Has anyone used treflan as a pre-emergent weed control for brassica plots? I have a problem that is getting worse with Pigweed in my brassica plots. I Googled for information and found this herbicide is for brassica but I can’t find any articles of plotters using it. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with it?
Will read up on treflan.
Couple ?’s...
When u planting ur brassicas? Spraying in advance? Spraying with what? Tillage or no till?
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I am having the same problem. Once you have pigweed good luck getting rid of it. Was talking with an agronomists last winter. He was talking about using Dual. He was gonna do some more research and get back to me. Last year I planted beans so I was able to hit the pigweed pretty hard with gly a couple times before no tilling brassicas into the beans.
Ding ding.
1) get off of Gly. Switch to 35-40 oz of Glufosinate/Liberty/Cheetah. Spray when weeds are small but this will smoke em. Gly is most of the problem people have. Resistance to Gly is so Wide Spread now its crazy. Many don’t realize they have resistance but that’s exactly what u r seeing.
2) dual/Metolachlor will do little on PW & other In ur situaion, IMO. Minor. It will help more on grasses and give u some BL control but not what u wanna use for brassicas. Definately not. Switching from glyphosate to glufosinate will be ur biggest advancement.
3) no till will for sure help.
4) here’s what I think is happening with you guys.... I think ur getting constant flushes of PW non stop. I think u r spraying Gly on PW flushes that are resistent. U think u killed em but u didn’t. At 2” a Day growth they are surprising u and “I can’t control them, come out of no where”. Solution again, Liberty & maybe above (I’m gonna read into that!) & there’s some more options as well (lots!!) 1 of many examples.... spray Liberty & 2,4-d well before planting. Let 2,4-d break down & time to be “gone”. Spray one more time with Liberty to get next flush of weeds- Then plant. Or - if work the soil- let flush of weeds come up after rain & before planting & make sure you cook those with Liberty too & wait to plant after those weeds germinate & get killed.
New herbicides- no question. GLUFOSINATE/LIBERTY!!! Spray weeds multiple times when small. Rotate Dbltree mix & ur weed problem will be supressed over time. Change herbicides periodically or rotate some & use multiple modes of action on killing so u don’t get resistance in weeds. Good luck!!!
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Here's another question. I notice substantially better weed control in beans that I broadcast rye into later. They stay so much cleaner going into the next year. Is the rye just out competing weeds or is it releasing something to stop weeds (all plants do that to a certain extent.... I think)
HorseDoctor
PMA Member
I switched to Liberty Link beans and got a decent handle on the pigweed. Now I've got a problem with velvetleaf!!! May try RR beans again for a year &/or rotate corn in part of the plots. Velvetleaf doesn't seem to do as well in the corn.
100%. I’ve seen same thing. Rye does have alleopathic affect like u mentioned. (So do Brassicas). Rye is awesome weed control. A lot of organic operations will use it for weeds, etc. It will reduce corn yieilds by some small margin too with those affects. overall for food plotters- rye is a great tool!!
Yep- gotcha. Ok, I think 1st thing that maybe adjust.... if u can.... (start a week earlier if u can or need to) - I’ll step in line with ur last cultipacking... let the weeds come up with first rain. Hit em with Liberty.... spread seed & cultipack again. That’s one example of how to effectively deal with em.
Another is possibly Treflan or other post/pre’s In brassicas I’ll dig into. Next is rotating ur plots & getting PW to a point where you slowly start to get rid of the seeds over time & don’t let more seed in. (Mowing clover for example). Herbicide changes, rotation, killing 1st batch of germinated PW- all things u can do for sure that’ll help.
Bigger steps would be no till OR burying that seed over 7” (plow, etc) but those 2 are obviously not in cards or practical for vast majority of cases.
Sligh1:
Thanks. I did flip the soil with a plow two years ago on one plot but did not seem to help. I always rotate crop after brassica planting. Follow up with oats/clover, winter wheat or winter rye. Move brassica around depending on rotation. Usually try to put in a plot that has clover going down to capture N2 that I can.
Actually was going to try your one recommendation this year. Disk second week of July. Wait and then herbicide it again. Then plant.
Truthfully I just retired so I have time now. Previously when working and fighting weather getting plots in was sometimes harder than trying to drink out of a firehouse.
Thanks. I did flip the soil with a plow two years ago on one plot but did not seem to help. I always rotate crop after brassica planting. Follow up with oats/clover, winter wheat or winter rye. Move brassica around depending on rotation. Usually try to put in a plot that has clover going down to capture N2 that I can.
Actually was going to try your one recommendation this year. Disk second week of July. Wait and then herbicide it again. Then plant.
Truthfully I just retired so I have time now. Previously when working and fighting weather getting plots in was sometimes harder than trying to drink out of a firehouse.
Unfortunately I’ve tried the 2-4d liberty route as well with the same kind of results. Keep in mind for every using liberty for the first time. Read directions and make sure your sprayer is setup accordingly. Pig weed is bad. It’s so bad that after my last cutting on My clover the pigweed with germinate and grow taller than the clover. I see that everywhere around here on new seedlings in the fall. And now I’m seeing water hemp. Not good.
