Weedlicking rushes

micky mouse

What are ye using in the licker.Was told to use gallop,cheaper than round up

Milton09

Use gallop here, mixed at 100:1

Bleating Lamb

micky mouse wrote: »

What are ye using in the licker.Was told to use gallop,cheaper than round up

I find roundup gets high rate of kill but is v hard on wet land,leaving a dead soft area where bunch of rushes were ,Mortone gives as good a kill and is less harsh on soil,
How much is Gallup compared to Roundup?....does it give as good a kill,
Pointless putting on cheaper stuff if result isn't as reliable.....as sitting on a quad for hours is no fun.

beef burger

i put round up into the licker at 6 liters to 100 liters of water was told do use it roughly 20 to 1 so i figured put another liter for luck going by what yere sayen i could ease back a bit but defnitly got the desired effect. fairly liquid is handy just to give an idea of how wet the carpet is not sure does it actually help the spray stick.

Bleating Lamb

Another good spray is MCPA 50......think that's name of it.

ABlur

Lads do ye use a sticker with Mortone?

redzerologhlen

ABlur wrote: »

Lads do ye use a sticker with Mortone?

Ya, I had stuff called Rhino there last year and it was good value. Bought other stuff this year which was a good bit dearer but worked well, cant think of the name of it now though.

zetorman

ROUNDUP ??? Never used it on rushes. I know it will kill them but will they not regrow again the following year ??? I always use it on yards, drive way etc. Always get an excellent kill but weeds always grow again the following year. Will the same thing not happens with rushes ????

Conmaicne Mara

zetorman wrote: »

ROUNDUP ??? Never used it on rushes. I know it will kill them but will they not regrow again the following year ??? I always use it on yards, drive way etc. Always get an excellent kill but weeds always grow again the following year. Will the same thing not happens with rushes ????

Haven't used proper roundup, but I have used other versions of glyphosate wiping rushes. It does kill them off. What you have to remember is if the rushes have been there for any length of time there'll be a ton of seeds in the ground and they'll keep coming up. Keep after them.

KatyMac

I'm thinking of getting a licker but was told a good second hand sprayer would make more sense. Any thoughts#/

bbam

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Haven't used proper roundup, but I have used other versions of glyphosate wiping rushes. It does kill them off. What you have to remember is if the rushes have been there for any length of time there'll be a ton of seeds in the ground and they'll keep coming up. Keep after them.

This is important as you can lick rushes in a field twice in a year to wonderful effect. Spraying once is harsh enough. I can't imagine spraying a field regularly.

Conmaicne Mara

bbam wrote: »

This is important as you can lick rushes in a field twice in a year to wonderful effect. Spraying once is harsh enough. I can't imagine spraying a field regularly.

One of the most regularly asked questions on these threads is "How important is clover to you?". Most, if not all sprays will kill it, to the delight of some on here I know A licker that isn't dripping should only kill what it touches. Though driving around I have seen lads pulling them behind quads in fields going like they're trying to lap Schumacher, I doubt that's the right way to use them. I'm just in from trying out Agritox again, wiped a few lumps a few days ago and I see nice rusty spots today. Don't know if it's recommended for licker or not, as I mistakenly thought I was using rosate 360 :rolleyes: (That's what I get for not checking the label).

beef burger

i bought a licker this year and found it very good for rushes but where they were very heavy i got an excellent kill but as conmaicne said theres so much seed there that some new rushes are getting ready to grow where the taller rush had taken over and is now dead. but the plus side for me was its cheaper than spraying them and its killing what you want to kill i found. just wondering is 20 parts water to 1 part roundup a bit much.

reilig

beef burger wrote: »

just wondering is 20 parts water to 1 part roundup a bit much.

Possibly. It won't do any harm but I have used Gallup from 75:1 to 100:1 with perfect results. Saves an awful lot of money.

pakalasa

Guys, what's the ideal working height for a weedlicker? This would be from ground to bottom of the roller.
I'm making up one at the moment, so needto know my midsetting.

beef burger

hard to explain as im new to it but i need to keep it high as not to kill grass thats not topped so i set it at 12 inches from the bottom of the roller to the ground that way any grass round dung pats or that is safe enough but maybe look into it a bit more before ya make a final descision mine can be adjusted easily with a toplink thats on the frame might be good idea to set it that way when your making the weed licker.

