Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Weed control with 2,4D

Have about 1 1/2 to 2 acre pond. need to control White water lily and water shield. Planning to use 2,4D.
Questions are:
Would Aquacide pellets be more effecient than liquid? Weeds are VERY thick in shallow areas.

Will 2,4 D harm some small, about 10' tall, cypress trees at edge of pond, couple are actually in the water.

Is there an "aquatic" form of 2,4 D, like there is for glyphosate?

Have read you should not use ester form of 2,4D, is this true? Should you only use "dichlorophenoxy acetic acid" form?

Thanks for any info.

Here is a link to an information page from a large supplier.

2,4-D Herbicides

Under the product information sheet, that link shows lots of products that are NOT applicable.

I believe their Navigate granules may be applicable to your situation.

White and yellow water lily and water shield are on that label as targets for that formulation.


*** I am definitely NOT an expert, and I have not used herbicides in my ponds at our property (but I use them frequently on our terrestrial undesirable plants).

There are many experts on Pond Boss that deploy herbicides on ponds as professionals, or have been treating their own ponds for many years. Hopefully, some will comment in your thread.

Weedar 64 liquid is a water friendly 2 4-D. I use it around the banks to kill Waterleaf, and various broadleaf shoreline weeds. As Rod said, Navigate is a good option also.

Why a 2 4-D instead of a glyphosate?

Considering 2,4D because i've seen it listed as more effective on water shield and water lily than glyphosate. Seems to be little cheaper now also.

Have looked at Navigate before but saw it was labeled as "butoxyethyl ester of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid". Had read that ester forms were somehow more toxic to fish, maybe? Been looking again but can't find this data anymore. The Aquacide pellets don't say what form anywhere that i can find.

Weedar 64 does state "2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, dimethylamine salt" so it's an amine form instead of ester. So i'm not sure if the chemical form actually makes any difference or not??

As far as using liquid vs pellets, does one work better than the other? I would think pellets would be easier to apply.
....

OK, I'd go with that. I've used Navigate for years, primarily for patches of American Lotus, and never had any fish problems. I would say that being up wind and wearing proper PPE is needed because Navigate is extremely dusty when spreading.

I have used Habitat to rid a pond of 90% coverage of watershield. It had a couple cypress trees in it too, I just sprayed the watershield with the Habitat until I had good coverage on it, not enough that it was running off into the water. To see how much coverage I was getting I added about 10 fluid ounces of concentrated pond dye to the tank mix. I also used 1 fl. oz. non0ionic surfactant per gallon of tank mix to cut through the waxy coating on the watershield. No cypress trees were harmed post application.