• MOST FARMERS INTEND TO SPRAY AFTER PLANTING. I don’t recommend that. I like the pre’s sprayed prior to planting so I know the herbicide got applied. You can’t use most pre’s post-emerge, so spray pre-plant.
• YOUR COST MAY BE BASED ON SEVERAL FACTORS. Prowl is about $8 more expensive than Trifluralin, but Prowl can be used in no-till. Trifluralin must be incorporated. Early post, if nothing is up, a PPO like Flexstar plus a Group 15 like Zidua will be just fine, but if you have emerged weeds you may need to add Roundup, a volunteer corn killer, Liberty, Enlist One, and/or something else.
• IN CONVENTIONAL SOYBEANS, THE PROGRAM I OUTLINED ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE IS NOT ENOUGH. I usually recommend five pre-plant herbicides, higher use rates, very narrow rows (10” or less), a high planting population (maybe 160,000 or more), and a little prayer. Late in the season in conventional beans, the best herbicide for waterhemp and kochia is Cobra, so you see why using every possible early-season residual product along with narrow rows and high planting populations is essential.
• DON’T COUNT ON ENLIST ONE OR DICAMBA (IF LABELED) TO BE YOUR SAVIOR. Enlist One is weak on kochia, and neither will kill tall weeds consistently. Plus, neither offers much residual, and both have many label restrictions.
• WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE LIBERTY, BUT IT’S SUPER FUSSY. You need high heat and humidity, the full rate, real AMS, small spray droplets, 20 gallons of water, etc. When you follow the rules to Liberty spraying, it’s amazing. When you don’t, weed control suffers.

• MY GOAL IS ALWAYS TO SPEND AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE, YET STILL ACHIEVE PERFECT WEED CONTROL. In the past, we’ve loved using the HPPDs post-emerge. I’m talking about Callisto or similar herbicides, that may cost just $2 per acre. The problem now is waterhemp resistance. The HPPDs are no longer controlling all the waterhemp in my area, so almost everyone here is adding dicamba back into the mix.
• EVEN THOUGH MANY WATERHEMP PLANTS MAY BE RESISTANT TO HPPDS, WE STILL LIKE ADDING A LOW RATE OF HPPD POST-EMERGE. This helps on many different broadleaves, especially with HPPDs being so inexpensive. Just keep the rate low so you don’t have to worry about carryover so much.Dicamba is NOT perfectly safe to corn.
• DICAMBA IS NOT PERFECTLY SAFE TO CORN. That’s why we’ve been adding MegaGro to it and getting significant yield gains. There’s also DiFlexx (dicamba plus a corn safener) or Status (dicamba, a corn safener, and the main weed killer which is another active ingredient you don’t use in any other crop). While Status is better on waterhemp and kochia in my opinion, it also costs quite a bit more money.
• SURTAIN IS A PREMIX OF ZIDUA AND SHARPEN. If you want even better control, spike in a little more Zidua to get the Zidua in total up to the full rate.
• YOU CAN ADD MORE GROUP 15 (ZIDUA, HARNESS, DUAL, OUTLOOK, SURPASS, ETC.) POST-EMERGE IF YOU WANT TO EXTEND YOUR RESIDUAL CONTROL EVEN FURTHER. I didn’t list this earlier since it’s not usually necessary when you start with the full rate of a great pre-plant herbicide and follow up with something that controls every weed in the field. After that, we usually see crop canopy choke out the remaining weeds.

For expert advice in building a program to kill waterhemp, kochia, or any weed problem in your crops, contact your local Hefty Agronomist!