By Darren Hefty

I love talking broadleaf weed control in wheat because there are solutions for almost every weed problem you’ve got.  (Cue the inevitable feedback with uncontrollable weeds I’ve never heard of via email, Twitter, etc.)  Okay, so you can’t stop every weed 100% every single time, but you can do a really good job on almost any broadleaf weed if you get after it timely.  Here are some options you should look at.

“Base Products”

  • WideMatch – Contains Starane (the best product for kochia control) and Stinger (the best product for thistle control).  With those two primary weeds taken care of, you’re free to add one of the many helper products, such as Edition Broadspec, to clean up the odds and ends.
  • Huskie – Contains Buctril and an HPPD component similar to Laudis in corn.  Huskie controls a broader spectrum of weeds compared to WideMatch.  Its strengths are ALS-resistant mustards, lambsquarters, wild buckwheat, field pennycress (fanweed) and prickly lettuce.

“Helper Products”

In most cases, these herbicides would be added to one of the base products to pick up some more weeds.

  • Edition Broadspec – Contains two active ingredients that are both in the Group 2 (ALS) family.  Nice help on mustards, volunteer canola, field pennycress and many more non-ALS resistant weeds.
  • Edition Tankmix – Same two active ingredients as Edition Broadspec, but just mixed in a different ratio.
  • Orion – Contains florasulam plus MCPA ester.  Since the florasulam is in the ALS family, there are a number of weeds you have to watch out for.  The 2,4-D helps by adding a second site of action, although we don’t like 2,4-D in wheat.
  • Starane Flex – Uses the florasulam from Orion, but teams it with Starane for control of ALS-resistant kochia.
  • Supremacy – Contains the active ingredients from Starane and the Edition products.  It gives you all the weed control from Edition PLUS the added kick on kochia from Starane.
  • Generic Bronate – Buctril plus MCP Ester.  This was the standard in wheat prior to better and safer products like WideMatch and Huskie coming on the market.

Again, we aren’t big fans of using 2,4-D in the crop.  Here’s why.

First of all, the price has gone up considerably in the last few years.  Now, many of the safer options are similarly priced or even cheaper.  Second, 2,4-D can be hard on the wheat.  Why spray something that will rob yield when there are other choices that can kill the weeds?

Should I tankmix my broadleaf herbicide with a grass herbicide?  If there are very few weeds in the field, the answer is yes.  DO NOT TANKMIX if you need an extra 2% to 5% grass control or if you are after tough grasses.  Tankmixing can also mean a little more leaf burn, especially when adding a fungicide.