Earlier, I wrote about the wet weather, hoping that by the time you read the article it would be dry and you would wonder what rock I had been under.

Actually, at the time, a lot of areas in south Arkansas were dry and wanting rain. We got a break in the rain and a lot of rice was planted.

However, it has been extremely wet again pretty much statewide. We received 10 inches at our house the last week in April and it has rained all night as I write. Hang in there, it is not too late for rice yet and we can plant the entire state in a week or less IF we get the weather break.

There is a lot of rice planted and up and it does appear it is quickly becoming a “throw the book out year.”

A few weeks back there was a quote in a rice magazine that generated quite a few telephone calls and caused some county agents and consultants to second-guess themselves. To paraphrase, Bayer CropScience representatives were quoted as stating that Ricestar HT should not be used on medium grain rice varieties.

The article was compiled by Johnny Saichuk in Louisiana and no one is quite sure how the quote came out the way it did. Anyhow, several clarifications and retractions have been written and Johnny gave me permission to write a clarification as well in an attempt to further get the word out that it is fine to use Ricestar HT on medium grain varieties.

The quote came out early in the season and it was strictly a “no harm-no foul” thing as any confusion should be cleared up. Perhaps the quote came at a good time, because it created a lot of discussion on Ricestar HT and this year is shaping up to be a Ricestar HT type of year.

Also on the topic, Dr. Saichuk publishes a great set of field notes each week. You can get those via e-mail by contacting him. I also put them along with the University of Arkansas rice updates on my Web site for Riceland Foods members.

This is the sixth year on the market for Ricestar HT, and it has become one of the “go to” preflood grass herbicides. It has been widely used on both long grain and medium grain varieties in Arkansas with no injury issues.

Occasionally there will be a yellow flash on the first leaf to emerge after the application and sometimes that leaf will break at the flash area. This is cosmetic in nature and quickly disappears with new growth.

I have already received quite a few calls about large grass in small rice. A lot of folks also apparently got caught by the wind and weather and did not get a burn-down application out before the rice began to emerge.

I also wrote last week that sprangletop is a saturated soil germinator and we are saturated again. In the calls I have received, most have mentioned sprangletop in the grass mix.

When you get emerged sprangletop, Ricestar HT and Clincher are the only two herbicides with good postemergence activity. Both can work fine on sprangletop or in the larger grass situations. However, Ricestar Ht is usually the preflood treatment of choice because it is more consistent across a range of soil moisture conditions and offers more tank-mix flexibility.

I have already made several recommendations for Ricestar HT plus a half pound of Facet in these sprangletop and big grass fields in an attempt get things back under control quickly.

I have already received several calls either asking how good Newpath is on emerged sprangletop or if they can tank-mix Newpath and Ricestar HT. Newpath will not provide consistent control of emerged sprangletop. The tank mix works well on most grasses, with the exception of tighthead sprangletop. If it is in the mix I recommend separate applications.

Callers continue to ask, “What happened to your Riceland phone and do you still have your consulting arrangement with Riceland?” My arrangement with Riceland has not changed, I just wanted one phone to deal with. That number is (501) 681-3413.

e-mail: [email protected]