Overseeding paddock

[Timmy T]

So, Operation Sow's Ear is now in full swing, lets hope we can get somewhere near a silk purse!

So, half the rather poor paddock we inherited has been sprayed with Larke (buttercup), Grazon90 (dock) and Barrier H (ragwort). All went well and we've already seen great results. The majority of the buttercup is shrivelling up after a week (even after being told it was probably too late to be effective!) and the Barrier H started to work almost immediately (within an hour!).

So, we are going to be left with some pretty thin areas of grass that will need seeding. How effective will it be to seed by hand (about 2 acres)?

I was literally going to go out with a sack of Pony Paddock and spread it over the sparse areas. Would you do this now, after the weeds have died away and it's still warm and moist, or wait until the autumn? Has anyone any "Top Tips"?

 

[Cocorules]

I am inexperienced with this so also on a learning curve with this but have recently been killing off buttercups in one paddock with the intention of reseeding after. I wanted to reseed with Timothy which I am told is best sown in Autumn so I am waiting. I am concerned about waiting though as all sorts of seeds are going to be getting in their first so not convinced I am doing the right thing. I will be interested in what others say.

 

[LD&S]

So, Operation Sow's Ear is now in full swing, lets hope we can get somewhere near a silk purse!

So, half the rather poor paddock we inherited has been sprayed with Larke (buttercup), Grazon90 (dock) and Barrier H (ragwort). All went well and we've already seen great results. The majority of the buttercup is shrivelling up after a week (even after being told it was probably too late to be effective!) and the Barrier H started to work almost immediately (within an hour!).

So, we are going to be left with some pretty thin areas of grass that will need seeding. How effective will it be to seed by hand (about 2 acres)?

I was literally going to go out with a sack of Pony Paddock and spread it over the sparse areas. Would you do this now, after the weeds have died away and it's still warm and moist, or wait until the autumn? Has anyone any "Top Tips"?

How long are you planning on leaving the paddock after spraying before putting animals on it, we sprayed last year as we had a lot of ragwort but just left it to sort itself out and it's fine.

 

[Max123]

You might find that now the weeds are knocked back that it won't be necessary to re-seed. The grass may re-establish itself as its not competing with weeds. The growth is fantastic for grass at the moment. I had a real poor paddock and sprayed it the end of March - now I think I'll have to top it as the grass has come on so well and it hasn't been grazed since. Re-seeding horse paddocks is generally not advised.

 

[LD&S]

Also have to say that is a lot of chemicals to put in the ground, Grazon 90 if used to treat paddocks recommend that the droppings are not used as compost to fertilize the soil so guess there must be some residue in the grass.

 

[Timmy T]

How long are you planning on leaving the paddock after spraying before putting animals on it, we sprayed last year as we had a lot of ragwort but just left it to sort itself out and it's fine.

We're only leaving it for 2 weeks as the other half needs doing as well. We have 2 acres split into 2, but we're on heavy clay soil with poor drainage so it gets pretty wet, so we can't afford to keep them on one part too long as they will chew it up too much.

 

[LD&S]

I'm not sure that all the ragwort would have completely rotted away in 2 weeks, when the plant is dead it loses it's bitter taste and horses are far more likely to eat it, is it possible to dig up the dead ragwort before you put the horses back in? I realise you've spent out for weedkiller but though the plant is dead it is still dangerous.

 

[Timmy T]

I've already dug the big plants, the one's I've sprayed are the little rosettes. To be fair, there is still a lot of grass to be had before they need to turn to the ragwort!

 

[LD&S]

That's good it's such a nightmare dealing with it, we've had a bad time with ragwort as well though we manage it slightly differantly, we spray using depitox, works well on just about everything including buttercups and docks, after about a week we cut the whole area on quite a low setting, the mower collects cuttings then generally do it a couple more times before we put the horses back on, we keep them off for 6 weeks, we tried digging some sections last year but have found this year that where we dug up live plants we have even more plants growing this year so we've decided not to dig any more