More Questions about Liberty

[corey890]

We are planting some 2153 this year and I have some concerns about the chemical Liberty. We have heard that we need to have it sprayed by a custom applicator to recieve optimum performance, why is that? Nobody can give us a straight answer, it seems like they just want to charge us the $4 an acre. Is it because of the volume of water, we can spray up 5 gallons an acre with our system. Has anyone noticed any crop damage from this chemical. I have a hard time believing that this chemical is so sensitive to how it is put on that a producer cannot apply it themselves. Please any info on this would be greatly appriciated.

[olinfarms]

We grew 2273 last year and had a custom sprayer apply the Liberty for us and had good luck with it. Because it is a contact herbicide, the more surface of the weed that comes in contact with the spray, the better chance for weed control. If only a small part of a leaf gets sprayed, only a small part will brown off and the weed will keep growing. So the best way to ensure maximum coverage is to go with as high of water volume as possible which means usually 10 gal/acre. I've heard stories of even better coverage with water volumes over 10 gpa. Hope this helps.

[mhartman]

There is no restriction on the Liberty label about farmer application vs custom application. Liberty is a contact herbicide so timing, coverage and weather conditions will be important. Nozzle types are restricted to 80 or 110 flat fan. Do NOT use flood jet nozzles or air-assisted sprayers.

[todd2]

I have sprayed Liberty on 2153,2273& seed production fields with a computorspray @2.67gal/acre and have had excellent results. However it is not that great on wildoats or voluteer barley, some regrowth may occure depending on what rate you use but I think that will happen no matter what rate of water. Coverage is important but I feel with the computersprayer I cover better that 10 or 15 gal with less run off. Hope this helps.

[monaco]

We seeded 2153 in 1997 and sprayed it with our old conventional sprayer at 10 gal. and had a nice clean crop - however there was very little weed pressure . If you are going in on barley stubble you may want to consider a round-up ready variety as Liberty is weak on barley and wild oats - Liberty is also much more expensive and under cool wet weather conditions it just doesn't get the job done . For my buck I find the round-up ready varieties are exellent and the herbicide is cheap and well proven . Good luck !

[emiled]

From my experience, Timing, coverage and knowing your weed spectrum are crucial to success with Liberty. Coverage is very important (min 10 gal.) but is not always related to water volume - If timing is late, coverage can be a problem as crop covers weeds or weeds cover weeds - Liberty struggles more with grassy weeds than broadleafs (generally) - but it is manageable -- Take a close look at the options available - 1) tank-mixes with a grassy weed herbicide(esp for v. barley) 2) 2 pass system with Liberty, 3) quackgrass rate of Liberty, 4) a pass initially with a wild oat herbicide followed up with Liberty are all options available.

[poorboy]

Todd2, What nozzles are you using in your computorspray? I used to own one and it ran the extended range 110 degree nozzles and it had excellent coverage, but the drift was quite bad. Have you tried the air induction or turbo teejet nozzles in your Computorspray, and if you did how the weed control and drift compare to the xr nozzles.

[poorboy]

Todd2, What nozzles are you using in your computorspray? I used to own one and it ran the extended range 110 degree nozzles and it had excellent coverage, but the drift was quite bad. Have you tried the air induction or turbo teejet nozzles in your Computorspray, and if you did how the weed control and drift compare to the xr nozzles.