Any experience spot spraying Lontrel 360?

[RedEye669]

I've been battling thistle unsuccessfully in my new shelter belts for the last few years; I rototill between the rows but within the rows it's a nightmare. The area is far too large to hand weed, and even with a shielded sprayer it's usually too windy to use Roundup without getting drift on the trees. I've been using clethodim successfully to keep grass down and just discovered the existence of Lontrel, which suppresses thistle growth and can also be sprayed right over the top of spruce and pine. Trouble is, I can't find any information for small scale application with a backpack sprayer. Has anyone here done this?

 

[smstonypoint]

I haven't used the product but here's a link to its label: http://www.cdms.net/ldat/ld2QB003.pdf. The application rates for backpack sprayers begin at the top of page 5.

Steve

 

[RedEye669]

I've seen that, but since it's in terms of so much per acre it's less than useful. Other herbicides give an actual mixing strength for spot spraying; with the label information I'd have to go through some laborious calibration process to try to determine how much volume I'm spraying per acre, which has very little to do with the reality of spot spraying individual trees. I was hoping that someone had used this stuff and knew how strong to mix it.

 

[smstonypoint]

The label says that the spray volume (water + product) should be 20 (or more) gallons/acre, so one gallon of mixture would cover 2,178 square feet. As a starting point, multiply the appropriate value of fl.oz/1000 ft[SUP]2[/SUP] from the table at the top of page 5 (1/5 oz. for bull and musk thistles, 1/4 oz. for Canada thistle) by 2.178 to obtain the amount of product to add to a gallon of water.

Steve