Blueberry Pre-emergent Herbicide Demo
We have another guest post from Benton County Agent and Blueberry Grower Ryan Neal. Ryan conducted a demonstration of different Pre-emergent herbicides for blueberry production. This is good information as you move into planning for next spring’s production cycle.
This demonstration looked at the new pre-emergent herbicide Alion which is newly labeled in Arkansas for blueberries. Dr. Burgos trialed various herbicides in 2017 at the research station in Clarksville and the data collected favored the use of Alion compared to older more common pre-emergent herbicides such as Princep and Surflan. The label for Alion suggests it has longer residual control of weeds than that of Surflan or Princep. The sticker price can be intimidating at first sight so in this demonstration I paired the contact herbicide Gramaxone with Alion as the price of Gramaxone is half the price of Rely which is the alternative for many growers. The Gramaxone/Alion mixture was compared to a Rely/Surflan/Princep mix. The price for each treatment is listed below:
As you can see the price of Alion is $410/quart but the rate is so low that the per acre cost is less than that of Surflan/Princep.
Both treatments were spray applied on 4/10/18 to Legacy, Duke and Chandler varieties. The Legacy are about 3 years old while the Duke and Chandler are about 5 years old.
Rely/Surflan/Princep was used on both sides of row 58, and the east side of row 59
Alion/Gramaxone was used on both sides of row 60, and the west side of row 59
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 Photo: Rely/Princep/Surflan on 6/1/18 ~7 weeks after application
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 Photo: Alion/Gramaxone on 6/1/18 ~7 weeks after application
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 Photo: A) Alion/Gramaxone and B) Rely/Surflan/Princep on 6/1/18 (Photo taken from other direction)
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Dr. Burgos previously mentioned the potential prevention of Bermudagrass runners from establishing where Alion had been sprayed. Pictured below is the Alion applied zone where it seems to be free from Bermudagrass runners.
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The effects of all pre-emergent herbicides wear off over time but the weed suppression of the Alion treatment appeared to last longer than that of the Surflan/Princep treatment. The need to weed eat and/or spot spray was reduced which offered a better harvest experience and time savings.
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