Field Bindweed is a heavily-vined, troublesome weed that can cause growers headaches when it gains a foothold in soybean fields.
On this edition of the RealAgriculture Soybean School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs weed specialist Mike Cowbrough looks at control options for the perennial pest in both identity-preserved (IP) and conventional soybeans.
We catch up with Cowbrough at the Elora Research Station in what he calls the “spray and pray” zone — an area of the farm where the research team looks for effective treatments to tackle tough-to-control weeds like field bindweed.
Six weeks after application, the trial has been a real roller-coaster ride: “Some things look good at first, and then petered out. Others have consistently been very good,” says Cowbrough. Based on his observations, “in IP soybeans, there’s really only one post-emergent herbicide that gives us suppression of field bindweed top growth, and that’s a product called Blazer at the highest labeled rate.”
Shifting over to conventional soybeans, Cowbrough says growers have two Group 4 herbicides to consider when choosing either the Xtend or Enlist soybeans system. The trials show that both 2,4-D and dicamba give “very nice” control of field bindweed. Overall, he gives the nod to dicamba as the top choice “because it just has a little bit more consistent control.” (See the video below.)
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