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Potatoes
All change for weed control
All change for weed control
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"It's not just going to be a question of slotting the new products into old PDQ-based timings. Residuals will need to be mixed and matched to get a stronger base down and timings in general should be
driven earlier."
Exploring how and when to use contacts and residuals to best effect has been the subject of an ongoing series of trials by Agrovista since 2000. A key conclusion from this work is that complete weed control can be achieved from residual products only Mark says.
In a trial by Scottish Agronomy last year assessing the performance of residual mixes, the results, in percentage weed control, were: Defy + linuron 59% and Sencorex + linuron 80%. A potential new mix under development by Agrovista achieved 96%. These treatments were applied on 21st April in "bone-dry" conditions.
Mark Palmer's interpretation of these results is that complete control from residual products can now be a realistic target. "The two essentials with residuals are application to settled ridges and blending to take account of the field's specific weed spectrum."
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Annual meadow-grass, Poa annua | Redshank, Polygorum persicaria |
For example, he says: "Linuron is good for black-bindweed control but weaker on polygonums. Sencorex fortifies annual meadow-grass control and is good against fools parsley, fumitory and polygonums.
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"Growers wanting to stick to a contact + residual mix should find Basta + linuron an almost like-for-like replacement for PDQ + linuron, but it has to be applied pre crop emergence," he stresses. "Although diquat (e.g Quad) can be used post-emergence, this should only be in emergency cases."
Mark's general view on the use of contact products is that timings need to be driven earlier: "Whatever product's used, pre crop emergence has to be better to avoid taking tops off. Checking canopy development was often a side-effect of previous practices and it's a risk we no longer have to take."
