The large rain event over the weekend really was needed and from a weed control perspective greatly helped activate PRE applied herbicides. Unfortunately, the long dry spell before that allowed a lot of weed escapes in some fields and managing them has become a concern. Continue reading
Over the last several years activation of PRE applied herbicides with timely rainfall has been more the rule than the exception in Tennessee. That is not the case for most of the state this year. The most common call in this regard the last several days have been on grain sorghum fields where the crop and the weeds have emerged together due to lack of an activating rain on the PRE applied herbicides. Continue reading
As anticipated the dry conditions that we experienced last week and that continue through today are not activating pre applied herbicides. Reports of Palmer amaranth already 1 to 2” tall with emerging crops appears to be common. How to proceed from here on weed management depends upon the crop as well as the herbicide tolerant trait in the crop. Continue reading
Ryegrass surviving glyphosate burndown continues to be a common call the last few days. Continue reading
There has been little corn planted to this point. Judging by the phone calls today some of that early planted corn will need to be replanted due to all the wet and cold weather. The question arises how to control the old corn stand and plant back to corn quickly. Continue reading
With planting hopefully right around the corner, many people are thinking about using Gramoxone (paraquat) as a last minute burndown for its effectiveness and lack of replant interval. Gramoxone is a very good broad spectrum herbicide that is “money” on many winter annual broadleaf weeds and also quite good on poa. On the main winter annual weed horseweed (marestail) though, control can range from 30 to 90%. The question is why? So we conducted research this spring to see if time of day Gramoxone is applied has an effect on horseweed control. Continue reading
With cotton planting just around the corner, some folks are interested in tankmixing a residual herbicide in with their burndown. The typical herbicides used for this purpose would be Sharpen (42 day plant back to cotton), Valor (30 days plant back to cotton) and Leadoff (30 days plant back to cotton) but these are no longer options as the plant back interval is too long. Continue reading
It is raining as I write and the forecast is not optimistic about getting much done in the field this week. As soon as it dries corn planting will take priority along with some early soybean planting. There is no major problem with planting corn right around a burndown application which makes it much easier than in soybean where many of the burndown herbicides have plant back restrictions. Continue reading