The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a handful of herbicides from Syngenta as tankmix partners for two of the three new dicamba formulations — XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology and Engenia.
Once posted on www.XtendiMaxApplicationRequirements.com and www.EngeniaTankMix.com, the tankmix partners will be cleared for use on Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans and Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton varieties. The websites also will provide recommended drift-reduction agents.
Syngenta expects this posting to occur within 90 days of the EPA clearance.
The Syngenta tankmix options include Boundary, BroadAxe XC, Caparol, Dual Magnum, Flexstar (currently for XtendiMax only), Prefix, Reflex and Sequence.
University researchers stress the importance of rotating effective modes of action within a weed management system, according to a Syngenta news release. In continuous crop systems with early and late post-emergence applications with one mode of action, resistance can lead to weed control failure in as few as two years.
Adding a pre-emergence herbicide with two effective modes of action can delay resistance for 18 to 20 years in most cases.
Using residual herbicide tank mixes with dicamba is also necessary to help delay the onset of resistance to the technology.
“Unless dicamba is used responsibly in combination with other pre- and post-emergence herbicides, the technology will be over-extended and eventually fail,” John Appel, Syngenta herbicide product lead, said in the release. “We can’t afford to put the kind of selection pressure on dicamba as was done to glyphosate.”
All of the recently cleared Syngenta herbicide tank mixes have been tested according to EPA approved protocol, and the results are certified in accordance to the terms and conditions of registration for XtendiMax and Engenia.
Syngenta also is pursuing dicamba tankmix clearance for Envoke, Flexstar (with Engenia), Fusilade DX and Gramoxone SL 2.0 herbicides, according to the release.