Weed Control Despite Delayed Planting

Cool and wet conditions slowed spring planting progress in parts of farm country. Kip Jacobs, technical services manager for crop protection company UPL, says farmers can still control yield-robbing weeds when planting starts slowly.

“Things are starting to roll, but we're still a little bit behind. But, in terms of weed control, and a lot of our target pests that we're after are going to be there whenever we're there and ready for them, so no matter what the situation is, it's still better to use that full-spectrum weed control program where we're utilizing a pre- and post-emergent herbicide program. So, this is going to combat those varying conditions, some of those weeds that are already up or are going to come up later on, so as long as we're driving home the multiple effective and complementary sites of action, we're still going to be highly effective even in this later spring. So, one thing that we can use is PREVIEW 2.1 SC, a new herbicide from UPL. This controls weed pressure on soybean acres that are going to be targeting those severely-resistant weed species like pig weeds and waterhemp.”

Jacobs talks about why pigweeds are so hard to control.

“Palmer Amaranth and waterhemp are very prolific seed producers. They can produce 500,000 seeds and even upwards over that for a single female, and these remain viable in the soil for three to five years, and also, they are indeterminate germinators, so they emerge several times throughout the growing season, making them sometimes difficult to control.”