neighbor spraying roundup in the wind.

[WTA]

I was in my shop working this morning and my eyes started burning so I went outside to see what was going on and I saw my neighbor about 400 yards away out spraying on his tractor. He's spraying roundup a day after he went over his field with the tiller which makes no sense to me at all. Those plants are already dead and tilled in and roundup has very little if any residual effect and I've never heard of it being able to kill weed seeds in the ground.

Anyway, The wind is blowing about 20 mph in straight line from him to my alfalfa and bermuda fields and where I was in the shop. Judging by the smell in the air he's mixed it pretty strong.

My question is do I need to worry about my crops? I called him as soon as I noticed the smell in the air and he stopped but he had already done 3 acres worth of spraying. I've never used roundup myself and I don't know how bad that stuff can be when drifting on the wind. All I know is my eyes are watering still. How long does that stuff take before I should notice any damage it might have caused? I'm half tempted to go cut my alfalfa right now just in case but I just irrigated it. The whole field is a mud hole right now and there really isn't any way I can pull the haybine through it yet.

I really hope he hasn't done any damage over here. Both of us have been totally wiped out by the crop dusters around here twice now and he is the lawyer that made them stay away finaly. We're pretty much a no fly zone now thanks to him. If I lose my hay fields though I'm screwed. You all know how it is for us small farms this year with the fuel and fertilizer prices taking such a big chunk out already.

 

[DocHeb]

400 yards and you could smell it?? You're in trouble. If affected, the wilting will start in 48-72 hours

 

[WTA]

That's what I was afraid of. I'm still smelling it. I guess there is nothing I can do now other than wait and see what happens. 400 yards really is nothing for wind drift around here. The land is flat as can be and this 20 MPH wind is actually mild for us. Last week during a storm we had gusts over 100 mph that shook the house. 40-60 mph wind is almost a certainty this time of year even when there isn't a cloud in the sky.

Well, I guess I better go call my insurance agent and see what he says to do. I know I'm not covered but he can probably tell me what to do if we are killed out again.

 

[Jimbrown]

Pretty sure it won't hurt bermuda just kill the weeds. Don't know about alphalfa maybe i'm thinkin it will stunt it for sure, but any leafy plant or evergreen is probably in danger.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

I know that your fields are already wet, but you can water them and wash the stuff off before it's too late. It says right on the label to spray when there's no chance of rain for 24 hours.

As far as health effects, if it burned your eyes, I would check with a medical professional asap.

 

[WTA]

I just called my wife at work about that. She's a doctor but not the right kind of doc. She's asking the right kind about roundup to see if I need to go in. I doubt I will have to.

I should have kept my respirator on I guess. I was sandblasting here in the shop and even though I have a blast cabinet with a dust collector outside I still wear a good respirator.

I had my son turn the sprinkler on again in the Alfalfa. I'll have him go move it about every two hours untill we cover the field again.

I know with 24D that doesn't work. Even at the very low concentrations of it that I use on my bermuda it still kills broadleafs fast. I can even spray it in the rain and it works.

 

[Unclebuck257]

It depends on which Roundup he was using. One works even if it rains within one hour after application, I believe. I'm going to bet that if he mixed it as strong as you've indicated and was using the kind I'm talking about, you will have some crop damage. How much remains to be seen. Please let us know what happens.

 

[WTA]

It was the name brand happy homeowner stuff in the small bottles that he got from the local feedstore. I'm sure the concentration wasn't much per bottle but he did use a lot of it.

I told him a couple of times that he is always welcome to come get my big sprayer any time he wants. It's twice the width of his rig and it has big nozzles on it that are a lot less prone to wind drift and also you can go about 10 mph the way I have it set up. He was only going about 1.5 mph.

 

[RonL]

I do not believe Roundup is species specific, I believe it kills plants across the board.
Why the h*** would someone spray roundup on tilled soil? Has he ever had an IQ test? That is totally beyond the pale!

RonL

 

[Unclebuck257]

It was the name brand happy homeowner stuff in the small bottles that he got from the local feedstore. I'm sure the concentration wasn't much per bottle but he did use a lot of it.

I told him a couple of times that he is always welcome to come get my big sprayer any time he wants. It's twice the width of his rig and it has big nozzles on it that are a lot less prone to wind drift and also you can go about 10 mph the way I have it set up. He was only going about 1.5 mph.

If you walk into ANY store that sells Roundup in those "Concentrate" bottles, I believe its the color of the label on the plastic bottle that determines which Roundup it is, regarding time before rain will affect it. It therefore wouldn't matter whether it was a small bottle or not, but rather the type of Roundup it was in that bottle as to whether rain ( or your spraying water) would affect it within a certain time period. Why not just ask this idiot which Roundup he used and ask to see the bottles to be sure? By now though, since this thread started, you should begin to see some effect on your field I would think, IF you didn't get it in time.