DuckSouth.com

duckkiller wrote:DR2 correct me if I am wrong but for MSMA to work properly doesnt the air temp need to be in the 80's?

That's what I thought...

Double R 2 wrote:

cbath wrote:You can spray MSMA on bermuda just about any time and it will only kill the weeds.

Yep. Wait till it warms up a little more.

My father in law always says at least 80-85 degrees. It does seem to work faster the hotter it is. These are not educated answers just what seems to work the best.

I'm in the process of learning about all this right now(golf course management) but we havent got that deep into it yet. However I remember all my old boss's telling me the nights had to warm up before we could spray it, b/c the air temps needed to be in the middle to high 80's for it to be effective. Other wise we were just pissing away $$$$$ as one of them put it

round up won't kill bermuda IF you don't soak it down.. it'll burn it a little but not kill it.. get you some gramoxone (sp?) to kill the weeds and some atrizine(sp?) to keep them from coming back ..

You can put out Gramoxxone and pendimethalin (Prowl, Pendimax) just before sod or desired grass breaks dormancy, will kill all winter weeds and keep most of them from coming up in early to mid summer. Roundup is fine right now, won't hurt bermuda at all, it is dormant. Once it hits the ground, it has no more activity. Pendimethalin has soil activity, but not many restrictions. It is YELLOW and will stain everything.

If you desire a bermuda lawn, MSMA is pretty good and reasonably priced. The bureau of plant industry told me that it would be 2 more years before MSMA would be finished, then they would have to sell all the reserves in stock. Great product in warmer temps. Basically used for taking crab and dallis grass out of bermuda grass lawns. Don't be scared of it. If used properly, it will ding your yard up to a nice yellow hue. You haven't killed your lawn. Wait a few days and pour the water to it. 14 days after first application, do it again. This will kill all the weeds that you dinged up but did not kill the first time. If you have certain weeds that are troublesome in your yard, there are other things you can add, but this will give you a pretty bermuda/zoysia lawn. Centipede and St. Augustine are a different matter.

There are much more expensive products that do a better job or kill more weeds, but a yard is just not worth that kind of money. Golf courses on the other hand are. But buying a 2.5 gallon jug of something that costs 250 dollars/gal (turfgrass labeled) only to use a few ounces on your yard doesn't add up. You'd have to live to be 250 years old to use it all, and that is if you kept it from going bad over the years. I have heard of Roundup being used the same way MSMA is used, and then pouring the water to it afterwards would work just as good, but never done it myself. I use a hose end sprayer on most of my yard for simplicity. If you have something bigger and use a boom, it has to be CALIBRATED.

Fertilize your yard regularly as well as lime in the fall. 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000 square feet per month is recommended rate. If you are in the hills of MS, most lawns need serious potash and lime. Put plenty of lime and 0-0-60 and your yard will thank you for it...next year. Won't see much from it this year. But the nitrogen will help some. Plain ole ammonium nitrate will do fine for your nitrogen needs, but watering it in will help more.

MSMA has arsenic in it and causes cancer, but that is not the real reason it is going off the market. There are no chemical companies that want to pick it up and carry it through re-registration. Very expensive process. My suggestion, stock up now, keep in cool (but not cold)dry place. Will last a while.

I prefer spraying prowl for the weeds. MSMA needs warmer weather to work well. If you do use prowl get the prowl H2O. The yellow stain can be washed away.

If you spray now your only killing winter weeds but if you want to kill them, 24d or spectricide/weedbe gone is what you want to spray. 24d is the active ingredient in all that stuff. You are close to the time for weed and feed(Scotts and other make this product and you can gat it at lowe's etc.) which is a preemerge and fertilizer mix. Getting a good yard in the summer helps choke out weeds. MSMA sprayd in the summer will kill weeds just wait 2 weeks between application. They have quit making it but you can still buy it til they run out. I'm sure they will come out with something else but for bermuda it works great. just follow directions cause you can burn your bermuda.

Thanks for the info guys I've got about 5 acres of bermuda around my house that I'm gonna try to get under control with the weeds this year, Jelly you need to bring yo butt out to my house and drink a cold one with me and we can discuss all of this yard work that has to be done.

You can spray MSMA on bermuda just about any time and it will only kill the weeds.

MSMA is off the market, but if you can find it dont waste it now. It only works when the daily ave. temp is 80 or above. The hotter the better.

ive got a small lawn business and we spray simazine and 24d in early march then use msma in the summer when the nights dont get below the 70's.

Don't waste your time and effort. Pay Tru-Green $43 seven times a year and be done with it. They started on mine in the spring and I only get the occasional small clump of weeds. They treat it for bugs, fertilize it, and kill the weeds. Summer before last I tried to do all that myself and had weeds galore early spring of this year. Wasted a couple hundred in chemicals and fertilizer so I just called Tru-Green. My neighbor and I both use them and we are the only ones who have almost zero weeds and a healthy lawn.

Duck Nawteek wrote:Thanks for the info guys I've got about 5 acres of bermuda around my house that I'm gonna try to get under control with the weeds this year, Jelly you need to bring yo butt out to my house and drink a cold one with me and we can discuss all of this yard work that has to be done.

Nawteeek, I got a 25 gallon spray rig on my mule and can hook you up. Just holla if you need it..

I use 2-4D in the winter. A good rule of thumb on the MSMA, is wait untill the air temp of day and night added together is at least 150. I actually don't use "MSMA" its called Weed Hoe. It is about $17.00 a gallon at the local feed supply. Bermuda will also grow like crazy in loose sand. If you want to spend the $$ to top-coat your yard with a white sand, your grass will spread fast with only a little watering.

will 2-4d kill johnson grass? that stuff is taking over my back yard

What about for weeds in St. Augustine?