In today’s Almond Matters, brought to you by Valent, growers experiencing weed pressures are in the middle of putting their postemergence plan into action. The type of materials and approach to postemergence is going to hinge on the types of weed issues that growers are having to address.
“Well the pre-emergents that were put down in late winter or early spring, you’re going to see the strengths and weaknesses of each product about this time as things start to breakdown,” said Todd Burkdoll, Field Market Development Specialist for Valent USA. “Typically, you’ll see spurge around the emitters, some of your summer grasses that germinate fairly shallow, those also show up. So, you will need to have a postemergence plan in place to take care of those, whether it be a solid burndown or a selective burndown.”
The most common places for weeds to pop up are near irrigation sources as they can breakdown preemergent materials at a quicker pace. The most hydrated areas of the soil are going to be where the most microbial activity takes place, lending itself for weeds to germinate. “Where there’s no residual herbicide anymore and you’ve got seed there, you’ve got the potential for weeds to germinate and come through that,” Burkdoll explained.
There is a variety of materials available to growers to include in a postemergence plan, depending on the types of weeds that need to be addressed. A knockdown material to combat broadleaf weeds may be necessary in some instances. A selective material has also been shown to be effective when combatting different types of grasses that have emerged.
“A grass herbicide like Select Max works very effectively on taking out grasses and you don’t run the risk of damaging the trees. Because if you’ve got green tissue or any suckers on the base of the trees then the systemic materials like glyphosate can get into the tree and cause damage,” Burkdoll noted. “Maybe not so much that year, but when they push out the next year, you’ll see malformed leaves and shoots and that takes away from your overall potential as far as production.”
Listen to the segment below.