Sand Spurs have taken over

[Land_Owner]

My largest field is COVERED in sand spurs.  Nearly 3/4 of an acre in a 1.25 acre field is covered.  I want to STERILIZE the soil there to prevent their germination and spread...although I suspect the woods are covered in them too.  I have not checked that yet.

Does anyone have a soil sterilant recommendation?

[ironglow]

  sorry, land_owner..don't have any recipes..
   But you brought back memories of my years in the south. There are many things I love about the south, but sand spurs are not one of them ! 

[Graybeard]

In '58 the pipe shops in Anniston all went on strike for about 18 months. Dad got a job at the one in Haines City, FL so we moved there for awhile. I went to school much of the school year there for my 7th grade year.

We lived across the street from Lake Eva which was the lake the city draws its drinking water from and there is a swimming beach there at a park that was across the road from our house. The area between the road and the beach was a solid mass of sand spurs. It did not pay to try to make that trip barefoot as ya weren't gonna get there if you did. That was my introduction to them and I must say I do not miss them.

[Oldshooter]

Is burning an option?

[Land_Owner]

I have thought about burning, have a "brother-in-law" (twice removed) that is a Regional Forest Service Manager and runs the Withlacoochie Fire Training Facility in Brooksville (across the State by 125 miles) who gave me some suggestions, but have not been motivated to get-er-done.  I suppose the field only could be burned, but the whole 20 acres could use a good cleaning out.  With such a small parcel, it is not in the interest of the Forest Service to assist...only to keep me from losing control and taking out the 14,000 acres adjacent.

Also, I have located a Ground Hornet's nest near my prefered stand.  Whether these critters are in proportion to my NOT seeing more wildlife, I can only speculate.  I guesstimate there to be 2,500 (or more) hornets there.

[Empty Quiver]

I'm pretty sure you don't want a soil sterilent, that is pretty darned extreame. Talk to a local farm store/ fertilizer plant, they will be able to direct you the right direction. A couple years of spraying with something as simple as 2,4-d will end your problems most likely. The 2,4-D is nearly free as far as chemical goes, the application will likely cost the most because it'll take longer to mix than to spray it on.

Don't go and plow the damned things under cause burying the problem will give you a bank vault of the boogers in the soil. Right now they are on top, and as they germinate you can kill them and be done, The key is not to let a single one go to seed for a few years, you can wear them out. If you can mow and spray the area like a lawn so much the better, a lawn care outfit may be an easier route for you to go. Find an outfit doing a large appt complex or industrial site they will have large enough sprayer to help you out. I would plan on three sprayings a year. Learn what they look like when under 2" tall, walk the field once every two weeks looking for the things and spray while they are small.

[Land_Owner]

Two years ago I began a campaign of spray and wait.  Spray and wait.  Spray and wait.  Roundup took care of "the usual suspects" (air potato and Johnson grass primarily).  After about 4 months of spray and wait, I turned the soil with the disc.  BLAMO, the #@$*!% weeds germinated AGAIN.  So back to spray and wait for another 2 months. 

Apparetnly there are birds dropping seeds all of the time as well as airborne and ground dormant seeds.  I doubt I can "get them all" even if I were to sterilize.  Even the air potato is still growing and I HATE THAT  PLANT. 

Now an incidious and sinister Axis of Evil is cohabitating my fields.  I want to NUKE them until they glow.  Turn the dirt into glass.  Perhaps lay down overlapping strips of poly-vapor barrier to prevent sunlight and moisture from reaching the soil/air interface.  Pave the fileds in asphalt and concrete.  Put up a shopping Mall.  I am exhausted and losing this fight.

[Graybeard]

A gallon of gas down that yellow jacket hole done at night when all are at home will end that problem rat now.

[briarpatch]

sand spurs like poor soil. If you fertilize the field it will grow other things but will choke out the sand spurs.
Then you can mow and keep the field cut.

 Oh crap!  I didn't intend to MODIFY your post just QUOTE it!  But I screwed up.  So sorry!  I will try and NOT do that again... Undo, undo, undo, undo...there, that's better.

I didn't know I had that "power".  Power corrupts.  Ultimate power corrups ultimately. 

[Graybeard]

Yeah well the grass was pretty lush and green in that park across from our house back in 1958 in Haines City and it was absolutely eat up with sand spurs.

[deerslayer79]

DO NOT USE A SOIL STERILANT!!!!!!! stuff like carmex,saharah,diuron,ect will kill the soil but takes a long time to kill the already grown vegitation.Here on the farm I try to keep track  of them and hit it with roundup and 24d.I would even shy away from pre-emergent stuff like surflan if you have any plans to plant a food plot or anything.It is time consuming but just keep after them before thet germinate and produce them spurs.

[Land_Owner]

sand spurs like poor soil. If you fertilize the field it will grow other things but will choke out the sand spurs.

