By SEAN CLOUGHERTY Managing Editor
PAINTER, Va. — Concern over herbicide resistance in weeds has Virginia Tech researcher Henry Wilson exploring alternatives. At the field day held on June 28 at the university’s Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Wilson’s research on soybeans resistant to dicamba herbicide was one of the 14 stops featured on the tour.
In the project’s first trial year, Wilson is studying the effects on soybeans modified to be tolerant of dicamba herbicide.
“We have so much resistance now in marestail and dicamba works well on marestail,” Wilson said.
The field trials include different rates of dicamba and 2, 4-D in both pre-plant burn down and post emergence settings.
The soybean seed Wilson is using is from Monsanto and he said Dow is also developing a seed tolerant of 2,4-D and while Wilson is not testing that seed, noted there appears to be some tolerance to 2,4-D in the dicamba tolerant seed.
The project’s terms are that the crop is to be destroyed at the bloom stand, thus yield data will not be taken, Wilson said.
Only weed control and crop tolerance will be measured.
So far, Wilson said the trials are showing good control against vetch and smooth pigweed especially.
“We’ll repeat (the trials) for a couple of years and we’ll need to take yield data, too,” Wilson said.
Proper timing of herbicide application and better formations are some of the things Wilson said he hope more trials years will help fine-tune.
There are also concerns about the effects of drift and movement of the herbicide tolerant trait to non-transgenic crops.
没有评论:
发表评论