Winter Wheat looks great...Now What??

Winter wheat is off to a great start with recent rains across much of Texas and Oklahoma.

With good soil moisture and warm temperatures, weeds such as feral ryegrass, Italian ryegrass, brome spp., and various winter annual broadleafs have germinated and started to emerge. One major difficulty with weed control in wheat is the ability to utilize residual herbicides due to concerns over proper activation. Fortunately, BASF has solutions for this difficult scenario. The encapsulated formulation in Prowl® H20 Herbicide aids in wash-off from cover crop residue and achieves superior surface stability when compared to other ‘yellow’ herbicides, and Zidua® SC Herbicide is very slow to photodegrade and will wait for an activating rainfall.

📸: BASF employee/Featuring winter wheat, which is a winter annual.

Pendimethalin formulations were sprayed on corn residue, allowed to dry for 15 minutes on the residue, and then rinsed with water to evaluate their ability to wash off plant material on the soil surface. Rinsate was then analyzed for pendimethalin presence. These data show that the Prowl® H20 Herbicide formulation aids in wash-off from plant material covering the soil, therefore getting more herbicide to the soil surface where it needs to be to control germinating weeds.

📸: BASF internal photograph/Featuring removable pendimethalin in percentages.

In addition, Prowl® H20 Herbicide has superior surface stability at high temperatures compared to trifluralin and pendimethalin EC. This means more opportunity for the active ingredient to hit the soil surface and control germinating weeds. If the active ingredient disappears, so does your weed control!

📸: BASF internal photograph

📸: BASF internal photograph/Featuring flats treated and placed in a dry greenhouse for 2 weeks, then overhead irrigated.

Zidua® SC Herbicide is a great option for controlling Italian ryegrass in winter wheat, but application timing is EXTREMELY important. In the photo below, the difference between an early fall application and a mid-winter application is striking! Zidua® SC Herbicide does not have any activity on emerged weeds, and if Italian ryegrass has emerged, it will need to be tank-mixed with an effective herbicide with POST activity.

Please reach out to your BASF representative for advice tailored to your specific situation.

📸: BASF internal photograph/Featuring early and late POST herbicidal applications.

The ideal application timing is delayed PRE when the wheat is approximately 80% above the soil surface and the Italian ryegrass has not yet emerged. The wheat in my hand below has germinated and is beginning to 'spike'. This is a good time to make a Zidua® SC Herbicide application to control weeds as they germinate in a similar time frame to when wheat germinates.

📸: BASF employee/Featuring wheat in hand that has germinated and beginning to 'spike'. 

Always read and follow label directions. Grow Smart, Zidua, and Prowl are registered trademarks of BASF. Copyright 2023 BASF Corporation. All rights reserved.