Tank mix confidence with cleavers herbicides
Three, four or five-way tank-mixes hold no fear for one Shropshire-based AICC member because of his confidence in the compatibility of herbicides Boxer and Starane XL.
"Boxer is my product of choice for early season cleavers control in winter cereals where there are also problems with groundsel, mayweed and poppies," says independent agronomist Bryce Rham. "Boxer does a great job on cleavers and is ideal at this time of year due to the lower temperatures, and I've also seen it control poppies with up to six leaves.
"But the best feature is the tank mix properties of Boxer and sister product Starane XL. They have a good range of tank-mix partners, there are no following crop issues, and with easy tank-cleaning I feel assured when spraying broad-leaved crops afterwards."
One of Mr Rham's tank-mixes is based around Boxer with Bravo and chlormequat. Boxer has none of the restrictions of other sulfonylurea herbicides with Bravo. Mr Rham believes that with the current publicity surrounding strobilurin resistance the Boxer/Bravo tank-mix is a worthwhile alternative.
"I've used Boxer, Bravo and chlormequat with Topik and some oil. The combination of Boxer with oil boosts action on weeds such as volunteer beans."
Mr Rham is equally as enthusiastic over Starane XL's properties as he is about Boxer. The product is appearing more often in his recommendations for mid to late season cleavers control.
Last season he carried out his own trial of Starane XL at 0.75 l/ha plus Ally at 10 g/ha. "The trial took out all the weeds in spring barley after sugar beet. The florasulam and fluroxypyr in Starane XL controlled cleavers, bindweed and nightshade well. It was inexpensive especially when mixed with Unix and manganese."
Approval for the tank-mix has been applied for and Dow AgroSciences is hoping that it will be received in time for this season. Mr Rham is looking forward to be able to use it in the field.
In winter oats, Mr Rham will hold off on the autumn herbicides, applying Starane XL at 1.0 l/ha in tank mix with Landmark, Fortress at 0.1 l/ha for protectant mildew control and some manganese. Weeds controlled include cleavers, chickweed, and groundsel.
And in winter wheat he uses Starane XL with Opus. "Opus at 0.5 l/ha is only backed with fluroxypyr at 0.5 l/ha, which limits weed control with Starane 2. However, with Starane XL I can use up to 1.0 l/ha. This still delivers 0.5 l/ha of fluroxypyr but with the florasulam there is a wider spectrum of weeds controlled and better activity on cleavers," says Mr Rham.
