[flatfoot]

Small patch started about 10 years ago and everything I have tried so far isn't working. Cutting/baling, mowing, late tillage, late glyphosate.
Last two years they have just takin over a flat. Drought this year and went in with offset disk, but tractor was not happy working in tall cattail fuss left from last year!!
Went back in and rolled them and surprisingly they stayed down!
Then sprayed with glyphosate (750gr/acre) and Heat(50 arce/jug rate).
Now I am wondering, do I go back in a couple of weeks and spray again or do I try and work them up? Or??

 

[primer]

I would think working them up would be pretty important. For not being noxious, they're amazingly hard to kill. By next year(if we get any rain) I'd expect them to be nearly impossible to seed through.

I was always told that cattails weren't a problem but they're now starting to encroach on regular seeded land, instead of just sloughs.

 

[SouthernSK]

Cutivating them several times had done a good job at getting rid of them for us this spring.

 

[Snipe]

Liberty sure burns up the top growth. It seems to be the only chemical I use that does damage to them.

 

[Saskfarmerdoug]

My only luck has been to mow them first then disc then cultivate but a friend of mine has been doing his 3 passes with a Salford and it looks good as for chemical liberty does blast top growth but haven't played with any others.....the hard part I have with them has been getting it seeded. The next year........may not be a problem next year though due to awfully dry here

 

[flatfoot]

Saskfarmerdoug - yes, their roots and heavy clay (gumbo) do not get along with my narrow carbides when seeding

 

[brazil07]

Appreciate it been pretty wet around there for few years and one dry yr makes everything look bit more workable, but land bit expensive around here and pretty good rule is you do not farm where there cat tails. Pretty sure they do not like dry weather and if areas meant to be farmed they will clear themselves out in year or so. Used to get sucked into working those pothole areas in Fall thinking that they would seed the next yr. Even on the years that you do seed them usually get a downpour or something in June that drowns them out anyways.

 

[ry0972]

I prefer to swath through any that are dry enough when cutting the rest of the field.
Then run around later in the fall and swath any others that are dry.
Then burn the swaths.
A pass with tandem disc or spikes to level any old ruts and maybe help dry the low spot out some more.
other than a good plow all other types of tillage leave too much residue that floats to edge of area in spring and causes trouble plugging the drill and sometimes hidden piles at harvest.

 

[ronski]

Opened my concave, cranked the rotor and air wide open and straight cut everything I wouldn't quite get stuck in last fall (when all crops were off). I was able to seed through this spring and it looks like the crop established well. Fabas are 20" high and I can't see any cattails yet. 1 L Roundup pre-emerge.

 

[CRToney]

Bale them and sell for feed this year. A lot of guys will be feeding whatever they can get their hands on. We have cattails in a lot of spots that we never had them 5-10 yrs ago. They aren't any where I can farm yet. It has to be dry for a while for that to happen.

 

[SWFarmService]

Spray again and burn them, working it will be good and bad, it will likely seed a new crop of them, definitely want it black weather you loose a bunch of sulfer or not

 

[textrap]

Only thing I have found that will kill them is ERASER AQ for aquatic. I sprayed several times a few years ago and it seemed like it wasn't working. Hardly any left now.

 

[Daner]

Appreciate it been pretty wet around there for few years and one dry yr makes everything look bit more workable, but land bit expensive around here and pretty good rule is you do not farm where there cat tails. Pretty sure they do not like dry weather and if areas meant to be farmed they will clear themselves out in year or so. Used to get sucked into working those pothole areas in Fall thinking that they would seed the next yr. Even on the years that you do seed them usually get a downpour or something in June that drowns them out anyways.

I agree 100%. If cattails are growing it generally means your soil is anaerobic. I don't know of any crops we grow that will tolerate that. Might as well let them grow and hay them.

I seed with a morris maxim with 10in spacing and atom jet side band openers. It will go right through standing cattails. Much much easier to seed through than bushy tall weeds that break off at ground level. Cattails stay anchored and the drill goes right through. Then hope you don't get any big rains.

Best way to get rid of cattails is to get rid of the water. Cultivation doesn't really help long term but it makes people feel like they are doing something. It is much more likely you will get perched/standing water if the ground is worked.

 

[dutchdeutz]

Actually if you put a thick layer of hog manure on those spots for a couple of years, they will be gone for a long time!.
I have seen guys in the old country,work in the manure and finish with an inch on top over the worked land and had a total kill in 2 years.
They stay away for quite some years too.
For me the problem would be where to get hog manure in this area......

 

[SouthernSK]

The cattails we worked 2-3x with a cultivator are still dead several months later. The cattails that were mowed and sprayed with roundup are now 2-3 feet tall a couple months later.

 

[flatfoot]

Just a bit of an update-
After rolling in 2015, that seemed to knock them down and then sprayed with glyphosate - tillage with anything I have worked poorly!
Spring of 2016 was able to spray with heavy shot of glyphosate (1300 gr/acre) and was able to put cultivator with knives a couple times and diskers over a couple times, but was still not in condition to seed. Then the rains started and it flooded again!
Pic's are of same spot where I was rolling them in 2015, shown at start of this thread. I am almost convince that by having them chopped up before they flooded, that they drowned as there was a bit of new growth along edges where they did not flood last year. These pic's are from yesterday - finishing seeding!!

 

[kendalwpg]

As said earlier......the only true way to get rid of cattails is to remove the water. That means drainage. If you can't drain the spot then there will always be cattail pressure. We bought 240ac a few years ago that had the most of 80ac of cattails on it. The drainage had been neglected and after some wet years it was a terrible mess. We mowed them and then disked and then took the scraper to it . We now farm corner to corner. I realize not everybody can drain but that is the only true solution.

 

[Windmillfarms]

Old man always used 2 litres at 540 in fall, cant kill them in spring as they need to suck the rup to the ruts

 

[Cleancut]

I always have some cropping up by my sewer. I use roundup and liberty mix. That'll knock them off. I use that mix for all my spraying around the yard. Pioneer rep said there used to be a chemical out that was a mix of those active ingredients.

 

[SWFarmService]

As said earlier......the only true way to get rid of cattails is to remove the water. That means drainage.

Got that right, I did find last year that gramoxone + clethodym does a very good job of making them crispy enough to burn, just getting that huge mat off of the top goes a long ways to drying things out just enough to make drain work possible