Performance of Postemergence Broadleaf Herbicides Applied with Novel Lawn Care Application Equipment

Abstract

Core Ideas Dandelion and white clover are equally controlled by postemergence herbicides using a range of commercially available turf application equipment. Low carrier volume equipment with coarse droplet sizes provided acceptable postemergence broadleaf weed control in this study. Turf herbicide labels need to be updated to indicate when low‐volume application equipment is effective. The lawn care industry has recently shifted to using ride‐on sprayer/spreaders to make fertilizer and pesticide applications to lawn and athletic turf. This equipment has provided many benefits, but the small spray tanks necessitate a low application volume of 10 to 20 gal/acre, which is less than the recommended carrier volume on many turf herbicide labels. As such, our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of postemergence broadleaf herbicides using new ride‐on sprayers at low‐spray carrier volumes compared with traditional lawn application technology and spray carrier volumes of 43 to 87 gal/acre. Herbicides were applied with four different types of application equipment: PermaGreen Triumph Spreader/Sprayer at 10.9 gal/acre, Z‐Spray Junior calibrated to deliver either 10 or 20 gal/acre, Lesco ChemLawn Spray Gun at 87 gal/acre, and a hand‐held boom sprayer at 87 gal/acre. An analysis of variance revealed no differences in dandelion (P = 0.57) or white clover control (P = 0.61) with various postemergence herbicides as influenced by application equipment. Despite a low carrier volume and coarse droplet size, weeds were equally controlled by herbicides with low‐volume equipment. The similar performance of the application equipment across a range of spray carrier volumes allows for greater flexibility for applicators to use multiple pieces of equipment in their fleet depending on the individual site needs.