Location: Application Technology Research
Project Number: 5082-30500-001-072-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 15, 2025
End Date: Sep 14, 2026
Objective:
Weed control in container crops continues to be a primary cost and management issue for nursery growers. The objective of this project would be to find new and innovative strategies for managing weeds in a more economical and effective way. A series of experiments are planned to be conducted to address the most pressing weed management issues. Specifically, these studies would focus on refining herbicide rotation strategies, gathering new herbicide efficacy information to develop new targeted recommendations, evaluating the efficiency and efficacy of liquid based preemergence herbicide programs and application methods, evaluating new non-chemical methods of control, and establishing protocols for growers who need to regain weed control following complete weed failures. Work will also focus on evaluating the efficiency and accuracy of new and emerging herbicide application technologies compared with industry standard methods. These experiments will be designed to accomplish research goals within a short-time frame to deliver information to growers as soon as possible, and will focus on research which will provide the industry with the highest return on investment.
Approach:
A series of experiments will be conducted to help growers improve herbicide selection, application, and overall production practices with weed control and crop performance in mind. To refine herbicide rotations, experiments will focus on determining the persistence of common herbicide active ingredients under different irrigation, fertilization, and potting substrate variables. Studies to better understand the differences of granular herbicide efficacy will focus on determining key differences between common herbicide combinations such as WSSA group 3 + 14 combinations and group 3 + 21 combinations so that these products can be selected more effectively. Research will also evaluate the differences in canopy penetration and efficacy when using different application volumes ranging from 20 to 200 gallons per acre. This will help growers who utilize spray-only programs better select target application volumes for their treatments. We will also continue our work in evaluating the use of non-chemical methods of control, focusing on rice hull and other mulch materials as wells as fertilizer placement strategies to reduce weed growth and germination without the aid of herbicide. Finally, we will conduct a series of experiments using different weeding and preemergence herbicide application timings to determine the best and most effective strategies to help growers clean blocks of plants which are completely over-run with weed growth. An additional focus of this work that will be paired with other objectives is to determine the accuracy, efficiency, and efficacy that growers can achieve using different types of herbicide application equipment. All experiments will be conducted at either the Mid-Florida research center in Apopka or at collaborator grower nurseries. Research will be repeated in time or space and will be replicated in order to make valid statistical comparisons. Data collected in all trials will be comprised of both qualitative
(quality, weed coverage, phytotoxicity ratings, etc.) and quantitative (weed biomass, plant growth, weed count, etc.) data points to allow for publication in peer-reviewed journals.