you are right...…
…. its the root system that gives clover its resilience towards glyphosate as much as anything.
I would say ….just spray away and drill the barley as and when …..in the absence of an expert opinion

 

[Fuzzy]

In a bit of a pickle, I have a field bad with blackgrass so I decided to grass it out last August with a 5 year clover grass mix. It didn't fully germinate until well into October and then at best very patchy. Of course a lot of blackgrass did germinate in half the field and grew readily away. The clover managed to poke through quite late. I did reseed some other ground in November guessing this stuff was going to fail and the new seeds(IRG) grew well so I have a backup plan for forage.

Should I spray off the whole clover ley with 4 or 5 li/ha roundup and drill spring barley with a GD drill?
Should I spray off with a lower roundup rate, kill the grass and hopefully not kill the clover, drill spring barley and maybe the clover will be good enough to leave as a companion to take over once the barley has gone?
My worry is the clover is not robust enough to take the hit of roundup that will be necessary to kill the bg.
If the clover did survive could the spring barley clover mix be used for silage?
Has anyone much experience of clover and spring barley, years ago we used to spring undersow but that also included grass.
Seems like sacrilege to kill clover.
Ian

Roundup it and start again IMO, then you will take out a good lot of the problem BG, and all being well a nice clean start for the barley.

 

[Arceye]

Yes we had a good look last week, roundup is the only way forward. There are clover patches but also a lot of blw in them so better start again than a p poor crop. It'll cope with a weaving dd since it's not tight.

 

[neilo]

What about spraying off with a lower dose glyphosate, to kill the grasses and maybe leave the clover, then DD a 5 yr grass/clover mix in again?
If the blackgrass is that bad, you won’t have killed much of the seedbank off yet.

 

[Arceye]

This was the field after spraying off with roundup, vast majority was blackgrass. Drilled with GD on 25th March.

 

[Arceye]

20th April 2019

 

[Arceye]

2nd June, rain saved the crop.

 

[Arceye]

Only found one blackgrass plant, suspect there will be more but by and large looking well worth doing. Variety Planet.