Mixing it up for weed control on chem fallow

Farm and Ranch June 16, 2009 No-till chem fallow has been increasing in the Pacific Northwest and that system relies heavily on repeated use of glyphosate herbicide for weed control. That raises concerns about the development of herbicide resistant weeds. To prevent that Oregon State University weed scientist Dan Ball is among those who has been researching other herbicides that can be used with glyphosate as a tank mix.

Ball: “But also we’ve got some tough broadleaf weeds which glyphosate by itself tends to be a little weak on. So this year, in the trial you saw earlier Bob, was looking at different products we could add with Roundup to give us improved control on things like Russian thistle and prickly lettuce in particular in the trial we have on the Pendleton Station.”

Ball says there is a promising herbicide from BASF that may receive registration late this year. It has a new mode of action and is called Sharpen.

Ball: “That has some pretty interesting characteristics particularly from my perspective, I have seen it looking good on prickly lettuce.”

Ball says there are some other good products out there to tank mix with.

Ball: “Dicamba, Banvel or a Clarity product. There is Huskie. Vita is one that used to be called ET. It’s been traded to another company and renamed, but that product. The 2,4-D products in tank mix combinations with glyphosate.”

Ball calls these kickers and sees them as a way to pickup some of the tougher broadleaf weeds.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

?