2,4-D FOR THE CONTROL OF NUT GRASS

A. L. Harrison is laborious and fairly expensive. Since then

Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
Vegetable Crops Laboratory
Braclenton
The control of nut grass Cyperus rotundus
L. is a problem that has received the attention
of a great many workers. Fields have been
abandoned because the dense stands of nut
grass have increased production costs
point where it was no longer profitable to
grow a crop on the land. In 1938 (6)
and May ton reported that "plowing or disk
ing at intervals of three weeks or less during
two consecutive growing seasons" had given
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or 2,4-D as it
is more commonly known has been discovered
as an excellent herbicide for many plants.
(2, 3, 4 and 5). Because of the unusual amount
of interest that was shown by these early ex
periments small tests were made at the'Vege
table Crops Laboratory to see .what effect
2,4-D « would have on nut grass.
In the first experiment young nut grass
to a plants growing in flats in the greenhouse were
sprayed on Dec. 18, 1944 with enough material
Smith to thoroughly wet the foliage. The 2,4-D was
used at .1% and .2%. No effect on the growth
of the nut grass was noticed for about a week.
The sprayed plants then started to turn a pale

TABLE I—Effect of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid on Nut Grass

Number of Plants
1 green 2 or more No
Treatment Flat Dead leaf green leaves Injury •Total
.1% 1 96 5 0 0 101
2,4-D 2 103 5 4 0 112
3 90 4 2 0 96
4 70 5 2. 0 75

.2% 1 114 7 2 0 123

2,4-D 2 188 5 2 0 195
3 131 2 0 0 133
4 92 2 • 2 0 96

Check 1 0 0 0 176 176

2 0 0 0 90 90
3 0 0 0 127 127 .

effective control of nut grass. This is an ex-, to a yellowish green and stopped growing.
pensive method and compels the laying aside The decline of the sprayed plants was gradual
of the areas for two seasons. More recently but became progressively more severe until on
Fromm (1) has reported some success in the
elimination of nut grass from the soil by the
< The 2,4-D was furnished by the Dow Chem
addition of 1 liter of 2N calcium thiocyanate
ical Co., Midland, Mich., and the E. I. duPont
solution to 1 square meter of soil. This method de Nemours and Co., Wilmington, Del.

