Across My Plate Today (Prostko)

A couple of interesting weed science items that came across my plate today that I thought you might find helpful:  

1) A grower sent me the following picture of a Bryozoan spp. jamming up his irrigation system (pond).  I reached out to UGA's former aquatic weed specialist (Dr. Gary Burtle) for some help.  A few fun facts about Bryozoans: 1) Bryozoans are microscopic aquatic invertebrates that live in colonies; 2) their presence in ponds is an indicator of good water quality; and 3) control options include copper complexes and stocking ponds with bream (~500/acre).

*****FYI, I am not interested in becoming the new aquatic weed specialist.  My plate is already very full.  Any future calls to me about pond weeds will result in the following: 1) changing my cell phone number to an unlisted number; 2) early retirement; and/or 3) beginning a new career with normal work hours and no throne calls (i.e. Lowes).

2) At every soybean meeting I attend, you will always hear me talking about the need for Georgia farmers to strongly consider the use of metribuzin (PRE).  Metribuzin is cheap, will provide about 21 days of residual pigweed control, and is not a PPO herbicide.  Check out the following picture from some of my soybean plots earlier today.  More than 40+ Palmer amaranth plants/ft2 in the non-treated control (NTC) and ZERO plants where metribuzin was used.

  3)  Metribuzin is available as a solo product and/or as a component of numerous pre-mixes.

4) Growers who want to use metribuzin in soybean must plant a tolerant variety (page 279 of 2022 UGA Pest Control Handbook-Volume 1) and pay very close attention to planting depth (at least 1.5"), rate of application (0.25 lb ai/A), and soil organic matter/texture. 

https://extension.uga.edu/content/dam/extension/programs-and-services/integrated-pest-management/documents/handbooks/2022-comm-chapters/Soybean.pdf