Herbicide application

HERBICIDES AND THEIR APPLICATION

Herbicide and their application

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Weed control in the orchard with the use of herbicides to reduce their competition with fruit plants for water and nutrients.

Weed

Any plant that grows out of place is a weed.

• Compete with fruit trees for water and nutrients.

• Weeds sometimes act as intermediate or alternative hosts for some pests, diseases that cause large losses to the main crop.

• Weeds can be crop or season specific, ie annual, biennial and perennial weeds.

• In India, the loss of yield due to weeds is about 33% of the total production and, on average, 30% of the total cost of production is spent on tillage operations alone.

• Therefore, effective weed control is necessary for profitable and profitable production.

Plant response to greenhouse

water harvesting system in dryland agriculture

Fencing system in horticulture

Microsystem of irrigation

Water use efficiency

Evapotranspiration, mulches and antitranspirants

Problems of crop production in dryland

Importance of garden weed control:

• Fruit trees can be much larger than most weeds, but they have root systems that don't compete well with other plants.

• Where cover crops or weeds grow, most tree roots form in the second and third foot of the soil.

• If competition is low, trees form the largest percentage of their roots in the first two feet of soil depth, which is much more biologically active.

• In areas with poor quality soil, the gardener should not give the best weed support.

Damages caused by weeds:

• Increase in cost of cultivation: Weed control may take about 30% of total cost of expenditure thereby causing reduction in the net returns.

• Crop yield reduction: weeds are hardy and resistant to unfavorable conditions, supplement water and feed with cultivated plants and reduce yield to about 60-70%.

• Reduced product quality: Some weeds that eat or feed the animals that produce the mulch cause an unwanted taste to the milk. Similarly, if the product is mixed with weed seeds, the quality decreases.

• Harbour insect pests and diseases: Weed may act as alternate hosts for many crop pests and diseases.

• Check flow of water in channels: It physically impede the easy flow of irrigation water and cause its wastage by consuming the bulk of irrigation water.

■ Some harmful secretions: Some of the weeds (Cyperus rotundus) check the germination and reduce the growth of main crops.

When weeds should be controlled?

• Weed seeds remain viable for long periods. It is known that one year of planting equals seven years of weeding. Therefore, weeds need to be checked before they bloom.

Weed control methods.

• The area below the treeline cannot be cut properly and would become a dense tangle of annual and perennial weeds if allowed to grow.

• Various methods have been tried over the years to cut down this growth, including mechanical tillage, mulches, and flaming.

• Each one of these alternatively work, but often are very time consuming, expensive, and are carried out, usually, by people intentionally trying to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides.

1. Cultivation method: the practice of tillage followed in a specific garden and the presence of weeds.

2. Fire Grass: Weeds can be burned with a fire gun.

3. Biological control: weeds can be eliminated by releasing suitable parasites.

4. Choking: If the garden completely covers the ground with shade, weeds can be eliminated by limiting their growth by covering them with suitable mulch of adequate thickness.

5. Chemical control of weeds: Care must be taken when using chemicals for weed control, otherwise the cultivated plants could also be damaged. Only selective herbicides should be used.

Horticultural crops:-

Cinnamon (Daalchinni)

Herbicides can be organic or inorganic.

The inorganic compounds are: ammonium sulphate, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, borax, sulfuric acid; these are not commonly used in agriculture.

Organic herbicides are:

• DNOC – Dinitro-ortho cresol

• PCP – Pentachlorophenol

• Dinoseb – 2 – butyl 4, 6, dinitro phenol

• MCPA – 2 methy 4 chlorophenoxy acetic acid

• 2,4 – D.B. – 2,4 dichloro butyric acid

• Propanil – 3, 4 – dichloropropionanilide

• Diuron – 3, 4 – dichloro phenyl

• Atrazine – 2 Chloro 6 ethyl amino 4 isoprophyl – amine 1,3,5 triazine.

They should not be used with most residual soil materials or products that can harm the young tree if applied to the trunk.

Chemical weed control in orchards

• In this method, weeds are controlled by chemicals, referred as weedicides or herbicides. This practice is based on the principle of selectivity, killing only one type of plants.

These chemicals can greatly kill or inhibit growth when applied in appropriate doses in the pre- or post-emergence phase.

