Much of the rice in Arkansas is ready to be flooded.

There are a lot of clean fields, but also a lot of fields (especially in areas where it has been drier) where grass control has been more difficult. And in a lot of areas the broadleaf weeds have been slower to emerge due to the cooler temperatures. Now is the time to get fields clean — before the water goes on.

I have made some pretty strong recommendations for barnyardgrass control because you simply can not mess around with it. Every time I try to save a grower a buck up front on emerged barnyardgrass control, I wind up costing him an extra application.

I am concerned by some of the calls I am receiving that too many folks are over-depending on Newpath and Beyond alone for barnyardgrass. In my experience they have been erratic, and overuse of them will guarantee a resistance problem.

I have even made some conventional recommendations for treatments like Ricestar HT and quinclorac in Clearfield fields where Newpath has been applied but a severe infestation of barnyardgrass remains.

For emerged barnyardgrass, my “go to” treatments are 24 ounces of Ricestar HT plus a half-pound of quinclorac or Regiment. I am hesitant to recommend Regiment in the Clearfield fields because it means using another ALS inhibitor in addition to the Newpath and Beyond. In Clearfield rice, I usually recommend Clearpath or a tank mix of Newpath and one of the quinclorac products.

In situations where this has failed, I go to a conventional treatment. It goes against the grain for some folks to spend the money on the Clearfield system and then have to use a lot of conventional herbicides in the program. However, to put the percentage of the acreage that we have in this technology and put as much selection pressure on the ALS inhibiting herbicides that we have, herbicide costs are going to be expensive.

Much of the broadleaf control will be done in the preflood application. More and more growers are trying to avoid the midseason broadleaf application. Sometimes having all the broadleaf weeds out of the field at flooding will accomplish this and sometimes it will not.

Most folks in the field struggle more with broadleaf control than grass control recommendations. There are a near-infinite number of options. For black seed control all sorts of treatments with Aim, Broadhead, Permit, Halomax, Londax, Blazer, Regiment, Storm, Strada, and propanil can have a fit.

Many calls are from growers wanting some residual control of black-seeded weeds. Quinclorac and Permit or Halomax can provide some residual control of hemp sesbania and jointvetch. None of the herbicides will provide much residual control of morningglories.

To be much more specific, just call and I will try to help. As you put some of these combinations together, do not overlook propanil. I recommend more propanil for broadleaf control than for grass control these days.

The weed of the month is dayflower. A lot of folks are having difficulty controlling it in soybeans, so it is increasing in rice as well.

In soybeans, some of the pre-emergence herbicides are pretty good. Once it emerges, Storm or Basagran are the two best treatments. Since Basagran (Basagran is also in Storm) can antagonize glyphosate, I usually recommend these as separate treatments rather than tank mixed with glyphosate.

In rice, Permit or Halomax is pretty good. Both are better when tank mixed with some propanil. Londax plus propanil can be good, as can Regiment. Bolero or RiceBeaux early can also provide some residual control. When all else fails in rice, I go to Storm with a quart of EC propanil in it. Of course, if you are in an area where 2,4-D can be used at midseason, it is the best. However I never get calls from those areas.

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