BASF has announced the approval of a new herbicide designed to control Charlock, Common Poppy, Fat-hen, Black-bindweed and other polygonums in young peas and beans.
The new pre-emergence herbicide Nirvana will be a welcome addition to the pea and bean herbicide market, according to the company: “Nirvana should be well received by UK pulse growers, as it has the potential to fill many gaps arising from the revocation and loss of active ingredients in this sector. It also introduces a new active ingredient, imazamox, to the UK pea and bean market.” Said John Young, BASF pea and bean product manager.
“This new active has been co-formulated with the widely used and trusted ingredient, pendimethalin, resulting in a herbicide that controls a particularly wide spectrum of weeds. With imazamox being from the imidazolinone group and pendimethalin being a dinitro-aniline, the two active ingredients not only complement each other in mode of action but combine together to offer a broader weed spectrum, high levels of weed control and excellent crop safety.”
BASF recommends pre-emergence in all varieties of combining peas, vining peas, winter and spring beans.
The company said Nirvana showed excellent control of Black-bindweed, Charlock and Redshank as well as a whole range of other weeds including Common chickweed, Common Field Speedwell, Common Fumitory, Common Poppy, Fat-hen, Henbit Dead-nettle, Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Knotgrass, Orache, Red Dead-nettle and Scarlet Pimpernel. Additionally, Nirvana provides good activity on Cleavers and Volunteer oilseed rape in trials.
“Having been tested successfully by PGRO over a number of years on 23 different varieties of combining peas, 53 varieties of vining peas and 10 varieties of field beans, together with extensive testing in France and the UK, Nirvana has demonstrated excellent crop safety and so has no variety restrictions, making it much easier for growers to use. It also has flexible dose rates according to crop, weed pressure and persistence required. In combining peas and field beans, the maximum 4.5 l/ha dose rate offers a one-shot approach for persistent control in moderate to high weed situations, whilst 3.0 l/ha is targeted for more general use against moderate or average weed populations. In vining peas, dose rates of 2.5 to 3.5 l/ha should be matched to the soil type,” Young said.
“Applied pre-emergence of crop and weed, Nirvana is taken up by roots and emerging shoots, taking out the weeds early, preventing competition and encouraging good establishment. Nirvana’s residual activity easily covers the main germination periods of the key weeds in peas and beans. Best effects will be seen when the seedbed is fine and firm. Experience with the product in France suggests that the activity of Nirvana also holds up well in drier conditions, compared with other standard residual products.”
Jim Scrimshaw of PGRO said: “Nirvana will be a very welcome addition to the pea and bean portfolio. It adds more flexibility to product choice, as many herbicides will no longer be available in the near future. We have already lost fomesafen. And at the end of 2007 the provision of the Essential Use ends and several active ingredients such as cyanazine, simazine and terbutryn will also be lost, leaving us with a limited choice of products. In peas and beans the most important weeds to control are the competitive climbing species such as Black-bindweed and Cleavers as well as other polygonums and Volunteer Oilseed rape. Over recent seasons conditions have been such that minimal crop competition and improved establishment has been possible by the early removal of these weeds using an effective pre-emergence application.”
