While beginning the season with a weed-free seedbed is my best recommendation for rice, that’s not always possible. As we approach midseason, we often find our best laid plans have somehow avoided implementation.
I’m often asked for herbicide program recommendations beginning at the pre-flood stage of production. That’s a difficult question to answer, because after rice emerges it’s a new ballgame with a different jump ball scenario in every field.
In some fields, weed control is like a leisurely stroll along the beach. Other fields are a cage fight with a 6-vs.-1 matchup. As a territory manager for Corteva Agriscience, I spend much of my time answering phone queries about the most challenging weed scenarios. I always get tickled about the field names associated with problems fields. These names run the gamut from “jungle field” to “dog’s back field” to “grassy knoll” and, my all-time favorite, “Jesse James.”
Each of these fields requires multiple modes of action, and achieving control requires using overlapping residuals with multiple actives. My recommendations for barnyardgrass control tend to be aggressive and become very aggressive immediately prior to flood.
RebelEX® herbicide is a great tool on these types of weedy fields. RebelEX contains two modes of action, resulting in excellent barnyardgrass control and a wide spectrum of control on other lingering weeds such as flatsedge, sprangletop, coffeebean, northern jointvetch and ducksalad.
RebelEX has a very flexible application timing of early postemergence one-leaf rice through 60 days preharvest. Applied early, RebelEX gives growers excellent control of grasses and sedges and helps avoid challenging weed scenarios later in the season.
It also can be tank-mixed with Newpath, Clearpath or Beyond herbicide in the CLEARFIELD® Production System.