Grass problem

[farmerjo]

12 hours ago, renaissanc said:

I assume that people here know that glyphosate is officially now a carcinogen. It is RoundUp's main ingredient. You might like to stop using it.

 

If the fields are covered in weeds, your best solution is to change to 100% organic farming. Chemical farming creates weeds, and using RoundUp creates "super-weeds".

 

You could consider ploughing up the fields with an abundance of compost made with a liquid, microbial bio-fertiliser, such as Bio-Plant. This will gradually restore the soil's microbial life, and the micro-organisms will eat the weeds in the soil while removing the chemicals from the soil and making the 80% of the NPK left in the soil available to the roots.

 

Then plant a cover crop to cover the whole field. This will smother the growth of the weeds. Let the cover crop die down or cut it down and then plant the crop. Continue to use compost to prepare the soil, perhaps made with Bio-Plant, and stop using chemical fertilisers and sprays. The weed problem will go away.

I think this could be started as a different topic,i like your thinking as someone who is trying to be progressive here.

But to convince a Thai farmer to increase input costs will need a lot more detail. 

[grollies]

On 05/08/2017 at 8:34 PM, kickstart said:

HI cooked

                 You are correct ,Thai's love an instant result ,so they  use  Paraquat ,as you say ,you can see the  results next day ,2 weeks later the plant greens up again ,we have a lot  of  Yar-Con ,in Thai ,  or Parra  Grass   , Paraquat  is no use ,but  Glyphosate  will kill it ,if it is a young  plant ,no problem ,an old well-established  clump takes a long time to die .

The grass in the OP's photo is  Yar- Fat , in Thai,  according to my misses  it will take some getting  rid of.looks like an old clump too .

I have chopped some big clumps of weed grass with a Thai  hoe, then let it green up , and then use  Glyphosate, have had some good results.

The OPs photo isn't yar fak grass, it doesn't spread easily (if it did we'd be covered in it) and doesn't seed well. We use it for controlling soil erosion and stabilising the edges of the raised road into the farm. It is a very dense clump and has a massive root system that go as deep as 10 - 15 ft down.

 

@weegee or @renaissanc have the best ideas for you IMHO.

 

Pic of 2 y/o yar fak grass

 

[Michael Hare]

Good to see the OP is using our grass Mulato II

 

 https://www.ubonforageseeds.com/en/seeds/mulato/

 

However, in all my years here I have never seen vetiver grass invade a pasture field. There are many ecotypes of vetiver grass in and around Ubon. Mostly in seasonally wet areas, where Mulato II would not grow very well at all. Normally Vetiver grass is non-invasive. Excellent for erosion control. The vetiver grass in the OP photo looks very  stringy.  I would recommend replanting the pasture field next year. Over the dry season you should cultivate and try to kill the vetiver grass. Even do some spot spraying if green leaves develop on the vetiver grass. Perhaps burn it. Resow the pasture in  May. 

 

With hard-to-kill grass weeds, atrazine can be deadly. Problem is it can remain residual in the soil. but I have a feeling it is not sold in Thailand. 

 

If you keep the sown pasture species well fertilised and dense, you should not have a problem with weeds. Do not overgraze the plants.