Dr. Sh1te

After weedlicking rushes how long would you want to wait before topping them?

just do it

How much do they cost?

beef burger

i havent got round to top anything yet as iv got a bit of off farm work but the 1st bit i done was 3 weeks ago and just thinking should i leave them to rot for another while. got mine for round 1800 euros and at the minute very happy with the results its built to last. dont know the manufacturer but i could pm where i got it.

pakalasa

just do it wrote: »

How much do they cost?

I know someone that bought one (secondhand, I think and not galvanised) from a guy in Lisseycasey that deals in them. I haven't seen it so don't know about quality. €750 he said it cost.

pakalasa

Sorry, another question - What kind of 'carpet' is used on these weedlickers and where might I get one?
They look like the carpet you'd see used in a factory / public building.

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

Sorry, another question - What kind of 'carpet' is used on these weedlickers and where might I get one?
They look like the carpet you'd see used in a factory / public building.

Good quality carpet - industrial stuff if you can get it. If you put on cheap stuff it will flake away by losing its thread in clumps. It needs to have a good pile on it also to be able to hold onto the spray as it comes from the jets.

Bodacious

pakalasa wrote: »

Sorry, another question - What kind of 'carpet' is used on these weedlickers and where might I get one?
They look like the carpet you'd see used in a factory / public building.

I used a hired one carpet home made job and it was a disaster .. Would say the real deal foam roller would be better

Dampintheattic

pakalasa wrote: »

I know someone that bought one (secondhand, I think and not galvanised) from a guy in Lisseycasey that deals in them. I haven't seen it so don't know about quality. €750 he said it cost.

regular adds on DD from a guy in Scarriff who sells them. Galvanised. Look a well made job. Saw him at Ennis mart selling them. €1350.

bbam

We went to a local carpet store and got an end of roll commercial carpet for €10, covered drum and will do again. Three years on and no sign of wear.

Best job I've seen is the roller with the brush, can't remember the brand but BIL bought one last year. Hires out now useses his quad. €35/hour and he's flat out.

It's not only the depth of pile that holds the weed killer on the drum, it's the rotation of the drum. We found that it didn't matter too much which way the drum rotated, so we don't cross the belt as it just wears too quickly.

Ours is a real bodge of stuff that was lying around and designed to add onto a sprayer we had already made up. The advantage is we can raise/lower the drum with the 3pt which is handy.

I'd say if you were handy with the welder/grinder you would make a top class job for about €500.

Bleating Lamb

Dr. Sh1te wrote: »

After weedlicking rushes how long would you want to wait before topping them?

Always best to leave them at least a month,and longer if they were heavy,Spray has to work it's way into roots.

pakalasa

Ok guys, I have the weedlicker made up now, except for the spray part. I was thinking of adding a few spray nozzles to a 1/2" pipe, as I already have a quad type sprayer with Shurflow pump. Pump delivers 8LPM at 60 PSI.

What do most weedlicker use, spray nozzles or a simple dribble bar, i.e a pipe with small holes drilled in it? Where can I get the spray nozzles?

bbam

pakalasa wrote: »

Ok guys, I have the weedlicker made up now, except for the spray part. I was thinking of adding a few spray nozzles to a 1/2" pipe, as I already have a quad type sprayer with Shurflow pump. Pump delivers 8LPM at 60 PSI.

What do most weedlicker use, spray nozzles or a simple dribble bar, i.e a pipe with small holes drilled in it? Where can I get the spray nozzles?

We use 1/2" qualplex, small holes drilled along the length, supply to both ends of the pipe.

Edit:
And when you start always flush the carpet with water first, this makes the chemical much faster to disperse over the whole surface..

