Italian ryegrass. (Photo: Weed Science Society of America)

HERBICIDES have been instrumental in managing Italian ryegrass, a weed that frequently competes with perennial crops in California.

Herbicide-resistant populations have become increasingly commonplace, though, including paraquat-resistant Italian ryegrass found recently in a California prune orchard.

A team of scientists set out to determine if the paraquat-resistant population might also be resistant to other post-emergence herbicides.

Seven other herbicides commonly used in fruit tree and nut tree crops were included in the study, including clethodim, fluazifop-P-butyl, glufosinate, glyphosate, pyroxsulam, rimsulfuron and sethoxydim.

Researchers found the paraquat-resistant population was also resistant to both clethodim and glyphosate.

Among the remaining herbicides, glufosinate, rimsulfuron and sethoxydim were found to deliver the best postemergence control.

Unfortunately, though, other populations of Italian ryegrass have developed resistance to the three herbicides, indicating their effectiveness may be short-lived.

“Over-reliance on post-emergence herbicides from a variety of chemical classes can result in weed populations that exhibit multiple resistances,” says Caio Augusto Brunharo, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Davis.

“Effective herbicide-resistance management programs are necessary for sustainable weed control.”

The researchers recommended a number of pre-emergence herbicides as control options for Italian ryegrass in fruit and nut tree crops, including tank mixes containing indaziflam and flumioxazin.

Source: Cambridge University Press

Full text of the article, “Multiple Herbicide-Resistant Italian Ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) in California Perennial Crops: Characterization, Mechanism of Resistance and Chemical Management” is available in Weed Science Volume 66, Issue 6.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/cup-sfi112318.php