VICKY BOYD
Mississippi State University graduate student Jay Seale stands in a research plot of row rice where no herbicides were used to control Palmer pigweed.
A change of mindset For effective weed control, treat row rice as you would any other row crop. By Vicky Boyd Editor
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o successfully control weeds in furrow-irrigated rice — also known as row rice — growers will need to change from treating it like a flooded crop to managing it like they would any other row crop. That means overlapping residual herbicides and rotating effective modes of action, said Jay Seale, a Mississippi State University doctoral student conducting row-rice weed control studies at the Delta Research and Extension Center near Stoneville. It also will likely mean making one more residual herbicide application during the season compared to conventional flood-irrigated rice. “Based on our observations, if you’re going to grow row rice, you’re going to have to treat it like a row crop and have a residual in with every (herbicide) application,” said Seale, who is working under academic advisor and Mississippi State University weed scientist Jason Bond. University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University AgCen-
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ter researchers have also had trials looking at weed control of row rice and have drawn similar conclusions. A focus on top 2 troublesome weeds For the past two years, Seale has been conducting small-plot research trials on programs to control barnyardgrass and Palmer amaranth, the two most problematic weeds in row rice. He also is comparing herbicide programs targeting those two weeds in Clearfield and non-Clearfield conventional rice systems. He plans to repeat the field trials again this season. As part of his dissertation, Seale said he also will conduct an economic analysis of the different herbicide treatments. In a typical row-rice field, growers board up the bottom of the field, catching and backing up irrigation water flowing down the furrows. As a result, the field is naturally divided into three wetting zones. The bottom zone retains a permanent flood and RICEFARMING.COM
