Growers looking to use a post-emergence Skirmish and bentazone mixture will need to do so before the crop reaches the second node stage, warned Syngenta.

This has been exacerbated by little rain falling across eastern and southern England since March, causing the results of pre-emergence residual herbicides having been severely compromised on dry soils.

“Most pea crops were drilled into excellent seedbeds and generally don’t look too bad,” reported Jim Scrimshaw of PGRO. “But they need rain soon, and that could also trigger a real flush of weeks.”

“But they need rain soon, and that could also trigger a real flush of weeds,” he said, adding that with little movement of pre-emergence herbicides into the germinating weed root zone where they take effect, post-emergence applications are now the key option.

In cases where weeds are competing with the emerging peas, Syngenta herbicide technical manager, Jason Tatnell, suggested that growers include 0.3kg/ha of bentazone with Skirmish while weeds are still small, but increase the rate of o.6kg/ha if weeds are larger and growing aggressively on moisture retentive soil.

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