Weed spraying done

Saturday I finally finished spraying all the pastures for weeds.  I'm not sure why but I had more weeds this year than last year, and some pastures were worse than other pastures. I think the very wet June activated old seeds and then the hot and dry July and August allowed the weeds to flourish while the grass went dormant.

The north and middle pastures had more weeds, the other pastures about the same, and less in the hayfield.  Last year I think I had all weeds sprayed in about two weeks.  This year it took me about a month of mostly intensive spraying.

Knapweed and Yarrow were worse.  Other people I talked with thought their knapweed were worse too.

With my late start to spraying some of the weeds had formed seed heads.  But most of my weeds looked to be first year, or second year with a Fall 2013 start and, outside of knapweed, many of those weren't mature enough to form seeds.  I went around with a clipper and plastic bag and collected the thistles' seed heads before 98% of them opened and spread.

I started spraying back when it was hot and dry.  This was not a good time to start as the weed metabolism was slow to almost dormant.  In the beginning it would take a week for the weeds to show the effect of spray.  Once it began to rain mid month this August the grass and weeds picked up.  Then I could see the spray's effect within a day or two.  The spray back when it was hot and dry did work as those weeds are dead now.

The NE pasture was the first to be sprayed.  At the end it was the last to be sprayed as I went over it again and caught the weeds I had missed and the new weeds or growth since the rain.  A week after the rain started it appeared that the new Fall weeds had started as I seen a number of what appeared to be starter weeds.

Saturday, having finished my property on Friday, I sprayed the yard of the old couple to my north.  They had mainly knapweed with a fair amount of yarrow.  Even though they mow their yard, the knapweed is persistent in forming flowers for later seed heads and will do so at any height.  With the view from my fence I thought one 4 gallon tank of herbicide would cover their yard.  I ended up spraying almost 5 tanks worth of herbicide. Half of their yard was nothing but weeds and no grass anymore.

While this year was a 'step back' year, overall I am making progress in my war on weeds.  I had to remind myself fighting weeds is a multi-year process.  Seeing all the areas that were way worse in the past helped.

Now on to my other projects put on hold during my war on weeds.