Tackle Resistant Weeds In Fall
October 15, 2008 If inclement summer weather has contributed to a delayed 2008 harvest, corn and soybean growers will have less time to complete their fall tillage practices. But the good news is growers have another option for ridding fields of tough fall weeds — including dandelion and marestail.
One application of Autumn herbicide, from Bayer CropScience, provides growers with the flexibility to control winter and even early spring weeds when applied between harvest and ground freeze.
Autumn can be used as a burndown treatment after harvest this fall. Or, next spring, growers can use it up to 30 days before planting corn or 90 days prior to planting soybeans.
Additionally, Autumn now allows growers another option for burndown 90 days prior to planting sweet, seed, and popcorn too.
Along with dandelion and marestail, the herbicide tackles common winter annuals and perennials, including chickweed, hemp nettle, henbit, horsenettle, and purple deadnettle.
“Weeds such as chickweed and purple deadnettle can be less responsive to herbicides when they bloom and flower,” says Jeff Springsteen, Bayer CropScience corn herbicides marketing manager. “That’s why it’s valuable to use an effective fall burndown treatment as part of your weed-control program. This helps ensure growers will get the weeds before they bloom and flower next spring.”
In fact, The Ohio State University weed control guide suggests it’s best to control weeds as early as possible in the weed-growth cycle.
The guide explains that fall herbicide treatments are extremely effective tools for managing winter annual weeds and fields where these weeds have been a problem in previous years. These areas should be considered good candidates for fall herbicide treatments.
Growers also have to face skyrocketing fuel prices, making the process more expensive to till fields following harvest.
“This season growers could save fuel money and time by using a burndown treatment like Autumn,” Springsteen says. “Additionally, a fall treatment starts the fields off weed-free in the spring, preventing potential planting delays.”
The herbicide also helps minimize weed-cover harboring pests, such as black cutworms and soybean cyst nematodes.
With Autumn, growers have the option to tankmix with several active ingredients, including Ignite herbicide, glyphosate, and 2,4-D.
“Autumn offers growers an outstanding mode of action to complement glyphosate or Ignite for nonselective systems,” Springsteen says. “It even improves the efficacy of these systems by taking down glyphosate-tolerant and -resistant weeds.”
(Source: Bayer CropScience)
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