New Weed Killer/Damaged Trees

No damaged trees here is my opening salvo regarding the above title.  On to my story.  This spring I began to use a new herbicide called Imprellis.  This is a new chemistry from Dupont that kills many broadleaf weeds both on contact and through the soil which to my knowledge is no other product on the market that is like it.  It has a very low use rate of 3 oz per acre and is very safe for applicators to use.  It is safe on all cool season grass, has some activity on zoysia but will flat knock the socks off of bermuda which interested me because of our need to rid the first cut of rough of bermuda.  So I tried it in some areas, out in the open, away from trees.  It worked well and it sure did knock the bermuda for a loop.  Some just started to grow out of the damage just before the Invitational.  No tree damage to report here.  I wanted to mention this in case any of you had a lawn service apply this product and possibly lost a tree that should be investigated.  As you will see in the reports below, it looks like a multi-million dollar loss and lawsuits to come.

Well, we have come to find out on a large scale that there could be a problem with this chemical on Conifers.
It appears that the material has been sprayed around or near trees and has had a deadly consequence.

Here are a couple of links to news reports regarding this potential problem.

New York Times article

Turfnet.com news

Home lawns, what am I to do?

I receive updates from both Missouri and Kansas State turf programs and extension.  There was an interesting posting from Kansas State regarding irrigation of home lawns.

http://www.ksuturf.org/blog/2011/07/from-the-email-bag-stop-watering-and-stop-mowing/

Right now, if you have a cool season lawn, you should be doing nothing to the lawn except applying some water from time to time to keep it from going dormant.  Heavy, saturated watering leads to more weeds outpacing your turf this time of year.

Also, nutsedge is everywhere.  Spraying during this type of heat might kill the water grass but will kill everything else.  We have a fine crop on the golf course right now that will continue to grow until the weather cools to more normal or less than normal temperatures.  I missed my window earlier in the season to eliminate some of this dastardly stuff and refuse to damage good turf just to reduce its existence.  This season, it has won but there is always next year and we will be applying early and often before the heat.