After a mild winter, many growers and agronomists had to tackle some very large dandelions during the 2024 growing season.
On this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Agribusiness weed management specialist Mike Cowbrough shares best practices to control the pesky perennial broadleaf weed.
“First of all, it’s always easiest to get the best kill of dandelions the previous fall,” says Cowbrough who notes that coming out of winter wheat, growers have an opportunity in late September and early October to control the weed. “The 1.34 litre per acre rate of a glyphosate 540 gram per litre product will give excellent control going into spring,” he adds.
If growers miss this window for control in the fall, they could opt for tillage using a high-speed disk or vertical tillage. The approach is “okay,” says Cowbrough. These implements break up root fragments creating more dandelions that are easier to control with herbicides if effectively managed. “But if we don’t do anything [after tillage] we could make the problem worse,” he notes.
When it comes to herbicide control of dandelion, Cowbrough has been testing 12 different residual herbicide systems in field corn at OMAFA’s Elora research farm. Based on his observations, there are three herbicides that stand out and they all belong to the soil applied Group 27, typically referred to as the “bleaching” class of herbicides. Watch the video below.
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