Georgia Department of Agriculture Announces A Final UPW Meeting for 2019! (Culpepper, UGA and Gray, GDA).

A final Using Pesticides Wisely (UPW) meeting will be conducted at the Tifton Campus Conference Center on May 21, 2019 beginning at 1:30 pm.

Similar to previous meetings and immediately after the UPW meeting, Extension agents and GDA will also offer an applicators license training for those individuals who do not have a pesticide license. The applicators license will allow individuals the ability to apply Engenia, XtendiMax or FeXapan in 2019 and 2020 only.

For those wanting to know who has completed the training visit the Department of Ag’s auxin website; scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see “Applicators with Using Pesticides Wisely Training for 2019” http://agr.georgia.gov/24c.aspx. Click on the location of interest, and names from individuals that filled out the registration (if legible) are entered.

Phone reservations are not needed for this training.

FINAL 2019 Using Pesticides Wisely (UPW) Training
Date, Time	County	Location and Address
May 21, 1:30 pm	Tift	Tifton Campus Conf. Center, 15 RDC Road, Tifton, GA 31793

Valor Mishaps (Prostko)

In the heat of the battle to get crops planted on time, it is not uncommon for some herbicide misapplications to occur.  The unintentional application of higher than labeled rates is a not a good thing because money is wasted, crop injury potential is increased, and rotational crop intervals are jeopardized.  

Over the last few days, I have received several inquires about how peanuts might respond to Valor applied at rates higher than 3.0 oz/A due to sprayer calibration errors.  Keep in mind that when an herbicide is developed, application rates are based upon a ton of data.  The lowest use rate possible that will provide the most consistent weed control over a wide range of environments in carefully selected.  Additionally, most herbicide use rates have a "safety" margin built into the rate just in case of application errors.  

I looked back at some of my older Valor data and can tell you this regarding the response of peanuts to 6 oz/A of Valor:

1) In 6 field trials, there was no significant difference in peanut yield between 3 oz/A and 6 oz/A.

2) In 1 field trial, 6 oz/A of Valor resulted in a 7% yield loss when compared to 3 oz/A (Figure 1).

3) In 1 field trial, 6 oz/A of Valor resulted in a 15% yield loss when compared to a non-treated check.

Figure 1.  Peanut injury caused by Valor SX 51WG @ 6 oz/A which 
resulted in a 7% yield loss, Attapulgus, GA 2018.  

If a grower accidentally applied the wrong rate of Valor at planting, there is a good chance that nothing disastrous will happen.  With any application of Valor and regardless of rate, heavy rainfalls during the period of emergence until about 2-3 weeks after will result in significant visual injury.  I strongly encourage all growers to regularly calibrate their sprayers in order to prevent herbicide application mishaps!  Growers should not put all their faith in last year's sprayer settings or sophisticated on-board computers.  

For the record, both UGA and the current Valor label recommend that ONLY 3 oz/A of Valor be applied within 2 days after peanut planting (I do not want anyone reading this blog to think that its OK to apply 6 oz/A!!!!!!!!!  That is not the purpose of this blog!!!!!!!).  

Strongarm/Peanut Questions (Prostko)

Had a few questions about Strongarm (diclosulam) use in peanuts yesterday that I thought might be interesting to all:

1) In general, what application method is more effective for weed control in peanut (PPI or PRE)?

When averaged over 7 weed species, there was little difference in weed control between PPI and PRE applications of Strongarm (Table 1).  However, in dryland production fields with minimal future rain predictions, PPI applications would be preferred.

 Table 1. Application Method Effects on Residual Weed Control with Strongarm 84WG @ 0.45 oz/A in Peanut.¹

Weed	Control (%)
	Application Method
	PPI2	PRE3
sicklepod	54	44
Florida beggarweed	78	87
bristly starbur	94	97
purple nutsedge	59	73
yellow nutsedge	78	78
morningglory sp. (Ipomoea sp.)	89	99
smallflower morningglory	94	96
All (average)	78	82

¹Source: Grey et al.  2003.  Peanut Science 30:27-34.

²PPI = preplant incorporated.

³PRE = preemergence.

Also very important to remember that Strongarm provides a much broader spectrum of weed control when applied PPI or PRE when compared to POST applications.  However, the following 7 weeds are sensitive to Strongarm when applied POST: tropical spiderwort/Benghal dayflower; common cocklebur; common ragweed; bristly starbur; horseweed/marestail; morningglory sp.; and eclipta.

2) What application method is more effective for the control of tropical spiderwort/Benghal dayflower?

