Many of you remember the herbicide BUCTRIL. About 6 years ago it was removed from the market place due to concerns about the particular solvent (non-herbicide part of the liquid product). After several years, the product BUCTRIL is now available for use on non-residential turfs with the following restrictions.

* It is applied only by certified applicators. BUCTRIL is a restricted use pesticide.

* It is applied to non-residential turf areas (no home lawns).

* Cannot be applied with hand held spray tank.

* A 12 hour re-entry period must be obeyed.

For golf courses, the 12 hour re-entry means a late afternoon application with no players on the course. Do not water applied areas that night. Skip a day between irrigations. BUCTRIL needs to penetrate the leaves and will be less effective if washed off the weed vegetation.

You cannot apply BUCTRIL with a back-pack sprayer. It needs to be applied with a boom sprayer, in which the operator is in front of the spray boom. This should not be a problem on fairway and rough applications. I would guess that a spray-hawk operation on a green would not be acceptable, since the boom is in front of the operator.

The active ingredient in BUCTRIL is bromxynil. It is very effective on burr clover, white clover, medics, mustards and the summer spurges. I have not tried it on khakiweed yet. BUCTRIL really zonks out wildcarrot (wild celery) which can really be a problem in closely mowed turf.

Adding up to 0.5% non-ionic surfactant increases weed control, however, turf injury can be enhanced. This is usually worse in the heat of the summer. Given these restrictions, BUCTRIL is available for use by certified applicators on non-residential turfs. Call your dealer for details and ask for the new label and MSDS sheet.