2,4-D As a Burndown Herbicide

I spent quite some time reading 2,4-D labels over the last two days, and I thought that I had the plantback restrictions correct in the earlier post entitled “Dicamba and 2,4-D Plantback Restrictions”.  Just to prove that 2,4-D labels are confusing, I listed the plantback restrictions correctly, but I did not specify the formulations.

Barrage HF, Havoc LV-Six, Salvo, and Shredder LV4 were listed.  However, there are multiple formulations of Shredder with some being amine and some being ester formulations.  In the original post, the LV4 label of Shredder was used to list plantback restrictions in the table, but the formulation was not designated.

The plantback restrictions for ester formulations of 2,4-D are correct as listed in the post entitled “Dicamba and 2,4-D Plantback Restrictions”.  If an ester formulation is utilized, the plantback restriction prior to soybean planting is 7 days following 2,4-D ester at  0.5 lb ae/A and 15 days following 2,4-D ester at 1.0 lb ae/A.  If an amine formulation is utilized, the plantback restriction prior to soybean planting is 15 days following 2,4-D amine at 0.5 lb ae/A and 30 days following 2,4-D amine at 1.0 lb ae/A.

The labels used in this post did not designate a temperature restriction for 2,4-D applications.  However, a general rule is that ester formulations be applied when day-time temperatures are <55 F.  When day-time temperatures are consistently >55 F, then amine formulations should be utilized.

2,4-D labels can be frustrating to decipher.  Use caution when making applications of phenoxy herbicides.  Better to be safe and read the label of the product that is actually going into the sprayer than to be sorry and suffer consequences from herbicide drift or carryover.