Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

February 24, 2014

12 Slides

Palmer amaranth is not the only herbicide resistant weed that creates headaches for Texas farmers.

Annual ryegrass, says Texas AgriLife Extension integrated pest management specialist Jim Swart, Commerce, “is the most widespread and damaging weed in winter wheat in Northeast Texas.”

It’s troublesome but not impossible to manage,” Swart says.

"Axial XL herbicide, marketed by Syngenta Crop Protection, has been the most effective product to control this pest, but its effectiveness has been diminishing in fields where it has been used year after year. Some strains of ryegrass have become tolerant to this herbicide, and they have become much more difficult to control."

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But it still can be  effective in  a two-part control program.

“University researchers in Northeast Texas have discovered a two-step herbicide program to help wheat producers control these resistant ryegrass plants,” Swart said. “Axiom herbicide, developed by Bayer CropScience, provides the first step. It has both pre-emergence and post-emergence activity and should be applied just as the ryegrass emerges from the soil."

Two-step program manages ryegrass infestation in wheat.

“A good ‘rule of thumb’ is to apply Axiom when you can drive by the field and ‘row the wheat.’ It will usually provide 80 percent to 90 percent control of this pest. Follow that with Axial XL when the remaining ryegrass plants are in the two- to three-tiller stage. Axiom weakens the resistant ryegrass plants, making them more susceptible to the Axial XL application.”

The application rate of Axiom is 6 ounces per acre, and the rate of Axial XL is 16.4 ounces per acre.

 

More on resistant weeds:

Consider resistance in weed management strategies

Go back to yellows for resistant weed control in cotton

Managing resistant weeds demands systems approach

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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