Fruit & Vegetable: Group 14 herbicide trials in strawberries
by Perennia
The field research team at Perennia explored herbicide options to control weeds unique to strawberry crops.
Strawberries in Nova Scotia are subject to unique challenges when it comes to weed control. Photo courtesy of Sonny Murray.
Most strawberry growers in Nova Scotia experience unique challenges when it comes to weed control. With recent label expansions to include strawberries for many Group 14 herbicides, the field research team at Perennia, a provincial development agency focused on agri-food industry support and growth in Nova Scotia, explored herbicide options to control weeds unique to strawberry crops in the province through a field trial during the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons.
“With weed control being a major challenge in field production, we wanted to see how these group 14 active ingredients would control weeds that are unique to our area, including wood sorrel, field violet, sandwort, and scentless chamomile,” says Sonny Murray, berry specialist and trial lead.
Group 14 herbicides are a diverse group of products in their control of weeds. Also known as PPO inhibitors or cell membrane disruptors, some are active on weeds only if applied pre-emergence and give a residual control. Other products in this group, such as oxyfluorfen and fomesafen, work post-emergence on weeds in the two- to four-leaf stage. All Group 14 herbicides tend to be weak on grasses.
This article was originally featured in our partner publication, Fruit & Vegetable. Read the original version here.
