Super Weed Can’t Be Killed…Not Exactly
In the ABC news segment, “
Super
Weed Can’t Be Killed,” that aired earlier this week (October 6, 2009), you
may have seen news correspondent
Steve Osunsami’s reporting that Palmer
pigweed can no longer be controlled. It
is true that this weed has become a formidable foe for producers across the
South, but to generalize and say it cannot be killed is an overstatement. As you know, there are Palmer pigweed
populations that are resistant to glyphosate and therefore cannot be killed
with that chemistry alone, but there are alternative chemistries that still
have activity on the “super weed.”
Osunsami failed to tell “the rest of the story,” which is that residual
herbicides like Flexstar GT, Prefix and Reflex offer control of glyphosate-resistant
Palmer pigweed when applied at
proper timings as part of a sound weed management strategy.