There was about 20,000 acres of Enlist cotton planted in Tennessee in 2017.  Visiting with Extension agents, retailers and farmers this spring it is clear that there will be many fold more acres of Enlist cotton planted in 2018 compared to 2017. 

There are a number of reasons I have heard for this apparent increase in Enlist cotton use. Some of these reasons include growers liking the genetics and yield of the new Enlist cotton varieties. Also many really liked the good weed control that can be achieved for cotton varieties resistant to glyphosate, glufosinate and 2,4-D. The fourth reason many have switched is that there were few drift issues with Enlist Duo in 2017.

This fourth reason is the one I wanted to address.  It is true in 2017 that some growers who grew both Enlist and Xtend cotton struggled keeping dicamba in the Xtend cotton field but at the same time had almost no issues with Enlist Duo drift. I fear, the success most saw in stewardship of Enlist last year, could cause overconfidence this spring with utilizing that technology.   This over confidence could easily lead to applications when conditions are not favorable for stewardship.

This is just a reminder to stick to the labeled instructions when applying Enlist Duo or Enlist on Phytogen cotton.  A lot of the same stewardship stressed with Xtend should be employed when applying Enlist Duo or Enlist One. These components include watching the wind speed and what crop maybe down wind. Also apply those herbicides with the correct nozzle and use those nozzles at the correct operating pressure.  Moreover, keep the boom low and strive to avoid spraying into temperature inversions.

The Enlist technology got off to a good first “baby step” last year with respect to stewardship.  Let’s not cut corners on stewarding Enlist technology so we can have a good second year on the stewardship front