1946 (78)
 HARRISON: CONTROL OP NUT GRASS
Jan. 2, 1945, many of the plants were dead.
The unsprayed plants continued to grow rap
idly and have a thrifty green appearance. The
final results were taken on January 10, 194'5,
and are presented in Table 1. All of the sprayed
plants probably would have died if the tests
had been carried longer.
The second experiment was conducted in
the field during the fall of 1945 on almost a
pure stand of nut grass. The 2,4-D used at
the rate of 1 lb. of a 70 percent wettable to
100 gallons of water, was applied with a knap
sack sprayer on October 17 on replicated plots
in comparison with Animate (ammonium sul-
famate). The nut grass was in a thrifty con
dition with an occasional flower stalk in evi
dence. The growth was so dense that it re
quired heavy applications of the spray mate
rials to get thorough coverage.
The general reaction of the nut grass to
2,4-D was the same as in the greenhouse
test. No effect was noticeable for several
days, but after about a week the plots sprayed
with 2,4-D started to turn yellowish green.
As the days passed they became more yellow
ish, finally turning 'brown and dying. On Nov.
8 most of the nut grass plants sprayed with
2,4-D were dead, a few had 2-3 yellowish
green leaves, but even these plants finally died.
At no time was there any twisting or distor
tion of the plants, a symptom which is so
characteristic of 2,4-D on most other plants.
The effect of 2,4-D on nut grass is illus
trated in figure 1. The picture was taken on
Nov. 19 and is typical of the check and 2,4-D
sprayed plots.
The Ammate sprayed plots responded simi
larly to the 2,4-D plots. The leaves first turned
yellowish green, then yellowish brown and fi
nally died. However the kill with the Animate
was not quite as complete as with the 2,4-D.
Nut grass plants that had started to produce
flower stalks were slow in responding to both
2,4-D and Ammate, but even these in most
cases failed to flower.
Effect of 2,4-D and Ammate on
Nut Grass Tubers
Even though 2,4-D and Ammate will kill
79
the tops of nut grass plants, the question that
naturally arose was, will they also kill the
tubers? This point was determined by digging
and selecting 50 of the best new tubers from
each treatments. Some difficulty was experi
enced in collecting these tubers from the
2,4-D and Ammate plots since most of them
had started to disintegrate. These tubers were
planted on Nov. 29 in flats in the greenhouse
for germination tests. The results were taken
on Jan. 3 and are presented in Table 2.
A further check on this point was made
■ by digging and selecting 25 additional ap
parently sound tubers from each replication
and planting them in flats in the greenhouse
on Dec. 6. The final germination counts were
made on Jan. 3. The results are presented in
Table 2.
A third test was conducted in which 100
old tubers (they had all produced at least one
plant) were dug and then planted in flats in
the greenhouse to see if the herbicide was
translocated from the tops to the old tubers
in sufficient quantities to kill the tubers. This
was done on Nov. 15. The final results which
are presented in Table 2 do not give a com
plete picture of what happened. The tubers
from the check plots started growing immedi
ately and had all germinated within a few
days and produced vigorous plants. Many ot
the tubers that did germinate from the 2,4-D
and Ammate sprayed plots were very slow
in germinating! A few did not germinate until
5 weeks after planting.
The data for this test clearly illustrates
that 2,4-D may kill better than 99% of the
new tubers found and furthermore will also
destroy some of the old parent tubers. Ammate
will also do this to some extent but is not
as effective as 2,4-D.
The next question that arose in this test was
how soon after treatment can the soil be used
without danger of injury to commercial crops.
To answer this question soil from the top 2
inches of the 2,4-D plots was thoroughly
mixed along with the dead nut grass tops
and placed in pots in the greenhouse. A sim
ilar series of pots were filled with soil from the
 J3
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ft
 HARRISON: CONTROL OF NUT GRASS
check plots. The samples were taken on No
vember 9, 23 days after the nut grass had
been sprayed. Tomato seedlings were set in
these pots to see if there was any residual
effect of the 2,4-D.
Seedlings that were set immediately in the
2,4-D soil were killed within a few days.
Tomato seedlings that were set in the same
soil 11 days later lived but were severely
stunted. Another series of tomato seedlings
was set in this soil on Dec. 19 which was 64
days after the nutgrass had been sprayed.
There was no evidence of injury in any of
the tomato plants.
In another test 2,4-D was sprayed on to
soil at about the same rate as used in the nut
TABLE 2—Effect of 2,4-D and Ammate
on Nut Grass Tubers *
Number of Tubers
Treatment Producing Plants
Test 12 Test 2 2 | Test 3 2
2,4-D 3 2 45
Ammate 14 24 68
Check 44 60 100
1 Tubers were dug and then planted in flats of
steamed soil in greenhouse.
2 Test 1—50 apparently sound new tubers were
used.
Test 2—75 apparently sound new tubers were
used.
Test 3—100 old tubers were used.
grass test. The soil was thoroughly mixed and
placed in pots in the greenhouse. Three types
of soil were used: Manatee fine sandy loam
heavy phase, Manatee fine sandy loam light
phase, and Leon fine sand. Injury to tomato
seedlings occurred in all soil types after 35
days but not after 60 days. The injury ap
peared to disappear more rapidly from the
light Leon sandy soil than from the Manatee
heavy. The Manatee light was intermediate.
81
Conclusions
The data presented indicates that 2,4-D as
a spray offers promise as a herbicide for the
elimination of nutgrass from cultivated fields!
One application at 1 lb. of a 70% wettable
material to 100 gallons of water gave com
plete kill of the tops and better than 99 per
cent of the new tubers were destroyed. There
was also a reduction in the viability and vi
tality of the old parent tubers but not a com
plete kill. The numbers of applications of 2,
4-D that will be necessary to completely elim
inate all the nutgrass from an area still
has to be worked out.
There is some residual effect of 2,4-D
in the soil, so susceptible crops should not be
planted soon after treatment. Tomatoes have
been severely injured in some tests even 35
days after treatment. No injury to tomatoes
has been observed after 60 days but this may
happen under some conditions.
Ammate also has shown some promise as
an herbicide for nut grass.
Literature Cited
1. FROMM, F. The eradication of nutgrass. Set-
ence, 96: 337-338. 1942.
2. HAMNER, C. L. and TUCKEY, H. B. The
herbicidal action of 2,4-dichlorophenoxy-
acetic acid and 2, 4, 5 trichlorophenoxyacetic
acid on bindweed. Science, 100: 154-155.
1944.
3. HAMNER, C. L. and TUCKEY, H. B. Selective
herbicidal action of midsummer and fall ap
plications of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.
Bot. Gaz., 106: 232-245. 1945.
4. MARTH, P. C. and MITCHELL, J. W. 2,4-di
chlorophenoxyacetic acid as a differential her
bicide. Bot. Gaz., 106: 224-232. 1945.
5. MITCHELL, J. W. and HAMNER, C. L. Poly
ethylene glycols as carriers for growth regu
lating substances. Bot. Gaz., 105: 474-483.
1944.
6. SMITH, E. V. and MAYTIN, E. L. Nutgrass
eradication studies: II. The eradication of
nutgrass, Cyperus rotundas L., by certain till
age treatments. Jour. Amer. Soc. Agr., 30:
18-21. 1938.