When tillage was the way of the West, curled dock or rumex crispus was limited to wet areas, pastures and field edges—areas in which the soil was not disturbed.
As tillage disappeared, curled dock, also known as curly dock, began to show up in crops. The perennial plant reproduces largely from seeds, which can lurk in cereal seed supplies.
Curled dock is a prolific seed producer. Its stocks can reach two metres in height and have large leaves of up to 30 centimetres in length that shade out crop or other weeds. One or more stems will rise from the plant’s crown and dense clusters of tough, green flowers sprout and form along the upper areas and branches.
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When mature, the plants turn reddish brown and will remain standing throughout winter. If they become established in spring, they are tough to control. Tillage will stop the big tap-rooted plants. Group 9 herbicides can be effective in herbicide tolerant crops. Group 4 chemistries can also be effective. For suppression in pasture or rangeland, spot treatments of dicamba, Banvel 2, at a rate of 0.92 litres per acre is applied with 45 to 90 litres per acre of water. It should be applied to growing weeds. Glyphosate applied as a spring pre-cropping burnoff can be effective for seedling control.
As a spot treatment, 2.83 to 4.9 litres per acre of 360 gram per litre gly-phosate mixed with 45 litres of water and applied at the early bud stage provide control. Plants need 10 days to two weeks to absorb and process the systemic herbicide before tillage or mowing to ensure effectiveness.
Top growth can be controlled by applications of 500 gram per litre MCPA amine or 2,4-D amine applied at .45 to .70 litres per acre with adequate water to ensure good distribution.Dichlorprop and 2,4-D, including Estaprop and Turboprop, can suppress small plants of less than five cm, at a .71 litre rate.In pasture, trees and rangeland, Remedy EC can be applied at .4 to 1.6 litres per acre with 205 litres of water.
