Background: The resistance of weeds to herbicides is a problem that has been increasingly studied because of its great importance in agriculture and rapid growth of this phenomenon worldwide. The quick detection of resistant plants is extremely important for resistance management. Weed resistance to herbicides can be detected through field, greenhouse and laboratory tests. A fast way of detecting resistance is using tissue culture method, where is possible to use resistant plant clones and obtain results faster than whole-plant method in greenhouse. Objective: The aims of the research were to detect the resistance of blackjack to herbicides inhibitors of the acetolactate synthase (ALS), addition in vitro cultivation; determine the herbicide concentration of imazethapyr to 95% control of the susceptible plant population; evaluate explants growth; and, determine the herbicide concentration added to the culture medium where is possible to distinguish a resistant from a susceptible plant. Methods: Experiments were carried out in greenhouse and tissue culture laboratory. Screening was performed to select resistant and susceptible biotypes, tests for specie establishment and dose response curves in vitro were made. Results: The herbicide concentration added to the culture medium that provided 95% susceptible biotype control and efficiently differentiated susceptible biotype from resistant one was 0.6μM of imazethapyr. Conclusions: This method helps recommendations of weed management and provides a quick decision to alternative control of this specie, thus avoiding major damage to the crops.
ABSTRACT: In organic systems during the dry season, competition of weeds with okra increases the critical period of interference of these species and yield losses. The objective of this research was to determine the critical period of weed interference in organic okra during the dry season in São Luís - MA. The experiment was conducted from October/2014 to January/2015 in randomized blocks, with four replicates. The treatments were the periods of 07, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 days after the transplanting of the crop with control and coexistence of the infesting community. The species with the highest importance value index were Cynodon dactylon, Eleusine indica, Amaranthus spinosus and Commelina benghalensis. The CPWI was 04 to 53 days after transplanting and yield losses were 69.5%. The organic okra cropping system during the season dry should be free of weeds until the beginning of the harvest to avoid high yield loss.
Background: Competition with weeds and the lack of selective herbicides registered for birdsfoot trefoil crops affect their development and limit their productivity. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate selectivity of post-emergent herbicides for weed control in birdsfoot trefoil crops. Methods: Experiments were carried out in a greenhouse and on a field, in both vegetative and reproductive development stages of birdsfoot trefoil crops. Treatments were composed of post-emergent herbicides recommended for soybean, corn and garlic cultivation. Phytotoxicity (PHYTO), plant height (HEI), shoot dry matter (SDM) and root dry matter (RDM) were evaluated. Data were submitted to the analysis of variance and when means were significant, they were compared by the Duncan’s Test (p≤0.05). In order to determine post-emergent herbicides which were selective to the crop, those that provided PHYTO below or equal to 15% were recommended, since they did not significantly interfere with morphological variables HEI, SDM and RDM, by comparison with the control. Results: Unlike results found in the vegetative stage, birdsfoot trefoil plants were more tolerant to phytotoxic effects of herbicides imazethapyr, chlorimuron-ethyl, cloransulam-methyl and fomesafen in the reproductive stage. The variables were negatively affected by the herbicides bentazon, glyphosate and carfentrazone-ethyl, with PHYTO higher than 40% at 20 days after treatment in the vegetative stage. Conclusions: Herbicides imazethapyr, chlorimuron-ethyl and flumetsulam, when applied as post-emergent ones, regardless of the development stage of the species, are selective to birdsfoot trefoil crops, without affecting crop development, whereas herbicides cloransulam-methyl and fomesafen are not selective to them.
Background: Parthenium weed (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) is an invasive weed that has invaded vast regions of Pakistan in a relatively very short period of a decade or two, threatening the crop fields of the agrarian fed country. Parthenium hysterophorus L. is native of central South America and Gulf of Mexico, has now turned out to be a weed of global significance due to its alarming invasions and profuse spread in approximately all parts of the world. Its invasion is probably due to the contamination of its seeds in the imported grains from other countries of the world. Objective: During comprehensive sampling from Pakistan and Australia, it was observed that parthenium weed accessions exhibited several distinct morphological features present at different geographical regions. Therefore this study focuses on the use of plastid DNA barcodes (psbA-trnH) to evaluate the extent of variations in nucleotide sequences between the parthenium weed sampled accessions. Methods: The variability or genetic diversity was evaluated through sequencing of the amplified products and data was subjected to phylogenetic analysis in Molecular Evolutionary Genetic Analysis (MEGA; version 6.06) software. Results: In Maximum Likelihood tree, mainly two clades with three subdivisions are evident which showed increased heterogenity. The results of sequence based markers showed 12 haplotypes of P.hysterophorus populations (having two parsimony informative sites) with 10 indels and a few SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Conclusions: The results advocate that there have been multiple introductions of parthenium weed into Pakistan.
Background: The use of electrostatic spray has the potential to optimize pesticide applications; however, further studies are required to verify its effectiveness. Objective: The objective of this work was to evaluate the electrostatic application system for the chemical control of weeds with glyphosate and adjuvant in different carrier volumes. Methods: The physicochemical properties of the spray solution, charge/mass relations, spray deposition on weeds, losses to the soil, effectiveness of weed control, and spray drift were evaluated. The field experiment was designed to have randomized blocks with four replications in a 2x2x2+2 factorial: the presence or not of electrostatic spray; with and without adjuvant (soybean lecithin + propionic acid); two carrier volumes (50 and 90 L ha(-1)); a control without applications and a conventional spray rate (150 L ha(-1)) for additional treatments. The study was performed in duplicate. Results: The electrostatic system energized the droplets during the application of glyphosate and adjuvant; however, this did not influence the deposition on the weeds, the losses to the soil, and the drift. The adjuvant improved the effectiveness of weed control in various situations, changed the spray solution properties, and reduced the losses due to drift. Conclusions: The adjuvant used proved to be an important tool in application technology. The effectiveness of weed control, in general, was not influenced by the electrostatic system.
