Interagro’s ‘Backrow’ gives herbicides a helping hand in potato crops

By Lukie Pieterse

With the loss of diquat from the weed control arsenal in the UK this spring, Britain’s farmers are likely to be under even greater pressure to ensure herbicide sprays are both timely and effective.

Up until now, weed control has been pretty straight forward – plant and wait for weeds to emerge and then apply a residual plus diquat tank-mix. This simple treatment was pretty effective with a low risk of crop damage.

Without diquat a rethink to herbicide applications may be needed, particularly where growers have been used to applying a residual plus diquat mix towards the latter end of the pre-emergence/early post-emergence window.

Interagro’s Gozai product (pyraflufen-ethyl) and also Shark (carfentrazone-ethyl) remain good alternatives to diquat for contact activity, although they do pose certain risks to the safety of crops where applications are applied post crop emergence.

This means residuals may well be applied first, at the true pre-em timing, and then followed by a contact later in the pre-em window to avoid any crop-safety issues should the weather cause delays in application, according to specialists at Interagro.

Now more than ever, they say it will be vital to achieve the best weed control possible with residuals pre-emergence by limiting the impact of sub-optimal spraying and soil conditions on herbicide application.  And this is where residual herbicide adjuvant Backrow, could be worth its weight in gold this spring.

Backrow is a tried and trusted adjuvant, according to Interagro – proven to optimise the performance of residual herbicides in less-than-perfect conditions, whilst also protecting crop safety.

Residual herbicide performance depends on good application conditions and sufficient uptake in soil water by the roots and shoots of germinating weeds. However, cloddy tilths and spray drift can both lead to poor coverage, preventing herbicide contact with germinating weeds. Weeds that do not come into contact with the herbicide at germination will emerge, putting pressure on follow-up contact treatments.