One of the most critical factors for fluvellin management is getting extended control with a long term preemergent. Weed Science Farm Advisor, John Roncoroni described some of the success they had in multiple trials looking at various means for controlling the weed in vineyards.
“The nice thing about Alion is it does have really long term preemergent effect and that is the biggest thing when it comes to fluvellin,” said Roncoroni. “I don’t know that it’s really a difficult weed to control except that you have to be able to have long term control and that’s where Alion mixed with something with a little bit more post-emergent activity really does a nice job of giving us season-long fluvellin control.”
The issues with fluvellin initially became most apparent in Sonoma and Napa, with growers as far south as Lodi and Stockton also reporting varying levels of emergence. Roncoroni noted that fluvellin became more of a problem as an indirect result of growers addressing issues with willowherb. By getting control of willowherb with early preemergent applications, it left room for fluvellin to replace it as the most problematic weed for growers. “That early application left the clean, warm beds with irrigation near harvest for fluvellin just to flourish,” Roncoroni explained.
One of the vital components for fluvellin management that was discovered during the trials is that growers will want to make a winter application as late as possible, just before bud break. The results from applying a mixture with Alion demonstrated the longest duration of control versus the other materials that were tested. “A lot of weeds we look at, if you can get 120 days or 180 days control that’s fantastic; but fluvellin, that’s just not long enough. So, 300 days control is kind of what we look at and the Alion treatments, in that case, were usually the best,” said Roncoroni.
Listen to Roncoroni’s interview below.
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