Worsening blackgrass/ryegrass problem.

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Just a bit of input to you M. when I did DD work for your cousin Toby in the 80's he had a famous saying that I use to follow and lately ignored.
"Dont mind how late you get to do my Direct Drilling but make sure it is all finished by the 15th October" we had good success up there on that big field that faced Walkern.
I remember it well. He and we all thought direct drilling wouldn't work once the burning ban came in...his old Bettinson sat in the nettles for years, we heaved it out once for some experiment that I now can't remember, Chris got quite nostalgic about the old thing.

When I told Toby's widow Pooh that we'd gone 100% direct drilling, she said 'Why?' I took from that that the wheels had come off his dd trial, but that big field you mention always looked good. No blackgrass, to get the thread back on track...
 

Warnesworth

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Chipping Norton
This would be an interesting trial; pre-ems we are led to believe work by root and shoot uptake, suggesting the shoot needs to grow through soil to pick up the residual. But does it? If it’s on the surface the shoot is straight into fresh air…BUT…would be super sensitive and the roots would hit the residual instantly 🤔
Different actives have different modes of action , some are root absorbed and some shoot absorbed. If all your BG seed is mixed in the soil profile then there is little use in using a root absorbed active. Similarly if in no-till for several years investment in shoot absorbed chemistry is largely redundant.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Different actives have different modes of action , some are root absorbed and some shoot absorbed. If all your BG seed is mixed in the soil profile then there is little use in using a root absorbed active. Similarly if in no-till for several years investment in shoot absorbed chemistry is largely redundant.
What does what?
 

alomy75

Member
Different actives have different modes of action , some are root absorbed and some shoot absorbed. If all your BG seed is mixed in the soil profile then there is little use in using a root absorbed active. Similarly if in no-till for several years investment in shoot absorbed chemistry is largely redundant.
The shoot absorbed comment is precisely what was being discussed; whether it would work or not being on the surface. I must admit I’ve never heard of actives being exclusively root or shoot absorbed but not saying it’s not true. I’m not sure I agree with not spraying a root absorbed active on bg mixed in the profile; once it’s in the soil water I’m sure it will get to the roots wherever they are. I’ve quite often seen my bg (and crop) go yellow after a heavy rain in the past when we used to cultivate a lot more.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
Been dd since 2012 and even now I compare my crops to others all through winter till May and think they are poor then they seem to take the nuclear option and grow like bonkers, perhaps I should give up selling hay to horsey folk all winter and go skiing instead and save myself all the mental torment 😁
You should definitely go away for the entire winter if you DD.
I went away in Late October last year. One of our heavier land fields had a BASF Blackgrass trial in it. Like an idiot, on the 2nd day I took a call from them to say that the wheat crop was not looking very good in it! That call ruined the whole of the rest on my holiday.
You should see it now. One of my best bits of wheat and no BG!

Moral of the story is to stay away from looking at it until it takes off in the Spring. But put your 1st dose of N on it in February at night so that you can’t actually see it.
 
Avadex works on wild oats through the stem but not sure about bg
Avadex also work by vapour phase
i have seen surface germinated bg the has a shoot 20 mm long but with no root attached into the soil
ince bg gets its roots in the soil the residual spray can kill it

the biggest benefit I have from a disc drill is good drilling depth
this has several benefits
can use Avadex
the wheat seed also takes a couple of days longer to emerge this allows the surface bg which germinates quicker and to be green before the wheat is emerged then spray with glyphosate the day before the wheat can be seen in the row
taking out the bg that is hardest for the residual to control

I now have less bg because of low disturbance notill combined with a rotation
rotate drilling dates spring /autumn and crop types

if a field has bad bg drill in good conditions to get a competitive crop and giving the residuals a chance
late drilled poor conditions give the bg the best chance

if it is too wet to do a good job wait till it is dryer 2012 2013 April 12 to 30th
2019 2020 April planted crops were better than badly planted autumn crops after 23 September rains
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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