Managing Weeds in Wheat

Good Day! I hope all is well! 

There was no rainfall in the past week.  That is a first.  The high temperature for the past week ranged from 58 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit with an average of 72 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is 2 degrees Fahrenheit below the normal average of 74 degrees Fahrenheit.  The temperature forecast for the coming week will be mostly above normal!  Wow!

Backyard poultry producers please keep practicing biosecurity, the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has stayed at 15 commercial or backyard flocks and increased to 244 wild birds this past week.

We are getting closer to being done with planting.  I would say planting progress is approximately 95% done for wheat, 92% for corn, 40% for soybean, 50% for sunflower, and 15% for dry beans.

If you have summer annual broadleaf weeds in your lawn now is the time to spray for them.  It is an ok time to spray dandelions, but the fall is the best.  Weed and feed products do not work as well as a sprays for controlling weeds postemergence.  If you did not get your lawn sprayed for crabgrass, then there are some products that can control it postemergence, but timing is important.  Call the Extension office if you have any questions about weed control in lawns.

Now is the time to start scouting wheat and barley fields for early season leaf diseases and weeds.  It is best to spray the weeds when they are small, especially for kochia, waterhemp and grasses.  Kochia is very prevalent this year due to the high percentage of fields that had kochia in them last year.  The timing to control kochia is before they reach three inches in height.  Kochia can be resistant to 2,4-D, dicamba, and Starane Ultra (fluroxypyr), ALS-inhibiting herbicides, Photosystem II-inhibiting herbicides like atrazine, and glyphosate.  Hopefully you applied a preemergence herbicide to reduce the kochia population in the wheat.  The best postemergence herbicides to control kochia in wheat and barley are a combination of pyrasulfotole plus bromoxynil, plus fluroxypyr, combination of Talinor plus fluroxypyr, Kochiavore at 1.5 pints per acre, Rezuvant at 16.4 fluid ounces per acre plus Huskie or Talinor, and Huskie FX at the highest rate.  The fluroxypyr when used must be applied at least at 2.0 ounces active ingredient per acre.  Use the best adjuvant for the herbicides used to maximize control.  Check the herbicide labels to make sure the stage of wheat or barley is large enough or small enough to have the herbicides applied.

Waterhemp is emerging now.  Waterhemp can be difficult to control in wheat and barley.  Hopefully you applied a preemergence herbicide to control the first flushes of waterhemp.  The most effective wheat and barley herbicides to control waterhemp include Huskie, Huskie Complete, Huskie FX, Talinor, and Wolverine Advance.  Apply these herbicides to waterhemp less than three inches in height to maximize control, but there may be waterhemp emerge after the herbicide application.

Timely control of grasses in wheat is important too.  Grasses compete against wheat and barley usually before broadleaf weeds.  There are some fields in the county that have wild oat and green foxtail that is resistant to ALS-inhibiting and ACCase-Inhibiting herbicides.  To control wild oat, green and yellow foxtail, and barnyardgrass apply Axial XL, Discover, fenoxaprop, or Varro in hard red spring wheat.  Only Axial XL or fenoxaprop can be applied in barley to control these grasses.   To control foxtail barley in hard red spring wheat, apply Olympus.  Olympus does have a very long residual for some crops.

When tank-mixing broadleaf and grass herbicides know what the proper adjuvants should be and whether any antagonism of weed species may occur.  Read and follow label instructions as it is the law.