As herbicide-resistant weeds continue to develop and spread, farmers struggle to find effective herbicides that maintain a high level of crop safety. Often farmers need to use additional herbicides to achieve good weed control, while sometimes sacrificing crop safety. In recent years, companies have advertised nutritional or microbial products that can be added to postemergence herbicides that might improve crop safety and enhance weed control. These types of products can be used for both agronomic and horticultural crops. Local extension personnel have been asked about them but there is no local data for these types of products. Unfortunately, there is limited university data evaluating these products and thus little we can say to help make informed decisions.
It stands to reason that if an additive improves crop safety, it could impact weed control. If an additive improves the recover rate of a soybean plant, then an injured weed is likely to recover as well. This question has been asked, but there is no information to address it.
To evaluate the utility of these types of products, we propose using herbicide mixtures that represent a range of herbicides for soybean response with different nutrient additives. Benefits to state and regional soybean farmers include information in extension guides and other educational resources on benefits of micronutrient additives to herbicides for weed control and crop safety.
Penn State University will also do this trial, providing us with two locations and allow us to evaluate the consistency of the results across different growing conditions.