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Bruce Burdick
1109 S. Birch St.
Albany, MO 64402
660-726-5610
Email: BurdickB@missouri.edu

Hundley-Whaley Center phone
660-726-3698

Objective: To determine the efficacy of Lightning treatments for weed control in field corn.

Methods and Materials: The study was conducted at the Hundley-Whaley Research Farm at Albany, Missouri. It was designed as a split plot study with two factors, i.e. herbicide treatment and application timing. There were nine herbicide treatments for each of two application dates in the study. The application times were early-post (18 DAP) and mid-post (29DAP). The herbicide treatments are in Table 1. All treatments included a non-ionic surfactant at the rate of 0.25% volume/volume and 1 quart/acre of UAN (28% nitrogen solution).

Table 1
-------------------------------------------------
Treat
-ment
No.           Herbicide Product     Rate/Acre
-------------------------------------------------
1 and 10      Lighting              1.28 oz
2 and 11      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Banvel                4 oz
3 and 12      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Banvel                6 oz
4 and 13      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Banvel                8 oz
5 and 14      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Aatrex                1 pint
6 and 15      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Aatrex                1.5 pint
7 and 16      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Aatrex                2 pint
8 and 17      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Buctril               10 oz
9 and 18      Lighting              1.28 oz
              Buctril               12 oz

Burrus BX70AT brand seed corn was planted at the rate of 27,500 seeds per acre into a fall plowed, spring disked seedbed on May 21. The plot area had been allowed to produce weed seed in 1996. The early post applications were made June 9 and the mid-post applications were made June 20.

Weed pressure ranged from light to heavy. Wild sunflower, giant foxtail and velvetleaf were the species contributing the heaviest pressure in the plots. Common waterhemp ranged from light to moderate in pressure. On June 9, these weeds ranged from 1/4" to 1 1/2" tall. They ranged from 2" to 8" tall on June 20.

All herbicide applications were made with a Farmall C tractor equipped with a front mounted 12" wide boom. Nozzles were wide angle flat fan delivering 0.2 gallons of spray solution per minute. Nozzle spacings were 18" on the boom and boom height was adjusted to be 12" above the tallest plants in the plots. Spray pressure was 28 p.s.i. and the propellent was compressed air.

Results and Discussion: All treatments provided near complete control of sunflower and velvetleaf. Figure 1 shows the efficacy of the early-post treatments on waterhemp and giant foxtail. The Lightning tank mixes show the average rating for the tank mix partners, regardless of rate applied. Lightning alone failed to provide waterhemp control but grassy weed control was very good. The mid-post treatments provided weed control ratings similar to the early post treatments, however waiting until June 20, 29DAP, to make the herbicide applications resulted in corn so stunted by early season weed competition that it could not recover from the stress.

There was no measurable grassy weed antagonism to Lightning from the tank mix partners. All tank mixes provided good waterhemp control, regardless of tank mix partner use rate or application time.

Figure 1