Waterhemp, giant ragweed, and for no-tillers, marestail as well. Those were the problem weeds for Indiana in 2021. Ron Geis, Market Development Specialist for Corteva, says the best strategy to help control these weeds in 2022 is a two-shot approach with early applications, the first in time to get rained into the soil, and then an early post-emerge.
And he stresses the word early, as many farmers have the misnomer that the later you wait, the more weeds you’ll kill.
“When we put a product out there, we expect residual control. That residual herbicide needs to get on and into the soil. Okay, so let’s think about this. If we spray when the crop is a foot tall and the weeds are a foot tall, how much is getting to the soil? Not very much. And that’s kind of the misnomer. Yeah, we might kill the weeds that are there, but our residual control suffers.”
So, what does that look like in corn?
“Let’s start with some Surestart™ or Keystone®, get that into the soil,” says Geis. “And then an early post when that corn is just where you can row it, then we’ll come back with some Resicore® or Realm® Q, kill the weeds that are there, the escapes from the pre, and then give residual that keeps going through the season.”
For soybeans, Geis says, “We’ll start with a strong soybean herbicide like Sonic®, like our new Kyber™. Kyber was just introduced in the market last year. There are three active ingredients and every one of them is solid on waterhemp. So, if you want to declare waterhemp war, Kyber’s your answer.”
And then Geis recommends, whether you’re on the Enlist system or not, to put EverpreX® as your residual control post-emerge on soybeans.