Another Edit:
We had to fit a solenoid valve on the line from the tank down to the dribble bar, otherwise it syphoned out the chemical and left dead streaks through the field

pakalasa

bbam wrote: »

We use 1/2" qualplex, small holes drilled along the length, supply to both ends of the pipe.

Edit:
And when you start always flush the carpet with water first, this makes the chemical much faster to disperse over the whole surface..

Another Edit:
We had to fit a solenoid valve on the line from the tank down to the dribble bar, otherwise it syphoned out the chemical and left dead streaks through the field

Great - I was thinking about the qualplex alright. What size holes and how far apart?

bbam

pakalasa wrote: »

Great - I was thinking about the qualplex alright. What size holes and how far apart?

Ahhh.. was being intentionally vague on that.. I think 1.5mm and about 150mm spaced...

Swinefluproof

pakalasa wrote: »

Ok guys, I have the weedlicker made up now, except for the spray part. I was thinking of adding a few spray nozzles to a 1/2" pipe, as I already have a quad type sprayer with Shurflow pump. Pump delivers 8LPM at 60 PSI.

What do most weedlicker use, spray nozzles or a simple dribble bar, i.e a pipe with small holes drilled in it? Where can I get the spray nozzles?

What type of piping did you use for the roller? Have a frame made up for a 10' fully offset licker but have been toying around with a few ideas for what type of piping to use. Think the normal 4" steel pipe is a bit heavy but there aren't alot of other options really that are in my price limits. Stainless would be light but way overpriced and am thinking that even heavy duty plastics would warp and bend and will be back at square one again

pakalasa

I made up the roller. Plastic pipe, OD 90mm,inner about 80mm. A 30mm solid round bar running down the center. I made up 3 discs about 25mm thick, ID 30mm and OD 80mm. Welded these, one at each end about 50mm in from ends and other at center of roller.
Drilled in place then and tapped holes in dics, to hold in place. It seems strong enough, we'll see.

bbam

pakalasa wrote: »

I made up the roller. Plastic pipe, OD 90mm,inner about 80mm. A 30mm solid round bar running down the center. I made up 3 discs about 25mm thick, ID 30mm and OD 80mm. Welded these, one at each end about 50mm in from ends and other at center of roller.
Drilled in place then and tapped holes in dics, to hold in place. It seems strong enough, we'll see.

Over what length ??
Will definitely lighten the rig.. does it deflect along its length ??

We got some steel tube used in roller door shafts, reworks.. light and strong.

pakalasa

Plastic pipe is 2.5m exaclty. No deflection anyway. I found the pipe thrown out in long grass somewhere.:D

Stainless is expensive alright and I thought steel would just rust away in no time under a wet carpet.
The 30mm solid bar cost €50, for 3m length.
I'm running it with a hydraulic motor, BTW.

Swinefluproof

Have a length of heavy guage electrical piping but it's almost 5" diameter. Hadn't even thought of running a shaft straight through the centre to be honest. Might use a few more reinforcing discs though just to be on the safe side.

pakalasa

Up to when, as in time of year, would you consider it still ok to lick rushes?
I know July is the ideal month, but would you consider September still ok?

bbam

pakalasa wrote: »

Up to when, as in time of year, would you consider it still ok to lick rushes?
I know July is the ideal month, but would you consider September still ok?

Indeed..
Once they are growing it should be OK..

Valtraman2012

pakalasa wrote: »

Up to when, as in time of year, would you consider it still ok to lick rushes?
I know July is the ideal month, but would you consider September still ok?

I was licking into October last year with very good results

Wigster

I got a loan of a licker and have about 5 acres to do. I already sprayed 5 acres with mcpa but was told that licking these 5 acres would get better results as they have not been topped with a few years.I have roundup and touchdown left over from previous reseeding jobs. Which would be better and what rate would you use?

bmm

Fairy Liquid helps to get the stuff to stick.

Conmaicne Mara

pakalasa wrote: »

Up to when, as in time of year, would you consider it still ok to lick rushes?
I know July is the ideal month, but would you consider September still ok?

Any time of year will kill them in reality, some times of year when they're growing well will kill them quicker. The Winter months will look as if not a lot is happening but once you do them on the right couple of days they'll die.

