[tx66man]

So I need your guys thoughts on a issue that has come up on a piece of rented land of ours. About 10 days ago we sprayed our wheat with just Curtail M. It was a breezy day from the east but was only windy above about 4 feet and we were using a trailing boom pt. sprayer. Anyways along this field is the landlords driveway to his home which has willow and spruce trees up both sides. As it was windy that day dad stayed away from the trees 10 to 12 feet just to be safe. But now the willows are showing some kind of damage on the lower branches and needless to say it is not a good situation. What is really interesting is that because dad stay away from the tree line their is absolutely no weed kill for those first 10 to 12 feet into the field. I am certain that we will be paying something out of pocket for this as i don't think we are covered under our farm policy for something like this (I will check that on Monday). So my question is, what is a 15 to 20 foot tall 15 to 20 year old willow tree worth, taking into account clean up and replanting and such. Also have any of you ever gone through something like this with trees before, if so do you have any advice? Thanks in advance

 

[Johnny the Farmer]

We wrinkled the leaves on a willow tree about same size as your landlords trees with glyphosate 2 years ago. Sort of windy day also. Got a call also. The tree survived and you can't tell today. The tree and the relationship with my neighbor is fine. Curtail M might be different but I can't see the tree dying from some bottom leaves getting herbicide on them. I am pretty sure your standard farm liability policy will cover damages but I think he would only get new transplanted trees, not 20 ft tall ones. It won't cover damages if you were custom spraying but it definitely will since you are renting the land. I'm thinking if your landlord wants to pick a fight he could use that as a reason, but seriously, in your country those trees could be 20 ft tall in 5 years again. Have an abandoned farmyard with a small shelterbelt on rented land. Used to be so careful but for the last 10 years not so much. Can't seem to hurt them. I do think trees will be OK. Try to not say something that would be difficult to take back. For now I wouldn't tell him your ins might cover it, but maybe after its resolved, a gift like a weekend at a bed and breakfast might help heal relationships. Unless he is the type to milk this for all he can. Good luck.

John

 

[meritmat]

we leave a boom off when spraying beside a shelterbelt, rather have a few weeds then piss a neibour/landlord off

 

[STR1]

We have spray damage on our trees this spring neighbours were spraying Liberty. It's a hard subject to find a solution to, but the most important thing to us was to stay calm and not over react, we don't want to end good relationships because some trees having some damage on them, the trees may recover but sometimes relationships don't. We called them and discussed the situation but as time goes by I think it looks like trees are recovering and in the end we are very glad we handled it this way. I hope your landlord will give the trees some time to see if they will recover, if it's minor damage to the lower leaves chances are they will recover. Wouldn't hurt to talk to a tree specialist just to be sure it's actually spray drift damage and not an insect or fungus affecting trees, especially if you see untouched weeds between edge of sprayer line and tree line.
I hope you're not up against a situation where someone is looking for a cash settlement.........that's a totally different animal.

 

[nicemustang]

I can't see curtail killing established trees. Yes there might be some wilting leaves now, but in a couple weeks should all be fine or at very lest good next year. Especially willows, very hardy tree.

 

[lambear]

Phone the nufarm help line and get an opinion from them, very knowledgable and they not just read from the crop protection guide, pass whatever info on to your landlord. My guess is in 2 weeks time you won't be able to tell. Write everything down..

 

[whtbaron]

Are you sure it's even chemical damage? We've got 2 different types of willows (some green, some yellow) in shelterbelts around the yard and we've had some disease issues in the yellow ones the last 2 or 3 years. The first time I saw it, I thought I had fried them with spray too ( I spray within 10 ft of the base), but it's happening in the yard away from the fields as well. As others have mentioned, I have browned a few leaves in years past, and they came back the next year just fine. I've also found that Liberty is a very mobile chemical even in the slightest breeze.

 

[dumbfarmer]

I can't see curtail killing established trees. Yes there might be some wilting leaves now, but in a couple weeks should all be fine or at very lest good next year. Especially willows, very hardy tree.

Willows are a hardy tree but cannot take any amount of drift from 24D or MCPA and the planted trees from PFRA are even less hardy. If you only got bottom brances on the tree it will be ok but my never have bottom brances again. Have been cleaning out are fence lines with MCPA or 24D products with cereal spray for years. Can now see though lots of them for first 10ft off the ground

 

[nicemustang]

24d yes I can see, not curtail.

 

[Northern Farmer]

I've used Curtail M a few times on the lawn including this summer in our yard for killing weeds and have trees of various sorts including willow all over that I am going right up to. Now I do make sure its not windy when doing this and am using a small 3 point hitch sprayer and a courser spray at lower pressure so it doesn't really have the fines or to drift/gas off the same as some field sprayers would. Along some buildings I've had small willow start and take a foothold and take the wand unit on the sprayer and totally drench the 3 foot high willow and that will curl up the leaves but still can come back the next year. I'd certainly not get too excited yet but would go through the motions to find out from the powers that be as to what can be expected as time goes on with a plant that had a sniff and also what your insurance does cover.

 

[allcolours]

About 14 years ago we had our guy spray with the spray-air sprayer a mix Achieve/Attain.
He had the fan speed up and created fine mist which moved right into 1/2 mile of tree row of the college ground. The trees were completely brown a few weeks later. The college didn't expect the trees were dead and the following year there was a little bit of green but it took 3 years for them to fully recover. I'd say stay calm and wait it out with the neighbour. It's likely that it will be ok. And since it's the prairies the trees don't have leaves most of the time anyway.

 

[MNfarmer85]

We don't use that chem. around here so hard to say what will happen... We try to stay at least 100 feet from one guys grove unless the wind is blowing into our field, just trying to be good neighbors and all... Said guy had several trees and much of his garden toasted a couple years ago when a beet field across the road got sprayed by plane and the pilot forgot/couldn't turn off the spray when he went into his turn at the end of the field over the poor guys yard. Took out a couple trees that I would guess were over 50 years old at the time.

 

[chance2]

I usually clean out and flush out my sprayer next to an old yardsite that I have been wanting to kill the poplars, maples, and carriganas and such for the last 20 years. So far I haven't killed one tree,......and I am trying to. The leaves yellow and drop off, and next year they look like they have been fertilized and come back healthier than ever.

 

[Northern Farmer]

As Chance2 mentioned rinsing out a sprayer near trees, I was warned to keep far enough away from the trees root zones using Curtail M because of the underground effects of the Lontrel component but so far haven't noticed any issue that way ether. The only trees that die in this yard are the pine trees because of the Mountain Pine Beetle and black poplar that just die and fall over on their own anywhere in a tree stand.