Fertilizer is precisely why I have such nice green and lush sand spurs.  They've absorbed all of the fertilizer!  I put in over 1,400 pounds of fertilizer, very EXPENSIVE fertilizer this past season if I might add, in accordance with the soil report.  Then it did not rain for two months.  The fertilizer is still in the soil and the spurs are getting it.

[mechanic]

Everytime I've been to Florida, and gotten near grass barefoot, I've gotten sandspurs.  I can only suggest you sell out and move to N. Dakota.  Then you won't be tempted to go barefoot.

[Land_Owner]

Yeah, I've thought a lot about selling out, moving North, and driving slow.

[clum sum]

Lime sand spurs do not like sweet ground, may take 2 years and cheeper than a lot of fertilizer.

[bilmac]

I too would say don't sterilize. Tordone would be the way to do it but if you do you run a risk of loosing any good stuff that is growing there now. So you make a blank slate, what's most likely is that the weeds will be the first new invaders, they're tough and like disturbed areas.

How are you spraying now that you hate it so much? Spraying weeds was one of my favorite tasks the last place I worked, Got me out of the office and out in the country by myself. Have you tried the 14 gallon electric sprayers built for an ATV? They are trouble free, cheap, do a pretty good job, and to my mind fun to use.

[Oldshooter]

what's most likely is that the weeds will be the first new invaders, they're tough and like disturbed areas.

+1 that is so true!

Moving north may be an option    My dad told me once that he was gonna leave the Texas coast driving north with an anchor on his hood, the first place he got that someone asked him "what is that for" he was gonna drop it and stay! Sadly, He left without the anchor or anything else, but I have it and think of doing that often. I Farm fireants and chinese Tallow trees here! maybe i should try some sand spurs to get a well rounded and diverse crop selection!

[Land_Owner]

Lime sand spurs do not like sweet ground, may take 2 years and cheeper than a lot of fertilizer.

There is very little ability to get cheap lime here.  Florida is great at growing "Tourists" and poor on agriculture.  The long standing orange groves are limed about once every five to seven years.  Getting on that rotation is damn HARD for a little parcel like mine.  The producers of lime want to sell it to me in 50 pounds bags for MORE than fertilizer.  Or, they want me to purchase a 25 ton tanker full.  Then I have to spread it myself.  There is no middle ground, no co-op to which to turn, no spreaders, no farmers, no NOTHING.  I have looked under EVERY ROCK.  Most of the rocks were converted into parking lots for the Big Black Rat Hole (Disney World).

How are you spraying now that you hate it so much?

Untrue.  Untrue.  I do not hate spraying.  Killing weeds is visceral.  It gets under one's skin and is FUN to work toward killing them ALL and watching it happen (if only for a while).

It has just become time consuming and expensive.  Roundup (or equal named Credit Extra) of 41% concentrate Glyphosate jumped from $24/gal delivered to over $95/gal. during the Chinese Olympics.  That price has fallen significantly since, but for a while, the same "while" that I was pouring the stuff into my fields (8 times a year), it was getting into my pocket real fast. 

Also, QDMA just published an alarming article about glyphosate resistence in some weeds.  I don't want my Johnson Grass or Air Potato or sand spurs taking that tack.

[bilmac]

I don't know what sand spurs is exactly, but I take it from reading here that it is a forb, a broadleaf plant, as opposed to a grass. If that is the case your task is a lot easier. You can spray with 2-4,D which is a lot cheaper than round up and it doesn't harm grass so you can broadcast spray over the general area and leave the grass competition while killing the forbs.

Keep talking to me, I've done a lot of this stuff so If you can make me understand the problem I think I can give you some ideas.

[Land_Owner]

I don't know what sand spurs is exactly

http://okeechobee.ifas.ufl.edu/News%20columns/Sandspur.htm

A sand spur is an insidious, Cro-magnon, warped, cockle bur-like, seed pod on the end of a grass stalk.  Each plant sends out runners on which multiple stalks of from 15 to 50 of these Battle Mace-like seed pods clusters occur.  

Each spur is approximately the size of an Iron clay Pea seed (see jpg) with 12 to 15 hardened pedels splayed out, not unlike the pedals of a mushroomed hollow point bullet (see jpg) stiff and hard, and significantly less like a Daisey flower and considerably more like a backlashed level wind fishing reel (see jpg).

[mechanic]

I do believe that is the most comprehensive description of a sand spur I've ever read!!!

[bilmac]

Ah now I start to feel your pain. We had sand burs in Nebr, may be related. Being a grass makes the control more difficult. I tried to control our burs in just our headquarters, maybe 2 acres total. By spot spraying with roundup I was able to keep the area free of the burs, but as you say it was time consuming and I wasn't winning the war, just keeping them down.

Best I could offer is to plant some tough competition for them especially if you cause any disturbance. That was one thing that made control difficult for me is I was dealing with lots of road edge and old tired lawns and animal trails. The stuff thrived where ever we scuffed up the ground.