Given all the publicity off-target dicamba injury has gotten over the last few weeks, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share some videos we made with Crop Science professor Dr. Wes Everman last season.
In the first two videos, Anthony Grove, an NCSU Master’s student under the direction of Dr. Wes Everman, discusses common dicamba injury symptoms in soybeans.
Injury symptoms are dependent on the rate applied. Common symptoms include:
Minimial Injury (1/256 8 fl oz/ac rate): cupping in leaves
Moderate Injury: damage to terminal node, swollen petioles, woodness of stem, twisting of stem
Severe Injury (1/4 8 fl oz/ac rate): stunted plants, necrosis, death of terminal node, woodiness of petiole, suckering
Anthony’s Master’s project involves looking at soybeans at various growth stages to determine when they are most susceptible to dicamba injury. His preliminary results suggest that cupping injury on soybeans while they are in the vegetative stages generally results in little yield loss but as you move into the later vegetative stages or as the dose of application increases, yield loss becomes more likely.
In the last video, Dr. Everman discusses ways to avoid off-target damage from dicamba.
Remember that off-target injury can occur from one of four ways: drift, volatility, contaminated equipment, and misapplication. To learn more about auxin herbicides, see this blog post.
Stewardship and attention to detail are key to eliminating off-target injury. In Arkansas, they are in the process of placing an emergency stop on dicamba spraying in the state. It is critical we avoid this in North Carolina and we must all work together to ensure the registrations for these products remain for years to come.
