Queen Anne's Lace

Well, either way- the problem is ours to solve. Fortunately, we don't need much hay so if we have to mow a couple times next year while they are in flower and lose a cutting, we'll be fine. Unless, we have another drought, of course.

Callieslamb - Are you wanting a flush of new growth just in time to die when it gets cold in Michigan?? I ask that because the nitrogen in the soil will not remain there until the spring next year. Nitrogen needs to be put into the soil just before it is going to be used by GROWING plants. Better to wait until spring to use the urea (unless you are going to hay the field again this year) just as the grasses are starting to green up. Nitrogen put into the soil at the wrong time will just eventually evaporate into the air, doing the plants no good and costing you extra money. It's the same reason that fruit trees are not fertilized until the buds begin to swell/break.

Urea in granular form doesn't evaporate. It will probably be spread in the polymerized form, which will be water soluble and go into the soil. The microbes in the soil will convert it into the NO3 form, which the grass will pick qp pretty fast and give good growth. As I understand it, she will, or already has, before yesterday's half inch rainfall, clip the flower stalks -- then wait and hope for enough grass growth for one more baling in late September--or use it for pasture until it goes dormant in November. The remaining, water soluble NO3 will hopefully be trapped in the dormant root systems and fire up again in next year's warmer weather. Yes, this practice is good for this time of year, but not recommended for much later applications, because of the water solubility issue.

geo

QAL pops up right after haying in my area. Doesn't really get into the hay, because of its late development. However if you want to get rid of it, you need to cut it before it goes to seed. That is the common non-chemical way to get rid of most weeds.
I am getting a grass weed that livestock don't like. The stuff develops seed heads just before hay season, so haying spreads it.

For what its worth, a QAL I've ever seen has a very tiny purple flower at the center of the big flat white blossom. Really have to look close to see it.

I only want to get rid of it because I think there's enough to flavor the hay and the flower stems, when dry, will be prickly and not good eating. I certainly don't want any more of it than we already have. Here, it flowers late summer so about the same time as the 2nd and 3rd cuttings.

With the drought here this year, Queen Anne's Lace was the only thing that remained green. It also was blooming already in early July. A mystery is how 3 of us in a row had it growing in the terrace between the sidewalk and curb. Not only growing but blooming. In 49 years there has never been a single plant here and I took out 4 or 5. If they had been growing here last year as first-year plants, they certainly were not obvious and were mowed off many times. Same would have applied for April and May this year. They simply showed up and 3 of us are trying to figure out how they got here.

Martin

Glad I'm not the only one but sorry you have it too. I guess I'll have to blame the birds. I hope mowing it will contain it for you.