There have been increasing issues with perennial vine infestations in soybean and corn fields in recent years. The two most commonly found species are honeyvine milkweed and trumpet creeper. Others that show up less frequently are hedge bindweed, burcumcumber and Carolina coralbead. Continue reading
Numerous observations on off-target herbicide issues often pointed to temperature inversions as a source for the problem. This occurs in one of two ways. First when herbicide applications occur in a light fog bank that are generated by temperature inversions. These can be avoided by being vigilant and shutting down application during an inversion. The second way is when a volatile formulation of a herbicide like 2,4-D or dicamba pick up as a gas hours after application and join low lying fog which are generated by an inversion. These can be avoided by only using labeled low volatile formulations of 2,4-D as there is no label for dicamba in our row crops. This means that dicamba cannot be legally sprayed in row crops. Continue reading
The weather forecast, if accurate, suggests next week will dry up enough where we all can get back in the field. Everyone will need to be running sprayers as weeds have not stopped growing. I know everyone will be in a rush, but please, please take the time to be good stewards and apply herbicides as directed by the labels. Continue reading
What began in March as a quick start to the planting season has with the many frequent rain events turned into a very slow struggle. The question of the hour is on how to burndown fields that are grown up messes before planting soybeans (Picture 1 and 2). There are strategies that can tackle fields that are heavily infested with 3’ tall goosegrass, Palmer amaranth, horseweed and volunteer corn. They typically require some kind of sequential application to be successful.
Paraquat, the usual “go to” for late spring burndown, will not control grasses with size, horseweed or even pigweed that has gotten so far out of hand. As such, the best approach is aggressive tillage. That unfortunately is not an option on our highly erodible fields.
In those cases, a tankmix of a high rate of Liberty plus clethodim is the best approach to try to control the grass weeds, horseweed and set the pigweed back. Then, if possible, a couple days later apply paraquat. This approach would have the best chance of success with herbicides.
In fields where the soybeans may emerge before a follow-up paraquat application could take place then Liberty tankmixed with Enlist should take out any escaped broadleaves. If grass seems to be recovering then apply Liberty plus clethodim.
Results from our greenhouse screens of Palmer amaranth to Liberty have been very encouraging. We feared that the Liberty resistance documented in Arkansas had crossed the river. The good news is that we have seen good control with a 32 oz/A rate of Liberty on all the Palmer populations tested (Picture 1). Continue reading
Ryegrass infestations still persist in some fields. In cotton and soybeans, Liberty can be used now to push this weed on to maturity. In corn, other than just going out and spraying the typical POST corn premix and hoping that pushes the ryegrass on to maturity there is no real solution. Continue reading
Horseweed (marestail) has made a major comeback in 2025! The last time horseweed infestations were this intense in so many fields this late in the spring was in 2017. The question is why? I can point to one likely reason. Continue reading
There have been a few reports of disappointing burndown applications that were applied near that huge week of rain. The herbicides that performed poorly were some combination of systemic herbicides like glyphosate, dicamba, clethodim and Leadoff. Continue reading