The agronomist I’ve talked to is the regional field agronomist for DuPont pioneer. He said after pigweed gets established, if you do everything perfect for 10 years you can expect to have only 50% control over it. So you’re talking at least 20 years if you do everything perfect to get rid of it.
When I planted beans last year and was able to spray gly I would say it killed at least 80% of the pigweed that germinated. Late summer I went back in with a weed hook and removed all the remaining pigweed I could find. I’m hoping I got 90% of the pigweed. My plan is to do something similiar.
I’ve done the doubletree rotation and it doesn’t matter. The pigweed comes back. So anyone that is dealing with this crap, I feel for you. And now mix in water hemp. Just can’t win.
There is a product you can spray on brassicas to kill broadleaves but it hasn’t been approved in the US as of yet. Only Australia.
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/expo/pr... Management Update from Michigan. Zanstra.pdf
This says treflan is similar to prowl h20. If that’s the case- I WOULD use it according to label. Doing it correctly is critical BUT..... prowl h20 is very effective on PW, WH, LQ, etc.
I’ve battled all these in beans for years. I have them beat (for now!!!!). I can and do have clean bean fields BUT the only way I do it is with Liberty, prowl H20 & dual II & ams or water treatment. Followed up sprayings with Liberty, dual & flexstar. I’ve won the battle in corn with ACURON (4 modes of action in one herbicide).
It can be beat. I think the tough part...... let’s say the day after you spray last all the PW (or WH, etc) germinates. It grows 2” a day. That’s the tough part (beyond above where guys are not effectively killing em with Gly). If they get “too big” ur just done.
So..... what else can we do with PW, etc germinating after we have a dead & clean seed bed that’s planted???? Hmmmmm.....
We could MOVE BACK our planting date a little so less plants turn to weed. That’s one option in theory. We could plant brassicas THICKER. To do that successfully- u MUST peak out your fertility!!!!! PH at 6.5-6.8 & a lot of N & good amounts of p&k. All dependent on soil tests or example might be: 100-75-75 actual. This would allow thick plants the fertility to compete with eachother & also have a good chance at smothering the weeds. Last.... a slightly higher rate of radish vs Purple top turnips. For reason of weed control- radish will grow quicker & have more chance to smother weeds.
No one answer here. Still say: herbicides & multiple modes of action (so different types & adding in others like “treflan”) are going to be critical. Then, some things like above - long list really - trying many of those. U can win it. It just takes a tighter regimine of attack & more tools. Good luck!
This says treflan is similar to prowl h20. If that’s the case- I WOULD use it according to label. Doing it correctly is critical BUT..... prowl h20 is very effective on PW, WH, LQ, etc.
I’ve battled all these in beans for years. I have them beat (for now!!!!). I can and do have clean bean fields BUT the only way I do it is with Liberty, prowl H20 & dual II & ams or water treatment. Followed up sprayings with Liberty, dual & flexstar. I’ve won the battle in corn with ACURON (4 modes of action in one herbicide).
It can be beat. I think the tough part...... let’s say the day after you spray last all the PW (or WH, etc) germinates. It grows 2” a day. That’s the tough part (beyond above where guys are not effectively killing em with Gly). If they get “too big” ur just done.
So..... what else can we do with PW, etc germinating after we have a dead & clean seed bed that’s planted???? Hmmmmm.....
We could MOVE BACK our planting date a little so less plants turn to weed. That’s one option in theory. We could plant brassicas THICKER. To do that successfully- u MUST peak out your fertility!!!!! PH at 6.5-6.8 & a lot of N & good amounts of p&k. All dependent on soil tests or example might be: 100-75-75 actual. This would allow thick plants the fertility to compete with eachother & also have a good chance at smothering the weeds. Last.... a slightly higher rate of radish vs Purple top turnips. For reason of weed control- radish will grow quicker & have more chance to smother weeds.
No one answer here. Still say: herbicides & multiple modes of action (so different types & adding in others like “treflan”) are going to be critical. Then, some things like above - long list really - trying many of those. U can win it. It just takes a tighter regimine of attack & more tools. Good luck!
I would try it. That's how I've "kinda" learned everything herbicide & planting in general.... A little trial and error. When things are labeled and recommended, it's a no brainer to give them a shot if low risk and cost. Experimenting & changing up herbicides is always smart..... One reason.... Think of herbicides like Antibiotics for infections.... We are always developing new ones to stay on top of resistant bacteria, switching which ones are used or making them more effective. Similar with herbicides - new or different modes of action are a great tool to keep in arsenal. I'll give this stuff a whirl.
10hunter
PMA Member
Treflan should be incorporated into the soil within 24 hours. A good preemergent herbicide with fair grass control and good control of waterhemp/pigweed. If not able to incorporate take a look at prowl/pendimethilin(active so could get a generic for a lot less likely) label to see if able to use on turnips. The active in treflan is trifluralin, should be generics here also. These were both widely used decades ago along with more tillage and cultivation, likely the reason we didn't have as much problems with WH & PW.
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Saw a FB video post from Lakosky, he is using Treflan in weedy patch to clover conversion. Very rarely get anything useful out of the TV folks but sometimes you get good nuggets of info. Anyway.... Treflan... another tool to look into.
What would you use for pre emergent, or maybe you have if you were no tilling beans in the spring and possibly convert some of the heavily browsed areas to brassicas later in the summer.