There really has not been anything “new” in grain sorghum herbicides to talk about for years. Basically it all started and ended with Bicep. In recent years that has changed and there are several new herbicides for grain sorghum. Newer herbicides like Sharpen and Huskie can now be used. Another herbicide that has been used for years in corn, Lexar, can also be used in grain sorghum. We evaluated these herbicides in grain sorghum last year at Milan and our first impression was that they do add something to the weed management tool box for this crop.
Huskie is a premix of bromoxynil (Buctril) and pyrasulfotole, a bleaching type herbicide. Huskie is labeled in wheat, cereal rye and grain sorghum. Huskie can be applied post emergence to grain sorghum with the going rate 12.8 to 16 ozs/A. It maybe tankmixed with up to 1 lb/A of atrazine. Do not apply it with Lorsban insecticide. In last year’s research Huskie applied in a sequential application where atrazine is applied pre emergence provided a very robust weed control program.
Sharpen (saflufenacil) can be applied pre plant to pre emergence in grain sorghum. The rate ranges from 1 to 2 oz/A. This provides a lot of flexibility as fields can be burndowned with Sharpen and corn, soybeans and now grain sorghum can be planted at any time. This flexibility with Sharpen is even more important this year when most are struggling to find dicamba and many are reluctant to use 2,4-D in a burndown.
Lexar is a premix of atrazine and mesotrione (Callisto) and S-metolachlor (Dual Magnum). It can be applied 7 to 21 days before planting at a rate of 3 qt/A in no-till grain sorghum. It may be applied in a split fashion with 1.75 qts/A at the pre plant timing listed above and 1.75 qts/A pre emergence.
Of course none of these new herbicides provides any more control of Johnsongrass than Bicep. With that in mind, DuPont is developing non-GMO grain sorghum with good tolerance to Accent herbicide. This is very interesting as we could use some help on that weed in this crop.
