When to spray out weeds in a newly sown grass ley?

[borderterribles]

Is it possible/advisable to spray out weeds before the Winter, in a newly established grass ley?
The grass, mainly Festuloliums, has come very well, but so has quite a bit of Crane'sbill, Nettles and Docks.
The field will be grazed with tack ewes this Winter anyway, and my normal practice would be to spray the weeds out in the Spring. Thoughts? TIA.

 

[DrDunc]

The weeds need to be actively growing, and often at a particular growth stage, for sprays to be effective.

 

[EJS]

I have sprayed out nettles and docks etc using knapsack and Grazon or Pastor in new leys at this time of year pretty successful as long as still quite mild. New leys need to be grown on a bit, normally 2 or 3", haven't boomed a field though.

 

[borderterribles]

I normally use Pastor, in the Spring. It is well grown, having been drilled at the end of August, but at 15 acres , I won't be knapsacking it.
Thanks for replies.

 

[simmy_bull]

fella I work for sprays grass sown after winter barley with cmpp as soon as the grass is strong enough to stand it always seams to do the trick as leys are clean as a whistle for two years then under the plough again. sorry don't know the name of any particular product just know spray man said that was the active ingridient

 

[Samcowman]

We will spray in the spring the leys we have put in this autumn. The field we put in early summer we cut for silage last week which will hit the weeds that were in there and that field will get a spray in the spring along with the others which were planted in September.

 

[benferg]

if there's clover in the paddock look at spraying after they have 3 trifoliate leaves out.

the younger the weeds are the easier to kill would be my thoughts, it's just the clover & other legumes & herbs that will be the problem not wiping them out.

 

[jimmer]

will the sheep not pick it out and the grass will out compete it
seem to remember this working with cooch grass

 

[borderterribles]

I always leave clover out of my reseed mixtures, preferring to "stitch " some in to the ley AFTER spraying the weeds out.

 

[multi power]

I always leave clover out of my reseed mixtures, preferring to "stitch " some in to the ley AFTER spraying the weeds out.

a reeseed with no clover is about as much use as a tractor with no wheels

 

[borderterribles]

Well, what's the point of including Clover and then spraying it out, or going easy on the weeds to avoid taking out the Clover?
Clover-safe sprays are crap, in my experience!

 

[neilo]

I always leave clover out of my reseed mixtures, preferring to "stitch " some in to the ley AFTER spraying the weeds out.

How successful is the stitching in?

I went to an Aber open day last year, where they had been putting clover in afterwards as you suggest, as they had some major thistle problems they were sorting out. They had gone back to including clover, as they found that half the time, they didn't need to spray after all. Sheep grazing down tight were removing most Blw seedlings.

 

[borderterribles]

I'd have to be honest and say that the stitching in can be a bit hit and miss, in terms of how much Clover I finish up with, in the ley. A lot depends on the ground conditions after its gone in.But having said that, I've found that doing it that
way(even when it doesn't do brilliantly), its better than spraying it out when it has been included in the seed mixture.. When you consider how much killing established Clover takes, when you want to kill it, it doesn't take much killing as a seedling!
I agree that the sheep do a good job in knocking the weeds back, but I don't have any of my own, so have only tack ewes as and when its convenient. The main weed I am up against is Cranesbill, which is unpalateable to most things
and a proper bu**er to get rid of!

 

[multi power]

How successful is the stitching in?

I went to an Aber open day last year, where they had been putting clover in afterwards as you suggest, as they had some major thistle problems they were sorting out. They had gone back to including clover, as they found that half the time, they didn't need to spray after all. Sheep grazing down tight were removing most Blw seedlings.

agree sheep are the best thing to get rid of weeds in a new ley, also very good to help with tillering, in fact its the only usefull thing about sheep
thistles are easy to spot spray