Data collected a few years ago in Grady Co. indicated that POST applications were more effective than PRE applications for the control of tropical spiderwort/Benghal dayflower (Table 2).

Table 2.  Application Method Effects of Strongarm 84WG @ 0.45 oz/A on Benghal Dayflower/Tropical Spiderwort Control in Peanut.¹

Application Method	Control (%)2
	46 DAP3	69 DAP	114 DAP
PRE4	75 cd	68 b	11 e
EPOST5	97 a	90 a	75 abc
LPOST6	88 ab	78 ab	60 c

¹Source: E.P. Prostko and J.T. Flanders, 2003, PE-24-03, Unpublished data.

²Means in the same column with the same letter are not significantly different according to DMRT (P=0.05).

³DAP = days after planting.

⁴PRE = preemergence.

⁵EPOST = early-postemergence, 17 days after planting (2’’ tall, 3 leaf stage).

⁶LPOST = late-postemergence, 31 days after planting (6” tall).

Volunteer Peanut Control in Field Corn (Prostko)

Been getting a few calls about controlling volunteer peanuts in field corn.  Remember that the volunteer peanuts that emerge from seeds that made it thru the winter and rains are some super tough plants.  A couple of thoughts:

Roundup Ready Corn:  Split applications of glyphosate at least 10 days apart.  Glyphosate can be applied over-the-top of field corn up to V8 stage or 30" whichever comes first.  Drop nozzles or lay-by applicator should be used when corn is 30" to 48" tall.

Liberty-Link Corn: Split applications of Liberty (glufosinate) at least 7 days apart.  Liberty can be applied over-the-top up to V6 stage of growth.  For corn 24" to 36" tall, apply with drop nozzles or lay-by rig.

Conventional Corn:  Split applications of dicamba @ 0.25 lb ae/A applied EPOST (8" tall corn) + lay-by (up to 36" tall corn).  These dicamba applications must be separated by at least 14 days.   An alternative treatment would be dicamba (EPOST) followed by Evik (lay-by).

**Atrazine can also be included in any of these EPOST applications as long as corn is < 12" tall.

UPW Meetings – Only 2 left! (Culpepper)

Agents, there are only two more Using Pesticides Wisely meetings left for 2019. Please communicate with your growers/applicators to make sure they have been trained or that they will be attending one of the two final meetings. No additional meetings will be added……….no need to even call and ask! 

2019 Using Pesticides Wisely (UPW) Trainings
Date, Time	County	RSVP # (Max Attendance)	Location and Address
Apr 16, 8:30 am	Pierce	912-449-2034 (125 max)	Pierce County Ext. Office, 705 College Ave., Blackshear, GA 31516
Apr 18, 1 pm	Tift	229-386-3328 (350 max)	Tifton Campus Conf. Center, 15 RDC Road, Tifton, GA 31793

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Endangered Dicot Plants and Dicamba (Prostko)

At all my UPW trainings this year, at least 1 person has asked me for more information about the endangered dicot plant species in the 6 counties in Georgia where applicators of Engenia, Fexapan, and Xtendimax, must maintain a 57’ omni-directional buffer.  Here are a few things to think about in regards to this issue:

1) The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was passed by Congress in 1973 to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). 

2) An “endangered” species is a species in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

3) Here is a table listing the endangered dicot plants of those 6 GA counties.  Click on the plant name to learn more about it:

Plant	County
	Decatur	Dooly	Floyd	Mitchell	Seminole	Worth
Alabama leatherflower			X
Whorled sunflower			X
Fringed campion	X	X
American chaffseed	X			X	X	X
Cooley’s meadowrue				X		X
Canby’s dropwort		X
Harperalla		X
Pondberry						X

4) For more information about Endangered Species Bulletins, check out the following web-site: https://www.epa.gov/endangered-species/endangered-species-protection-bulletins

2019 Using Pesticides Wisely Training Documentation (Culpepper, UGA and Tommy Gray, GDA)

Agents, many of you have been asking how documentation for our 2019 UPW trainings will occur. The following link will take you to the Georgia Department of Ag’s auxin website; scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see “Applicators with Using Pesticides Wisely Training for 2019” http://agr.georgia.gov/24c.aspx. Click on the location of interest, and names from individuals that filled out the registration (if legible) are entered. We are optimistic that this method and approach will simplify and improve the process.


Our goal is to have names posted on-line within 3 weeks of a training event. However, please understand that we have 19 UPW meetings in the next three weeks which will challenge our time line. The individual entering all of the registration names is also attending many of the trainings helping with registration, so please be understanding as we work hard to meet our time line for posting names.