Clearing rushes

Strumming two acres of heavy rushes is a tough job.

It would be substantially better job to get a contractor in and mulch them. This turns them into chaff and they rot quicker. This allows the grass up better to compete with the rushes.

The11Duff wrote: »

Get your rushes topped or mulched. Then spray the new green fresh ones and then fire out a couple of bags of fertilizers to encourage the grass. May have to repeat next year but you will have a lot of them killed off

No harm 2 bags of gran lime too

Spraying rushers only hides the issues for a few years. Continuous cutting will weaken them. If you can top twice a year you will get much better control longterm. I never heard of using Presto on rushers. Presto is used on surfaces to prevent seeds germinating instead if simizine which is no longer available.

Fertility and lime. P&K is very important especially P. I get the so tested so as to see what to spread. I be using 18-6-12 or 10-10-20 rather than straight N. But you will have to keep grass grazed as well. On lime as it's only two acres I be using granlime and spread 100 kgs/ acre each year for the next 4-5 years and continue 50 kgs/ acre after that

Take a look at this guys youtube. He posts some great videos on reclaiming land
https://youtube.com/channel/UCbnhKennXJ-TIuHSRKWJcLg

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Is he based in Leitrim?

Yeah i think so.

The best I saw is a farm I pass
They used a single chop harvester followed by fertilizer and spray
It looked a rough farm but looks great now

SpraySafely wrote: »

Not sure what you are saying here?

Spraying rushes will kill them. However while there is seed in the ground another crop will follow. Spraying (or licking) is the only way to get rid of rushes. You will never really 100% get rid of them but should get it down to a very minimal amount which you can easily keep on top of. The seed can stay in the ground for a long time.

Topping is great to avoid them taking over, but won't kill them. Cutting to the butt might, have seen varying results. Topping after they have gone to seed is too late.

Best job is top, wait 2-3 weeks depending on growth rates. Let cattle eat grass off. Then spray as per instructions, or lick although probably have to wait more than 2-3 weeks for a high enough crop. Ensure to keep livestock off for as long as required.

Can do this twice a year.

Spraying or licking will not get rid of rushers unless continually used. Cutting will weaken any weed if done often enough. Now on some very wed land that can be an issue. However on that type of ground spraying will struggle as well

Most lads only cut rushes once a year. At the he start you need to cut 3-4 times a year to weaken them. Ideally bales up the bulky first cut and dispose of it, a mulcher is not as effective as removal but it is preferable to letting tuskers just sit on the ground smothering the grass regrowth. Then cut as often as possible for rest of the year.

The later the last cut the better of you can get into the field in late September or early October in a dry Autumn great. If you get hard frost when the rush root is open and cut tight with no regrowth it really set them back.

After 2-3 years just keep them topped 2-3 times a year. When they are weak like this continually cutting keeps them weak as well cattle will eat them if they make up a small percentage of the sward and are young and soft regrowths.

There is a huge push to ban MCPA at present it may happen in the next few years so lads will need to figure out ways to control rushers without it.

Other factors to help control them.is soil fertility. There was s no point in getting rid of them if the grass has not enough nutrients to grow. Access to nutrients is controlled by PH. PH on wet ground is alway a battle. Ground lime can be hard to apply and lime loss during the winter is very high. Historically out grandparents or great grandparents used burnt lime on this type of ground. There is a product called Growmax, it a high PH granular burnt lime. It rises pH very fast. I say it would be idea on ground like this applied as early as possible in the spring it would rise the PH of the ground very fast and allow efficiency of nutrients to increase.

P&K would be critical and should be applied as early as possible in the year. For a lot of this type of land that means slurry may not be optimal unless it can be spread in April/May. Use of lighter machinery such as Quads and mane umbilical systems on tractors with wider tyres helps prevent compaction

Drainage may be a long-term solution but the above will still be needed

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Spraying or licking will not get rid of rushers unless continually used. Cutting will weaken any weed if done often enough. Now on some very wed land that can be an issue. However on that type of ground spraying will struggle as well

Most lads only cut rushes once a year. At the he start you need to cut 3-4 times a year to weaken them. Ideally bales up the bulky first cut and dispose of it, a mulcher is not as effective as removal but it is preferable to letting tuskers just sit on the ground smothering the grass regrowth. Then cut as often as possible for rest of the year.

