Preemergent Weed Control in Orchards
While the tree crops are completing their harvest, it will be time on preemergent weed control. Kurt Hembree is a UCANR Weed Management Farm Advisor in Fresno County.
“For nut crop growers particularly, as the rains may approach, this is an opportunity to make sure your spray rig in in operation at its strongest point Make sure there are no leaks and that it has been calibrated,” Hembree said. “Pay attention to the spray nozzles. Have your guys check them and replace them if they are worn. If they are damaged, they do not do you any good on the spray rig.”
Good maintenance will help not only in the coverage standpoint, trying to get the herbicides to the ground to weeds where they need it. It will also reduce some of the drift potential.
Hembree also recommended the appropriate combination of herbicides. “It needs to include two different chemistries and modes of action in the tank. This will help starve off weed resistance on some of the tough weeds. And you tend to get more weed when you have more modes of action in the tank,” he said.
“If you need a postemergent herbicides at the time the preemergents go out then it must go into the tank this time of year as we go into winter,” Hembree said.
If growers want a clean berm come springtime, you need to start it out clean by getting the appropriate mixes in the tank. “Growers should target the toughest weeds that you know you have to battle,” noted Hembree.
