Read PoCKET PLAN

pulation

 


Growers must be familiar with their weed populations on-farm.

Utilise resistance testing to understand the profile of unexplainable survivors after herbicide programmes.

If you know the resistance profile you're dealing with, you can select the most appropriate programmes, active substances and rates.

Checklist

• Type of resistance - Enhanced Metabolism (EMR) or Target Site (TSR)?
• Modes of action affected - e.g. ACCase, ALS or multiple?
• Resistant weed population - species, frequency, location?

ultural controls

While some cultural control methods may seem expensive in the age of min-till, a return to options such as ploughing, longer crop rotations, spring cropping, higher seed rates and competitive cultivars - and the ultimate fallow/total herbicide fallback - should be considered where difficult weed populations have developed.

The HGCA guide 'Managing weeds in an arable rotation', which was launched at 'Cereals', gives excellent advice in this area.

Checklist

• Cultivations - stale seed bed, ploughing, min-till?
• Establishment - drilling date, crop variety, seed rate?
• Rotation - spring cropping, fallow?

nowledge of control options 

It's essential that growers and their advisors are fully aware of the range of active substances suitable for their situation.

Planning a robust programme - which for the best results starts with a pre-em product containing flufenacet (which is less affected by resistance than other herbicides) - is essential.

Checklist

• Are you using various modes of action - both in the pre-emergence and subsequent post- emergence treatments?
• Choose most effective active ingredients - do you have resistance to older A.S.s?
• Avoid antagonism - have you taken note of any sequence and tank-mix restrictions?

xpertise in application

Application techniques are crucial if growers are to squeeze every last drop of performance from modern herbicides. Boom height, spray quality, water volume, forward speed and to always use biopower with Atlantis WG are factors which are as important as product choice.

The overriding aim of the post-emergence application must be to apply to a dry leaf in conditions that allow the spray to dry on the target plant.

Checklist

• Spray quality fine/medium - do you know what is coming out of your nozzle?
• Appropriate spraying speed and boom height - too fast and too high?
• Apply to a dry leaf - are you also allowing sufficient drying time after application?

iming

Of particular importance for Atlantis WG; 2010 has been yet another year in which the importance of making early applications cannot be understated. Weather will always upset even the best-laid programme plans, but spring applications will always place greater pressure on Atlantis WG due to larger weeds, as well as increasing the risk of crop damage from soft growth and fluctuating day/night temperatures. If you wait until the spring, yield loss will already have occurred.

Checklist

• Autumn Atlantis WG applications consistently give better results
• Significant yield loss can occur by waiting until spring
• Spring is always worse for adverse crop effects and variable control
• Black-grass - go with Atlantis WG between 1 and 3 leaf stage

Why Plan?

With no new effective post-emergence black-grass herbicide on the horizon, it is increasingly important that growers continue to be encouraged to adopt the strategies outlined in the PoCKET plan - both to maintain the effectiveness of Atlantis WG and the substainability of wheat production.