A new herbicide combination may control volunteer herbicide-tolerant canola plants without the risk of carryover that 2,4-D or other burn down products carry.
Marketed by Nufarm, CleanStart combines glyphosate with carfentrazone for pre-seed burn down with no residual effects and no cropping restrictions.
Producers generally grow pulses with limited crop protection products. Broadleaf weed control continues to be a challenge in crops such as chickpeas.
The Pesticide Minor Use Program introduced in 2003 and the Saskatchewan Provincial Minor Use Program have provided the resources to screen pesticides for relatively low acreage crops such as pulses. Progress is being made in developing new weed control strategies in pulse crops such as chickpeas.
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This recently registered herbicide should be of interest to pulse growers, said Eric Johnson, an Agriculture Canada weed biologist at the Scott Research Farm in Saskatchewan.
He said carfentrazone is a Group 14 herbicide, which is a novel mode of action for Western Canada. This group, also known as PPO inhibitors, has been around for 40 years, but is rarely used in Western Canada.
Carfentrazone works by inhibiting an enzyme present in the plant’s chloroplasts, which causes the buildup of a compound normally found in small doses in the plant.
As the compound accumulates, it diffuses out of the chloroplast and into the cell’s cytoplasm. Without the protection of the chloroplast, the compound is reactive in the presence of light, causing the formation of singlet oxygen and other toxic metabolites.
These end products destroy the cell membrane, allowing water and solutes to leak from the cell. The first symptoms are water soaked lesions. Necrotic lesions then form on the susceptible plants, followed by plant desiccation.
Research conducted at Scott and Lethbridge showed that a carfentrazone-glyphosate tank mix controlled volunteer Roundup Ready canola when applied before the four leaf stage.
If applied beyond the four leaf stage, the weed becomes more tolerant. Therefore, growers must be aware of the importance of canola staging if they are going to be satisfied with CleanStart performance.
According to the 2006 North Dakota Weed Control Guide, a carfentrazone-glyphosate tank mix provides faster and better burn down control of broadleaf weed species such as kochia and wild buckwheat.
Carfentrazone is a fast-acting contact herbicide with no soil activity. As a result, CleanStart can be applied as a pre-seed burn down tank mix with no risk of injuring the seeded crop.
