Agronomy Tips: Spraying Before a Rain

May 27, 2016

Spraying in the rain is not advised. Product washes off before it gets absorbed. However, spraying just before a rain — allowing enough time to satisfy label requirements — can provide effective control, especially if rains are forecast for a few days and weeds are growing strong.

The rainfast requirement varies by product. Here are required intervals for each common product used in HT canola systems:

—Gylphosate-tolerant (Roundup Ready) canola. Check labels for specific glyphosate products. Roundup WeatherMax is rainfast within 15 minutes, which is the shortest interval of any HT canola product.

—Glufosinate-tolerant (Liberty Link) canola. With Liberty, rainfall within 4 hours may reduce control.

—IMI-tolerant (Clearfield) canola. Ares is 2 hours. Odyssey, Odyssey Ultra, Solo and Solo ADV are all 3 hours.

Tensile is 4 hours because of the clopyralid. Note: With Ares and Odyssey/Odyssey Ultra, rain only affects the foliar efficacy; it doesn’t affect the residual weed control from those two products.

Two things to keep in mind:

1. Some pesticides (including herbicides) are limited to one application per season, according to active ingredient, even if washed off by rain. If efficacy is reduced due to spraying in the rain, options for second chance applications may be limited.

2. When dodging rains during weed management season, keep in mind that a sprayer sitting idle with product in the tank will increase the risk for product contamination.

Source : Albertacanola

Video: Designing a Robotic Berry Picker

Since blackberries must be harvested by hand, the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To support a growing blackberry industry in Arkansas, food science associate professor Renee Threlfall is collaborating with mechanical engineering assistant professor Anthony Gunderman to develop a mechanical harvesting system. Most recently, the team designed a device to measure the force needed to pick a blackberry without damaging it. The data from this device will help inform the next stage of development and move the team closer to the goal of a fully autonomous robotic berry picker. The device was developed by Gunderman, with Yue Chen, a former U of A professor now at Georgia Tech, and Jeremy Collins, then a U of A undergraduate engineering student. To determine the force needed to pick blackberries without damage, the engineers worked with Threlfall and Andrea Myers, then a graduate student.