Pond Boss
Ok I stumbled across something today when I was filling up my John Deere sprayer to spray 100 acres to clean up my bermuda grass. I just recently posted about my troubles with coontail in my 30 acre lake. I had decided to let my carp work for the year and possibly restock next year.

However, while I was reading the label I stumbled across its aquatic weed control section ...

I'm spraying 2,4-D Amine 4. The Amine 4 basically is an additive to make it have zero drift properties. anyways, on the label it reads you can do Aquatic Surface application at 2.5-4.25 pints to the acre mixed with 50 gallons or water. Or Aerial application at 1 gallon to the acre etc to kill certain aquatic plants. It has about the same directions about spraying only parts of the lake to avoid DO crashes etc as other aqautic chemicals do. It does say that it should be done when plants are above the water line and actively growing.

The active ingredient is Dimethylamine salt of 2,4-D acid 47.3%. Where 2,4-D chemicals such as Navigate state it is butoxyethyl ester of 2,4-D acid 27.6%. On the Texas A&M site it states the following about 2,4-D on Coontail. ""Rated Good for control. Navigate and Aqua-Kleen are 2,4-D compounds that have been effective on coontail. 2,4-D compounds are systemic herbicides. Systemic herbicides are absorbed and move within the plant to the site of action. Systemic herbicides tend to act more slowly than contact herbicides.""

Now, Im gonna do more research but can anyone more "in the know" about these chemicals help me out here. It appears that I can setup to spray with 4 pints to acre and 50 gallons of water. Being that it says plants need to be above the waterline, I may only be able to spray areas were the coontail is right at the waterline (there is alot of areas with this).

I may find its not suitable for my situation or not safe etc, but it appears that it is. I just won't to figure everything out instead of just running out and shooting this in my pond.

Can anyone help me out here.
If i was you i would try to get ahold of Kelly Duffie. He is the man when it comes to chemicals and pond weeds. He used to visit this site alot but i havent seen him in awhile and i heard he quit Estes Inc. You know that coontail is 99% under water. Are you hoping that 24d will get the very tops of the plants and work its way down? Maybe you just try a little spot and see what happens. I feel your pain brother i have the same problem with coontail but my pond is only 2 1/2 acres. Its fixn to explode to in another month when the water gets warmmer. I swear you can watch it grow on a 95 degree day in the summer.
Well, it just said on the label that treatment should be done when plants are developed, above waterline and actively growing.

I may be like Reward where you must be in the area of the vegetation to kill. I'm not sure thats just what it stated. It says it will readily work on, Alligatorweed, parrotfeather, water hyacinth, waterlily, and water primrose etc. Most of those being emergent plants... Although parrotfeather is a submerged plant like coontail it does stick up out of the water... hmm...

Seems like if this will absorb on the coontail in the water I might be in luck. I guess if someone doesn't come along with more info I might just try an area, spraying it on the spots that are at the waterline....
As of now im thinking being that 2,4,-D is a Systemic herbicide which are absorbed and move within the plant to the site of action, if I can just get it in contact with the coontail on the surface it will kill it.

Im wondering if I need a surfactant? I see where people like to use Cutrine. I wonder if I should and how much to use.

Im thinking abou going with what the label says on the 2,4,-D which is 4 pints mixed in 25 gallons per acre. This is the heavy side of the spectrum. If I need to put in Cutrine, what would anyone think I should try?
If you can weight down the applicator hose, but put something bouyant on the end and drag it thru the coontail at the depth so it will disperse within the maximum density, it should give good results. That's not an official recommendation, since companies pay big bucks for aquatic labeling. If it says you can use it in the water, I would go for it. Cheap enough. I would wager it will work pretty good.
I just don't see why it would not, I just wanted to throw it out to everyone to see if there was any + or - imputs.

Good idea on dispersing it in the plant mass. I think I'll try both ways and also mix it at 2 different strengths.

If I don't get any help on the surfactant part i think i'll just go without it and see what happens.

anyone else have some advice, you can PM me if you'd like to not post it.

thanks everyone.
chad you wanted me to post,last day in the office so here goes. I do not think 2,4-d liquid is best choice for coontail, but it will work to some degree I feel. I like the idea of BM. You want to maximize its effectiveness but getting it right on the plant.

We sell a surfactant and it is recommended to use one. You should find one most anywhere. You mentioned cutrine to me, that is an algaecide not a surfactant. However we many times mix algaecide with Reward for coontail treatmetns because alge is growing on the coontail so it helps.
Chadwickz71,

On several occassions now, I've been in situations where my clients wanted to eradicate large stands of coontail without affecting american pondweed. To pull this off, I used 2,4D amine with CideKick II surfactant. The results were awesome. We got great kills on the coontail (which is a dicot) and the American pondweed survived well (which is a monocot).

I only use the 2,4D is instances like this where I am needing species selective killing. The main reason I don't normally use 2,4D is because of the smell of the chemical. Using it raises concern because of the odor. So, I normally use either Reward or Aquathol to kill the coontail. It's a little more expensive, but doesn't raise as many eyebrows when being applied. For the latter two, I usually tank mix Cutrine and a surfactant. I haven't added cutrine to the 2,4D, but for no particular reason.

I basically have two types of coontail clients- fishing people and beautiful pond people. The beautiful pond people usually get flouridone to wipe the slate clean. The fishing people get one of the contact herbicides (Reward, Aquathol, etc) because our goal isn't complete eradication. Rather, it's plant and fish management- so we do want some weeds and we selectively kill patches.
shawn, looks like your the person I've been looking for. I sent you a PM.
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