Time to think about fall weed control

Oct 07, 2022

With harvest activities starting to wrap up in some areas, farmers are looking at their fall weed control.

Weed Control Specialist Clark Brenzil says weeds need to be actively growing in order to get the best result.

Fall weed control or suppression is helpful to prevent the plants from flowering and setting seed prior to the crop coming up in the spring.

For perennial weeds you're looking at trying to control things like Canada thistle, dandelion, quackgrass and potentially foxtail barley in the fall.

Brenzil says for Canada thistle the ideal time for control is with a pre-harvest treatment of glyphosate.

"That's because you're looking at about a litre or about 360 grams of active ingredient per acre for that application. Whereas, if you go to a post-emergent application, you have to pretty much triple that rate in order to get the same amount in the plant, just because you've got proportionately less leaf area on that plant."

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