Chemical Control – Common Chickweed

Control of Common chickweed

Good control can still be achieved in cereals by using any of a range of different herbicides (non-ALS herbicides should be used where resistance has been confirmed to this chemical mode of action).

Products that contain picolinafen and/or pendimethalin give good control when applied pre or very early post-emergence of the weed. Early control of chickweed is preferable in order to allow crops to establish better and suffer less from competition with the weed. If sprays are delayed until the crop and weed are established then control of larger weed plants becomes more difficult and the crops will have already have suffered some yield loss.

Picolinafen and pendimethalin have different non-ALS modes of action and so will control ALS-resistant populations of chickweed as well as preventing the build up of this type of resistance in the future.

Picolinafen controls a wide range of broad-leaved weeds. It primarily enters weeds through their shoots which means it provides good contact activity to control the weeds. However, picolinafen can also can be taken into weeds via their roots and so it can provide useful pre-em activity.

Pendimethalin controls a wide range of both grass and broad leaved weeds. It mainly enters weeds via their roots which means that it works best when applied before the weeds emerge. Pendimethalin also has strong residual activity which means that it gives the benefit of effective control of later germinating weeds.

The following table lists the products that contain picolinafen and/or pendimethalin and are available for use in cereal crops. To get the best control, all of these products should be used either pre or very early post-emergence of the weeds.