So blackoak, you put pramitol in the neighboring field that you do not own?! You get caught and will likely have a lawsuit on your hands. Coward action.

To the OP, communication is key. Call the farmer or swing by his place, tell him what you’re doing. He will take caution when spraying that field, and most likely you’ll be fine.

Good points Jo

There might be some wildlife shrubs that can be put between fields & trees.

Update: this study showed up in the news today

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...fting-herbicides-are-to-blame-180987817/

Somebody previously mentioned switchgrass as a barrier. That’s an interesting thought, given that switchgrass is incredibly tolerant of herbicide once established. If it’s an option, it could serve as a drift barrier between the field and trees/shrubs you’re wanting to plant.

AJE you need to register at driftwatch.org

As previously mentioned it is the responsibility of the applicator to prevent drift
The type of tree is a huge factor. Osage orange and eastern red cedar seem to be immune. When we bought our property 4 years ago we planted 6 apple trees 30 yards from the line. There’s Osage and cedar in the line so I didn’t think about there being a problem. The apples did great until the neighbor sprayed. Then the leaves shriveled from chemical burn and fell off. All the apples died. They went from thriving to dead in a week or two.

I hadn’t met that neighbor yet and didn’t want to start things out like that so we didn’t complain. But from a legal perspective I could have made him buy the trees


We waited a couple years and replanted apples near the center of the property. Apple is fragile so that’s our best chance.

I found driftwatch to self report fragile plants so I registered my apples. Applicators are responsible for their drift and are supposed to check. I didn’t know if registration would help but apparently it did. Last year was wet so more farmers were paying for spraying by plane since they couldn’t get tractors into their fields at the times they needed to spray. The neighbor did too. Apparently the plane duster checks driftwatch. . When I finally met the neighbor a couple months ago he was asking about my “apple orchard “ I have back there. Said he didn’t know anything about it but the crop duster said I’m growing apple trees and he wouldn’t spray close to the property line.

Dicamba is pretty much gone.

Professionals wont spray there unless the wind is right.

If an accident occurs they will pay for damages.

Everyone's garden in my county would be considered "next to an ag field", let alone trees.

Depends on what you are trying to grow, what they are spraying, and how careful they are, three pretty big factors that aren't equal for everyone.

This type of research has been done by states for decades. Carryover causes fish kills, causes decertification of organic farms, etc