Herbicide Treatments for No-Till Alfalfa, Medicago sativa L., Establishment in Sod

Abstract

Field experiments were established to evaluate the effect of herbicide treatments on control of tall fescue before spring or fall no-till alfalfa planting and to determine the effect of fescue control on alfalfa seedling establishment, forage yield, and forage quality. No treatment provided significantly greater tall fescue control than the standard two applications of paraquat at 13- to 21-day intervals. Fescue control values with this treatment ranged from 86 to 99% over experiments and were associated with maximum values for alfalfa ground-cover and alfalfa yield percentage parameters, 52 to 83% and 64 to 96%, respectively. Glyphosate and SC-0224 at 2.2 kg/ha and greater generally gave tall fescue control equivalent to the paraquat treatment in both spring and fall seedings as did sethoxydim at 0.6 kg/ha in spring seedings. Applications of fluazifop or HOE-0661 did not result in satisfactory tall fescue control or alfalfa establishment. Adding nonionic surfactant to glyphosate or SC-0224 did not increase tall fescue control. There was a direct linear relationship between tall fescue control and both alfalfa seedling establishment and yield percentage.