Tackling Escalating Weed Problems with Effective Pre-Planting Control this Autumn

Take advantage of every opportunity you can to control arable weeds ahead of planting this autumn if you want to keep on top of escalating problems compounded by the very wet summer, UK growers have been advised.

Speaking at the launch of a practical Roundup guide to tackling the increasing arable weed control challenge this week (Friday July 20), Monsanto technical specialist Manda Sansom stressed that good pre-planting weed control has become more important than ever. Particularly so in the face of increasing herbicide resistance, less effective cereal breaks and declining in-crop chemical options.

"As if these pressures weren’t enough, the dry spring followed by the incredible wetness of the past two months has resulted in an exceptional surge of late weed growth this season," she pointed out. "As well as seriously limiting the effectiveness of late-spring weed control, the April drought thinned and opened-up crops. This provided the ideal opportunity for weeds given a new lease of life by the late rain."

"Continued wet weather is hampering pre-harvest glyphosate treatment too, even with formulations as rainfast and reliable as modern Roundups. This makes it all the more essential to knock weed populations back as hard as possible in the window between harvesting the current crop and drilling the next."

The new Roundup guide, produced as part of a major Clean Start initiative to combat increasing weed problems with more effective control outside the growing crop, provides a simple recipe for reliable annual weed control without any delay to autumn drilling:  This includes:

• Combining to produce a short stubble and consistently chopped and spread straw and chaff for the best stale seedbed quality;
  
• Cultivating the top few inches of soil as soon after combining as possible with rapid consolidation to preserved moisture and maximise seed to soil contact;
  
• Spraying off with Roundup as soon as there is sufficient weed growth - usually within 14 days - even if fields still look brown from a distance; and,
  
• Cultivating and consolidating the soil again without delay to set up and spray off a second flush of stale seedbed weed growth ahead of drilling.
  

"This strategy will allow at least two stale seedbed cycles in the four weeks between harvesting and drilling in most seasons," advises Manda Sansom. "It isn't difficult to organise providing you use a modern highly rainfast Roundup formulation that works equally regardless of weather conditions, is approved for repeated multiple use and has a short cultivation interval."

"Being able to cultivate just 6 hours after treatment for annuals, for instance, is a great advantage in achieving the fastest possible stale seedbed turnround," she notes. "As is the knowledge that rainfall only one hour after treatment will not significantly reduce efficacy."

"So, even if you are under particular time pressure this season, there is much you can do to tackling your growing weed challenge by getting your autumn cropping off to the cleanest possible start. You certainly won't need to worry about whether you have enough soil moisture for really good autumn weed growth !"


Copies of the eight-page Clean Start Guide are available free of charge through Roundup distributors nationwide or by calling the Monsanto technical hotline on 01223 849540.