Spring 2025: Optimising weed control with Arylex™ and Broadway® Ultra

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February 2025 - how are cereal crops looking?

This spring is very different from the one we faced in 2024, with much more wheat in the ground and more than 90% of it receiving a residual application in the autumn. Early drilled crops are looking good and there are few weeds coming through because the residual herbicides have worked well.

Some later drilled crops have suffered from water-logging and the canopies are very open as we enter the spring. Here the residuals have been washed down the soil profile and consequently the weed burden is greater.

Despite the variability in weed emergence, all situations will benefit from a post-emergence herbicide application, whether it is targeting newly emerging grass and broad-leaved weeds or cleaning up larger, overwintered weeds.

Growers should avoid taking their eyes off the ball and act early by controlling left over weeds from autumn applied herbicides that have run out of steam because of the warmer winter weather and rainfall. Grass and broad-leaved weeds will quickly get ahead if left uncontrolled once nitrogen is applied and the season warms up, so getting ahead of the curve is essential when it comes to weed control.

Broad-leaved weeds that pose the greatest threat to yield include cleavers, poppy, chickweed, fat hen, fumitory, cranes-bill and groundsel. All of these species have long germination periods and will need to be controlled promptly, before they outgrow any treatment options and have an impact on the crop. We saw this last spring where weed control was poor because weeds were often managed late, once they were larger, more difficult to control and shielded by larger crop canopies.

Why control early?

The ability to control weeds early is essential. Not only because contact acting products work best against smaller weeds, limiting the impact on the yield of the crop. But also because it helps with workload management as well as simplifying later season tank-mixes.

Arylex^™ benefits

Most broad-leaved weed herbicides need warm conditions to work best. Wide temperature variations and adverse conditions do not favor sulfonylurea or phenoxy chemistry that may struggle to achieve reliable control early in the spring , especially on larger weeds such as cleavers or poppies, and those that may be resistant to ALS chemistry.

Arylex is a unique molecule, and its characteristics make it the vital building block of any broad-leaved weed program in winter and spring cereals. Its ability to perform extremely well in cold and fluctuating temperatures, excellent crop safety, wide application window up to GS45, dose rate flexibility, excellent tank mix compatibility and a unique mode of action offering an anti-resistance mechanism for specific species such as ALS resistant poppiess, make it the backbone of any spring broad-leaved weed herbicide strategy.

Recommendations

Arylex can be found in products such as Zypar and Pixxaro. These can be used in winter and spring cereals, including winter oats and those under sown with grass. Controlling cleavers, cranesbill, chickweed, mayweed, fat-hen, fumitory and charlock.

To get the best out of Arylex:

In winter cereals, apply early in sequence or tank-mix with a graminicide to take out all remaining weeds in a single pass.
For clean up of later flushes of cleavers and black bindweed on other cereals, mix in with the T1 or T2 fungicide.
In spring cereals, to get ahead of weeds such as fumitory and cleavers, tank-mixing with PGR’s, fungicides or trace elements can help reduce number of applications.
If and when required, other herbicides can be tank-mixed with Arylex based herbicides to boost activity on polygonum species and difficult weeds such as larger Bur chervil.

Grass weed control

In winter wheat, choosing a highly effective grass weed herbicide is always the priority, however being able to also choose a product to control a full suite of grass weed’s including meadow grasses and one that covers a wide range of some of the most difficult broad-leaved weeds is now an option with Broadway^® Ultra, new from Corteva Agriscience.

Containing the tried and tested grass weed actives pyroxsulam and mesosulfuron-methyl, Broadway Ultra can be used from 1^st January at 100 g/ha with an adjuvant.

If looking for the fullest grass weed and broad-leaved weed solution, then either tank mix or sequence Broadway Ultra with Zypar. This combination will control grass weeds, including meadow grasses as well as cleavers, fumitory, ALS resistant poppy, cranes-bill, brassica weeds and a large number of other broad-leaved weeds.

Learn more about Broadway Ultra with our short video

For more information on Broadway Ultra, visit the product page or contact Corteva’s Hotline on 0800 689 8899 or email ukhotline@corteva.com.

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