Advise for a home owner

[kwonders]

I live in Indianapolis. Recently purchased an 8 acre property, a John Deere 2320 and a 60 gal. PTO sprayer. I have no experience with herbicides. I have what used to be a horse pasture (about 2 acres) and about a month and a 1/2 ago got it mowed. I have since mowed it a number of times. It is composed of about 60% nice grass (some sort of grass), and about 40% weeds (all kinds, thistle, crabgrass, creeping jenny, clover and other stuff). I currently have it mowed very short (It was chest high when we moved in).

I have only recently found this forum and what a great resource it is for a novice like me. I regularly read your posts and am learning allot.
Question is..;
I am ready to start to try and tackle these weeds with my tractor and sprayer and a liquid herbicide. I have seen posts referring to numerous herbicides and have Googled most of them to see what you guys are talking about. Ones like 24D, Drive, Momentum FX/Q or with octane, and Eliminate. I have no idea which one would be best for me. Can you please just suggest one that would help me start to get a grip on all these weeds that are trying to stage a come back in my newly reclaimed yard? Thanks for your help in advance.

[twotone]

Kwonders, You might consider this: Choose a broadleaf herbicide labeled SELECTIVE not NON-SELECTIVE applied at the label's application rate. Two to three weeks later rent a nice slit seeder for your tractor and plant a fescue blend, I've had great success with Lesco's Teammates blend at about 5# per thousand sq. ft. Spread a starter fertilizer and watch it grow. Drive is very expensive, your crabgrass is going away at first frost anyway. Come spring use a pre emergent to help control your crabgrass and other seeding weeds.

You've picked the best time of year to do this. The best weed defense is thick healthy turf. Give yourself a couple seasons to get there

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

[ATVracer]

The first thing to do and most importantly is to calibrate how much water your sprayer will be putting out per acre. I would fill it up with plain water and spray a measured off acre 2-3 times at the same speed. Figure out how much water is being applied per acre. From there head down to a Lesco store or chemical supplier and buy a 2.5 gallon jug of 3 way herbicide(usually 70-100 bucks), this will take out most weeds. The herbicide will tell you how many pints/acre to apply. Then simply mix the water and correct amount of herbicide and go at it. Weed kill is not all that great right now. If I were you I would wait until the first-middle of October.

[Heatman]

It will take alot to spray 8 acres. If I were you I would go to to your local Tractor Supply Store and buy a Trimec product. They have it in I believe 2 1/2 gallon jugs and that will take care of alot of the different weeds you have. Be sure to follow the dirrections and you will need to find out the volume your sprayer is putting out at a particular speed to get the correct coverage.

[kwonders]

Taking the time to calibrate how much water my sprayer will be putting out per acre is good advice. This will also help me become more familiar with it before I put dollars into the spray tank, as I have yet to ever use it. Thanks for the pointers, this is exactly what I needed.

[ffemt1271]

if you will contact you local county extension agent, they will comme out and make a suggestion as to what herbicide to use, and also will be able to help you with calibrating your spray rig.