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Good Stewardship Also Key with ExpressSun
Monday, February 1, 2010
filed under: Weeds
As when growing a Clearfield variety, sound stewardship also should be a top priority for growers planting an ExpressSun® sunflower variety in order to avoid outcrossing to wild sunflower and to preserve the system’s integrity and productivity.
The ExpressSun trait system incorporates built-in tolerance to DuPont’s Express® herbicide (with TotalSol™ soluble granules). As with Clearfield, the Express-tolerance trait is incorporated into sunflower hybrids by traditional plant breeding methods, so the hybrids are not considered to be “genetically modified.” Express is a member of the sulfonylurea family of herbicides.
DuPont and Pioneer Hi-Bred International (which is owned by DuPont) offer the following stewardship advice regarding the use of ExpressSun hybrids:
• Always grow sunflower hybrids with the ExpressSun trait as part of a multi-year rotation with other crops.
• Use non-ALS/AHAS (non-group 2) mode-of-action herbicides in a tank mix with ALS/AHS herbicides — or as a sequential treatment in the rotational crop — to control wild and volunteer sunflower.
• Control wild sunflower in noncrop areas adjacent to ExpressSun trait sunflower fields through the use of non-ALS/AHAS herbicides and/or mowing prior to seedset.
• Use tillage to control emerged wild sunflower prior to planting hybrids with the ExpressSun trait, or by utilizing non-ALS/AHAS burndown herbicides, or use ALS/AHAS burndown herbicides in a tank mix with non-ALS/AHAS herbicides to provide control of sunflower.
• As practical, use ALS/AHAS herbicides in a tank mix with non-ALS/AHAS mode-of-action herbicides, or use ALS/AHAS herbicides in a sequential program that employs alternate modes of action to control wild and volunteer sunflower.