By Kurt Knebusch
Ohio’s corn and soybean growers could soon be spraying a lot more of two powerful herbicides on their fields. That’s why experts from Ohio State University Extension are offering tips on how to keep those herbicides from getting on other crops, especially valuable specialty crops such as grapes.
Doug Doohan and Roger Downer, both of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, are the authors of Reducing 2,4-D and Dicamba Drift Risk to Fruits, Vegetables and Landscape Plants, a new fact sheet that explains how herbicide sprays can drift onto nontarget fields, the special concerns about the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba, and how to prevent unwanted damage to crops.
The fact sheet is also intended, Doohan said, to raise awareness of Ohio’s specialty crops, which include not just grapes but apples, berries, peaches, herbs, hops, pumpkins, tomatoes and nursery-grown trees, to name a few. The grape and wine industry alone, according to recent figures, contributes some $786 million to the state’s economy.
“Creating and maintaining a heightened awareness of the specialty crop industry is probably the most important way to reduce the risk of future herbicide damage and the lawsuits that sometimes follow,” Doohan said.
Weed control for GM crops
2,4-D and dicamba are the cornerstones of two new proposed weed control systems: Dow AgroSciences’ 2,4-D-based Enlist Weed Control System for genetically modified corn and soybeans and Monsanto’s dicamba-based Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System for GM soybeans.
Both systems were developed because more and more weeds have grown resistant to glyphosate alone. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Roundup, for example, which is sprayed to kill weeds in widely grown Roundup Ready GM crops including corn and soybeans.
Both new systems are awaiting regulatory approval. But Doohan said both - and 2,4-D and dicamba as part of them - are “likely to be used much more extensively and intensively throughout the Midwest, starting in the near future.” Included, he said, would be most of Ohio’s 4-plus million acres of soybeans.