CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — University weed specialist Aaron Hager says this spring has created problems with pre-plant weed control.

“It has Stu and we’ve seen quite a bit of vegetation across the state getting fairly large and fairly mature now,” Hager said. “And that is something that we need to think about as we move into planting progress across the state and that is what we are going to do to manage the weed populations.”

A lot of guys are wanting to run the planter 24 hours a day and I doubt if too many of them have done any weed control.

“We’ve seen everything so far, about every possible combination,” Hager said. “The ideal one of course is that all existing vegetation is controlled before we put any seed in the ground. Now that is either through herbicide application or tillage or some combination of those two. But I believe you are correct. There’s going to be instances where the farmer is going to pull into the field to get it planted and there’s been nothing done to control that existing vegetation. Remember that as dense as this stand is, maybe winter annuals, and early summer annuals, its going to be very competitive with the crop, very early on in the growth stage so really the best practice to do is to try to ensure you get that weed vegetation under control as soon as you can after planting, if you don’t do it before you plant.

As soon as you can after planting, that means before that crop has emerged.

“That is the ideal thing because there are certain active ingredients, certain products in both corn and soybeans that has to be applied before that crop comes through the ground,” Hager said. “In corn we have a lot of other options that can go either pre or post A couple products in particular are Sharpen or Verdict have to be applied before the corn comes out of the ground.”

That’s our report from the farm. We’ll talk about controlling weeds ahead of soybean emergence on Monday, and the herbicides to avoid. I’m Stu Ellis with WCIA-3.