Critical Timing for Soybean Herbicide Options

With soybeans now approaching or at the R1 stage, farmers will need to switch up their herbicide strategy to battle against increased weed pressure from warmer weather. “Now that we have had some heat and we’re in the longest days of the year, these weeds are set to start growing rapidly,” said NDSU Extension Weed Specialist Joe Ikley. “For fields that have not had herbicide applications or need additional herbicide applications, we’re in a really critical time of the year for making those. Soybeans are starting to develop a canopy, which changes the type of herbicides that can be used.” Waterhemp remains an issue this year. “We’ve seen a lot of germination early in the year. Considering that we still have a long way to go till canopy closure on these fields, any additional rainfall events we expect some water hemp will germinate until we get canopy closure. Consider throwing in additional residual herbicide, usually a Group 15, to keep that late-season waterhemp from coming up and being an issue.”