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Herbicide coverage a key to controlling challenging weeds

Getting adequate herbicide spray coverage can be crucial to controlling weeds.

Steve Snyder is an Enlist field specialist in Minnesota and the Dakotas for Corteva Agriscience.

“You can have poor coverage, maybe not as effective in a nozzle or not enough gallons when you’re spraying, and the old simple easy weeds like ragweed, lambsquarters, velvetleaf, some of them, you’ll still get good weed control with.”

But he tells Brownfield coverage is key for tougher weeds like Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, and kochia.

“If I go look at a field that didn’t have as good of weed control as we wanted, you can almost point to maybe the nozzle wasn’t the right nozzle (or) maybe they were trying to (cutback) a little on the water volume. So let’s get enough water out there (and) get a nozzle with great coverage.”

Snyder recommends 15 to 20 gallons of water in a herbicide tank mix, and says growers should also target weeds when they are small.