Fail Proof Weed Management?

by: Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Monday April 13th, 2009

One thing has remained common since I started my career in weed management….things go wrong, especially when mother nature has a hand in it. That being said, surely there has to be some way of minimizing the impact of any weed control failures? I recently glanced back over 20 years of weed management studies conducted by the University of Guelph, spoke with experienced crop consultants and exceptional farm managers to find out if there is some sort of “golden rule” for successful weed management. Now I didn’t come up with one single rule, but a few common threads of advice came up that are worth noting as we head into the upcoming season:

1) Never let weeds come up before your crop comes up.

2) Never let an annual weed get taller than 2” (5 cm) if using herbicides.  

3) Without great spray coverage, you might as well burn money.

4) Fall time is the right time for perennial weed management.

5) Bare soil wants to be covered by plants, so make sure its with plants that have value to you.