A new weed control product has been approved for sweetcorn growers, enabling better resistance management according to the AHDB.
The Extension of Minor Use (EAMU) approval for ‘Dual Gold’ follows trials in the organisation’s crop protection programme, SCEPTREplus.
The weed control will provide growers with a new option for both the timing of application and the way in which weeds are managed, helping growers develop effective resistance management strategies.
The announcement follows the authorisation in December of Centurion Max, a weed control for herbs, secured as part of the AHDB Minor Use programme.
AHDB senior crop protection scientist Joe Martin said: “The limited range of available weed control products has left a big gap in management options for sweetcorn growers. We therefore prioritised finding a solution in the first year of the SCEPTREplus trials in order to keep the industry resilient.
He added that AHDB was working on another application “to give growers another option in the future”.
The trials for Dual Gold were carried out at Barfoots, a commercial sweetcorn grower in West Sussex. Farm manager Neil Cairns said: “Sweetcorn is not competitive when in its early growth stages. Effective pre-emergence weed control is essential to allow full and even establishment of the crop.
“Any reduction or uneven establishment leads to a reduction in marketable yield at harvest. Dual Gold provides another mode of action for grass weed control and will enable growers to practice effective resistance management.”
Angela Huckle, horticulture research consultant at ADAS who conducted the trials, added: “Weed control relies on very few post-emergence products with previously only Pendimethalin available at pre-emergence.
“There is a resistance risk from one group of post-emergence products as has occurred widely in arable crops. Therefore, herbicides for grass control – which control weeds in different ways – are required to help growers guard against this.
SCEPTREplus started in early 2017 and the priorities and trials for the second year of the project are currently being finalised.