9935452

bbam wrote: »

Ahhh.. was being intentionally vague on that.. I think 1.5mm and about 150mm spaced...

On bridge way engineering weed wiper they are spaced an inch apart which is what I have done and works well. I left out the last few holes on either end as I wanted to try and keep the end fairly dry so as to prevent drips. If working across a slope it will drip so have to work up and down it

PureBred

A few pics of ye're setups lads would be nice!

pakalasa

Here you go. There is a safety cover to go over the chain & sprockets and also a low pressure safety relief valve to go on the pump.

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

Here you go. There is a safety cover to go over the chain & sprockets and also a low pressure safety relief valve to go on the pump.

Savage looking job Pak!

How fast will the roller be turning on the hydraulics?

bbam

pakalasa wrote: »

Here you go. There is a safety cover to go over the chain & sprockets and also a low pressure safety relief valve to go on the pump.

Nice looking piece of kit... well done !!

pakalasa

reilig wrote: »

Savage looking job Pak!

How fast will the roller be turning on the hydraulics?

That's the tricky bit. You have to match the cc/rev of the motor to the pump in the tractor. I used a 200cc/rev motor. So every Litre flowing tru the motor gives 5 turns.
My tractor pump is rated at 28 Litres/min(LPM) at tractor engine 2200 RPM. I reckoned tractor ticking over at 1400 RPM, so 18 LPM. I was looking for 1 turn every second of licker. At 200cc/rev motor on licker and 18 LPM coming from tractor, that gives 1.5 turns every second. It's doing about that. It could be going a bit faster if anything.

Tractor arms at let down to lowest point and I adjust toplink to vary height of roller. Sprayer switch is left on but wired to seperate switch in tractor. I flick switch on/off then as I go. Hydraulic motor goes to tipper connection and return is back to oil fill pt on tractor. I've licked 3 fields so far and happy with results. Couldn't believe how little weedkiller I used. Reckon 2 lts did the 3 fields.

hoseman

Nice job pakalsa,You could fit a flow control valve on the feed line and this would control the feed of oil for you.Well done on the workmanship.Was it your own design ?

pakalasa

By a flow control valve, do you mean a simple throttle valve? The problem with that is, it will cause back pressure to the relief valve in the tractor. If the relief valve is on for any length of time, it will heat the oil. It's wasting diesel too. It was my own design alright. Most of the stuff was lying around as scrap. I only had to buy the motor,relief valve, chain,bearings & water fittings . I had the spot sprayer already.

Midlandsman80

pakalasa wrote: »

By a flow control valve, do you mean a simple throttle valve? The problem with that is, it will cause back pressure to the relief valve in the tractor. If the relief valve is on for any length of time, it will heat the oil. It's wasting diesel too. It was my own design alright. Most of the stuff was lying around as scrap. I only had to buy the motor,relief valve, chain,bearings & water fittings . I had the spot sprayer already.

Great looking Job Pak, for someone not so handy, could the turning of the roller be achieved by one heavily sprung wheel (very technical description!), by this I mean a wheel that would stay in the ground as the three point was raised and lowered (withing reason). We have an old buck rake that the three point is perfect that something similar could be added too.
I hired one earlier in the year and was a great job, looking at the results tho I can see the advantage of having it offset or using a 35 or something with very small wheels doing it...

pakalasa

Midlandsman80 wrote: »

Great looking Job Pak, for someone not so handy, could the turning of the roller be achieved by one heavily sprung wheel (very technical description!), by this I mean a wheel that would stay in the ground as the three point was raised and lowered (withing reason). We have an old buck rake that the three point is perfect that something similar could be added too.
I hired one earlier in the year and was a great job, looking at the results tho I can see the advantage of having it offset or using a 35 or something with very small wheels doing it...

You can turn the roller by hand, so no power needed really. A trailed wheel would work when going straight but when you turn, the wheel would swing sideways and tear along the ground. I kept the roller well back from the tractor so that I could adjust the roller height from the toplink but also to allow the rushes that are driven on some time to spring back up.