• Pre-emergence herbicides such as diuron, atrazine, fluchloraline, etc. they are applied to the soil before weed seeds / seedlings emerge by spreading, bandaging, incorporating into the soil or spraying onto the soil surface.

• Post-emergence herbicides such as glyphosate, paraquat are applied with the addition of surfactant, after the appearance of weeds.

• Using herbicides to reduce weeds under trees is a simpler method that often reduces the overall impact on the environment.

Some of the herbicides recommended for different fruit crops are:

● Mango - Diuron - from 6.67 to 8.9 kg / ha - Bromacil - from 6.67 to 8.9 kg / ha

● Banana - Oxyfluofen - 600 - 800 ml / ha - pre-emergence

● Citrus fruits - Artazine - 2,5 kg / ha - pre-emergence - Diuron - 2,4 kg / ha - pre-emergence

● Grapes - Paraquat (Gramaxone) - 1,5 liters / ha - post-emergence - Diuron - 3 - 3,5 kg / ha - pre-emergence - Atrazine - 4 kg / ha - pre-emergence

● Sapota - Bromacil - 3 kg / ha - pre-emergence - Diuron - 4.0 kg / ha - pre-emergence

● Pineapple - Bromacil - 2 kg / ha - pre-emergence

● Strawberry - DCPA 8 lb + Cloroxuron 4 lb / ac - Diphenylamide 4 lb / ac

Benefit:

1. Weeds checked or killed while the ground remains intact.

2. Avoid damage to trees caused by rodents by destroying their places of refuge.

3. Prevents plant and root injuries that can be caused by discs.

4. All cultivation operations can be easily carried out in the absence of weeds. The harvested fruits can be collected easily.

5. Harvesting of fruits can be done easily.

• Some apple and pear varieties are more sensitive to mild herbicides than others.

For example, Gala and Golden Delicious apples and all pears appear to be more sensitive to 2,4-D than other fruits than when they are leached in the root zone. In these examples, care should be taken not to apply, then irrigate the product in the root zone within 10-14 days of application.

• Cherries and other "stone fruits" are generally less tolerant of active herbicides in the soil and have far fewer registered and safe product options. Simazine can cause severe symptoms in stone fruit when applied in many irrigation situations and on north-west facing orchard land.

• The most common and severe damage occurs in young fruit trees when unprotected bark comes in contact with concentrated doses of glyphosate-type products. However, this does not mean that these products cannot be used in young orchards.

• Young trees have shallow root systems and most of their roots lie below the herbicide-treated area. They can be heavily exposed to active herbicides for roots that penetrate the surface soil.

• Soil Factors - These are the same well-known considerations that are used with many herbicides and crops. Organic matter and increased binding sites that come with finer soil texture are the main soil qualities that hold potentially mobile herbicides in the top 2-4 inches of the soil, controlling weeds rather than affecting the tree.

• Residual soil, potentially mobile and actively absorbed by the roots. These tend to be the older, cheaper, and highly effective products that often form the basis of a weed control combination. Examples include simazine, diuron, terbazyl and, to a lesser extent, norflurazon and diclobenyl. All very good and useful herbicides, but they can be mild to very dangerous for fruit trees.

• Residual soil, not very mobile and difficult to transport to significant heights on the tree. Examples of these include orizalin, napropamide, pronamide, pendimetaline, oxyfluorphene and isoxaben. These products are more or less effective, but often need to be used in combination to increase the weed control spectrum.

■ They are more likely to fail if the application instructions are not followed very carefully.

• Contact, systemic, not active in the soil.

The usual list: products with glyphosate or sulphosate.

These tend to be an important part of the weed control program in mature orchards and very useful for suppressing hardy perennial weeds. Systemic contact, somewhat active in the ground: 2, 4-D.

• Contact, not very systemic, not active in the soil. Paraquat, which is used very effectively as a "chemical hoe" in young orchards.

Herbicide considerations:

• Read the manufacturer's instructions before applying herbicides for proper use.

• Herbicides must be used with caution and must be used according to the recommended dosage, otherwise they can cause damage to plants.

• Use a special herbicide spray nozzle to minimize spray drift and allow low pressure spraying. They are available in various sizes with the possibility of applying a variety of spray volumes.

• The behavior of weeds affected by various cultivation practices, the management of the orchard must be recorded.

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