Selecting nozzles to apply herbicides should primarily focus on reducing the risk of spray drift without compromising efficacy

Herbicide sprayer setup: A properly configured and well-calibrated sprayer is essential to ensure your herbicides are applied in accordance with label recommendations, and that you achieve the intended weed control. 

Weeds compete with trees for moisture and nutrients and can also create a favourable micro-climate for pests and disease. Chemical herbicides have been the mainstay of weed management in orchards since the mid 1940s. 

Why manage weeds?: Rapid canopy establishment and early cropping are keys to profitability in any orchard, particularly modern capital-intensive systems.Weeds compete with trees for moisture and nutrients and can also create a favourable micro-climate for pests and disease.

Leading supplier, Grochem Australia, has launched a new non-selective, organic herbicide in a major breakthrough for the horticulture sector. Beloukha herbicide gives growers and their advisers a naturally derived option for effectively managing broadleaf and grass weeds around orchards, vineyards, nurseries and a host of other situations.

After extensive research, SST has developed a new generation non-ionic surfactant that may soon become the new standard across Australia and New Zealand Wetout® is a unique proprietary formulation of vegetable based surfactants that improves efficacy in every aspect while reducing unwanted negatives such as spray drift.

Graeme Hardwick, AgNova Technologies’ area manager for South Australia, Sunraysia and Western Australia, is seeing tree crop growers switching back to residual herbicides to save time and money and avoid problems with resistance to glyphosate.

Attack by opportunistic pathogens

It’s back to the future in orchard weed control this season as growers return to residual herbicides to control weeds.

Glyphosate is one of the most highly used herbicides in the world because it is economical, easy to use, broad-spectrum, and kills quickly.

Many growers struggle to complete jobs in time. Weather conditions also delay many jobs. So what can help this situation?

Pre-emergent herbicides are a useful tool for combating weeds. They are generally applied before the spring break—before the new weeds germinate.