It's way too hot to use 2,4-d. It should only be used when the highs are below 90. It's probably better to be on the safe side and not use it unless the temperatures are below 85. Your best bet at this time of the year is to hand pull, but that's not very feasible if it's 50% of the lawn. Somebody posted a couple of years ago about diluting Roundup to about 1/4 strength, putting it in jars and partially burying the jars with some of the bindweed stuck in the jar. I think he did it in the fall as temperatures were cooling down. The idea is to kill the bindweed slowly enough that it draws the roundup into the roots, killing the entire plant, rather than just the part that's above ground. Since many of the vines that you see above the ground actually belong to one plant, doing this in one spot can cause bindweed to die in many other spots as well.

"Curiouser and curiouser. We have read for years on here that the 16:1 was because of bushings rather than roller bearings, now it's no longer true. Okay, then what is the reason for 16:1 (I have no idea why I care, since I will never own one)?" You will note that I say the BOTTOM bushing. The D400 had needle bearings on the top end. The switch in mix spec came when they went to the 2 ring piston AND the needle bearings on the wrist pin end of the connecting rod, perhaps this was the bushing others were referring to which you may have misinterpreted. These parts can be interchanged and I have done it often only the connecting rod with needle bearings on the wrist pin end must be used with the 2 ring piston. As for never owning one, reminds me of someone I know who says he will never own a Ford. Surely most people know that the bottom bushing continued thru the D600 series which used 32:1 mix and all of these LBs had the mix written on them though in early years it was a decal which eventually became illegible. Some had the mix molded into the shroud. I would note that there is a difference between "needle bearings" and "roller bearings". LB, until DuraForce, used needle bearings unless it was the "M" with which I am not familiar. As I have said before on this and other lists, if you are uncertain what mix you should use, clean your exhaust ports and while you are at it, count how many rings are on the piston as you look thru the clean exhaust ports. Three rings = 16:1, 2 rings = 32:1. Walt Conner

Whatever you do, stay away from the Craftsman mowers! The mowers are not to great but what is worse, is the parts department. First, Sears carries little to no parts and trying to order parts on line, well all I can say.. Don't. I spent many phone calls and over two hours on the phone and after two tries.. they still sent me front wheels when I needed the rear. Their famous line is.. we will send it to the resource center and they will get back to you in 3-5 days. Buy a mower from a dealer and the Toro or Honda is the way to go. Aside from the motors, check the quality of the wheels and most of all, the comfort of the pull start, and overall feel of the mower. I just purchased a comercial Lawn-boy model, 22271 over an equal Honda mower simply due to the feel. Good luck with your decision. I strongly suggest, buy from a dealer who you go back to for advise and service.

I think you're past the temperature window when it's safe to use it at all, because when it gets close to 90, it can kill the grass as well as the weeds. I use it rarely. Usually only if I used my weed hound when the soil was too dry, so ended up with dandelions growing out of a small hole that the weed hound can't get them out of. What I do is get the spray nozzle a few inches from each individual weed and spray. Any farther and you get drift, leading to damaged or dying trees, shrubs, vegetables and so forth. It's almost too much trouble to use, I think. Sounds like the IFA guy has a different approach--using it in a sprayer and doing the entire lawn. Unless you've got mostly weeds, that's overkill. If you sprayed on a day with absolutely no wind and were very careful, you might avoid damaging other plants, but odds are, if you spray that much, some will go where you don't want it. As for the bindweed. Your best bet with that is to pull it as soon as you see it, so that it doesn't get a chance to feed its roots. If you do that enough, you can keep it at bay. From what I understand, the best time to kill bindweed is during the fall, after a light frost. That's when it really starts to stockpile food in its roots, so any poisons go deep into the root system. I'm posting a link to a thread with a discussion of using a dilute solution of glysophate in jars to slowly kill the bindweed. The reasoning is that if you kill it quickly, it kills the leaves, but the roots live. If you kill it slowly, it absorbs the glysophate and takes it deep into the roots. There's also a mite that attacks bindweed. My understanding is that it takes several years for it to kill the weeds, but it only kills bindweed. I don't think they're readily available in Utah, but somebody on the forum was going to bring some in and give infected plants away once he had some. If you search the forum for bindweed mite, you can probably find the details. Here is a link that might be useful: Long thread on weed forum