The later the last cut the better of you can get into the field in late September or early October in a dry Autumn great. If you get hard frost when the rush root is open and cut tight with no regrowth it really set them back.

After 2-3 years just keep them topped 2-3 times a year. When they are weak like this continually cutting keeps them weak as well cattle will eat them if they make up a small percentage of the sward and are young and soft regrowths.

There is a huge push to ban MCPA at present it may happen in the next few years so lads will need to figure out ways to control rushers without it.

Other factors to help control them.is soil fertility. There was s no point in getting rid of them if the grass has not enough nutrients to grow. Access to nutrients is controlled by PH. PH on wet ground is alway a battle. Ground lime can be hard to apply and lime loss during the winter is very high. Historically out grandparents or great grandparents used burnt lime on this type of ground. There is a product called Growmax, it a high PH granular burnt lime. It rises pH very fast. I say it would be idea on ground like this applied as early as possible in the spring it would rise the PH of the ground very fast and allow efficiency of nutrients to increase.

P&K would be critical and should be applied as early as possible in the year. For a lot of this type of land that means slurry may not be optimal unless it can be spread in April/May. Use of lighter machinery such as Quads and mane umbilical systems on tractors with wider tyres helps prevent compaction

Drainage may be a long-term solution but the above will still be needed

On our well heavy ground, it took the sprayer to put manners on.
10 years ago I done One year of spraying and a second year to hit the regrowth,
Two thirds of the ground never came back since, other third would have needed touching up twice in that period.

No way am I going back to topping rushes once or three times a year till the mcpa ban-gun has been put to my head.
Better uses for my time than topping.

johnytwentyten wrote: »

Hi,

My family have a two acre field which is totally covered in rushes, we want to clean it up and looking for some advice as I have no experience in this area,

From googling it, my plan was to strim the rushes, wait for regrowth, then spray using a mix of mortone and presto, using a quad sprayer (as this is what's recommended in the mortone instructions), I know the field would need to be drained properly to really sort the issue but just want to clean it up first,

Does this sound ok? And if so, how soon could you let animals into the field after spraying, my sister was planning on getting a few donkeys,

Thanks in advance for any replies,

As the field is totally covered in rushes chances are the grass is killed off.
You should give it a good soaking with a glyphosate weed killer Roundup, Gallup or similar.
After 4 to 6 weeks plough, drain and reseed. Not the cheapest option but the best in the long term.
If fences are good get a few sheep, perhaps a few wether lambs. They're much better grazers than donkeys and will keep land in tip top condition and you'll have a regular supply of very cheap organic meat !

Got some fields with rushes in them. Was previously rented ground so not looked after the best. Should we get them mulched in Feb/Mar and then sprayed off in May/Jun time - or can we just spray them in May/June time? I'd be worried that there would not be sufficient regrowth for the MCPA in that timeframe. Should we also soil sample at the time of spraying? The intention was to kill off the rushes and then look into putting some life into the ground.

+1

where did u get gran lime for that cost? Didn’t hear anything about a subsidy, priced some last week and was €220 a ton

So here is the rushes after spraying. There are still some green stalks in them. Did the MCPA fail to do a complete kill or is that the way of it?

What should be the plan for next year? I'm thinking get pH tested and lime if necessary in spring after mulching it down. Spray any young regrowth in the summer.

Field has been drained so that part should be okay.

You should've mowed beforehand and then spray the regrowth 4 or 5 weeks after mowing.

The rush being hard and stemmy, as it is there, can't absorb the spray properly.

MCPA works great here on rushes, I also put small amount of washing up liquid in the spray to help it stick

I suppose regrowth depends on time of year, I mowed them april may when they'd be growing well, they don't be long growing back, don't let them get stemmy and hard again anyway.

Ph would always be alright here