Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

Very little burn down has been applied to corn stalks yet and things are getting messy.  Yuck!!

Dandelions, sowthistle and other assorted crap are flourishing and getting bigger.  At a recent "crop expert" meeting Brian and I attended, a lot of discussion focused on the best strategies for dealing with this issue plus making time to plant the soybean crop.

If you have dandelions the size of dinner plates like the one below, increase the rate of glyphosate to minmum two litres.  Adding Eragon to a litre of glyphosate will provide good control and quicker burndown at a slightly higher cost.

In my opinion, we need to be using Classic to give control of Dandelions.  If using Guardian, add more Polaris to boost the gylphosate rate.  If you choose to boost the rate with a different cheap glyphosate product, make sure to spray immediately.  Different formulations of glyphosate can salt out if they are left mixed in the tank for a day.  To be absoultely safe, use the Polaris at the 2 litre rate and when you run out, change to the other glyphosate product and mix in the remaining Classic.

If you have sowthistle in IP beans, the best strategy would be to hit the field now with gyphosate to clean up other weeds and come back with post emerge Classic as late as possible to hammer the sowthistle.  Don't expect miracles if sowthistle is present.  In May and early June sowthistle is too early in its growth cycle for glyphosate to give much control.

Another common question is whether to spray, till and plant?
OR till, spray and plant?
OR till, plant and spray. 
In reality we are going to be pressed to get as much done as possible in as short amount of time.  A light vertical tillage pass with a RTS or Turbo-till can get you planting a day or two earlier because it mixes some air into the top inch of the seed bed.  Most soil applied soybean chemistry can be incorporated, but Classic and Valtera, which is part of Guardian Plus, do not like to be incorporated.  Does light vertical tillage do any incorporation?  No, don't sweat over it.  These units do not mix the soil enough to qualify as incorporation tools.

Personally, I favour the spray, RTS and plant method or just spray and plant.  Ideally we would like the glyphosate on at least 24 hrs before we touch the field, but it may come down to spraying and planting the same day.  Using the three most over used words of redneck lingo, Git 'R' Done.

I don't care for spraying after planting because I want herbicide on NOW, not later.