Beating Giant Ragweed Starts Now

When one giant ragweed plant goes to seed, it potentially produces as many as 10,300 seeds. That’s 10K worth of new giant ragweed plants just waiting to germinate!
 
It’s imperative to control giant ragweed before it goes to seed, but even more importantly, before the plants get big enough to choke out your crop.
 
Federated’s Karson Schoening, ag sales rep in Ogilvie, stressed the importance of a pre-emerge herbicide in the fight against this very tough weed, along with tillage and crop rotation.
 
Pre-emerge herbicides – which need to be applied very soon – will start the field clean and allow the crop to get a head start.
 
In soybeans, Schoening said, “A tank mix of Buccaneer® 5 Extra (a glyphosate product), Liberty, and Enlist is a great recommendation for a post emerge spray program.” That mix, he noted, “offers good control of giant ragweed.”
 
In Corn, Acuron® GT, which is a premix of glyphosate, metoloachlor, mesotrione, and bicyclopyrone, has “top-of-the-line giant ragweed control.”
 
Schoening explained that the “bicyclopyrone in Acuron GT is what gives the Acuron GT a big bump in controlling giant ragweed.” Adding Stinger® HL to Halex® GT is another good herbicide option to control giant ragweed in corn.
 
Along with the herbicide applications, Schoening said, “incorporating tillage practices, especially when the weed is in the seedling stage, can reduce its ability to establish.”