Season long scouting imperative to resistant weed management

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Season long scouting imperative to resistant weed management

A professor of weed physiology emphasizes the importance of scouting as herbicide resistance becomes more of a problem.

Dean Riechers with the University of Illinois tells Brownfield it’s imperative to start watching for weeds early in the growing season.

“And be out in the field at least two to three times per week. It’s very important to know what weed species are present. Do you have waterhemp or Palmer amaranth, or some other kind of pigweed? It’s essential to also know the height of the weed.”

He says that’s because PPO inhibitor herbicides have a height restriction.

“So I can’t emphasize enough the need to be field scouting several times per week throughout the growing season, make sure you know exactly what’s present in your field, and then target your post-emergence program to effectively kill those weeds and prevent them from going to seed.”

Riechers recommends at least three different herbicide modes of action each year for managing weeds in both corn and soybeans. 

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