Lentils Insight
Western Canada
Calling lentils a “management-intensive" crop is an understatement. Lentils are known for folding under the pressure of disease and weed competition.
Lentils pose a season-long agronomic challenge. It’s crucial to start the crop off on the right foot early in the season to give a fighting chance against bad weather, weed competition and other issues the crop might face later in the season.
It’s especially important to manage weed pressure in this notoriously uncompetitive crop. Producing high yields in lentils requires a long-term weed control strategy across your entire crop rotation.
One of the worst yield-reducing culprits in lentils is kochia. It starts growing in the spring and can produce multiple flushes throughout the season. The result of these flushes is a poor quality sample due to increased moisture levels in the crop, not to mention mechanical harvest issues.
Controlling Weeds in Lentils
The Alberta Pulse Growers Association recommends controlling weeds early, as lentils are such poor competitors against weeds and in-crop herbicide options are limited by both mode of action and efficacy. Weeds can cause up to 40% yield loss in lentils. A pre-seed herbicide application creates a weed-free period for lentils at a critical point in the growing season.
Use the following strategies to help keep your lentils clean during the critical weed-free period:
- Tank-mix your glyphosate with a burnoff plus extended control product to extend the time that the crop stays weed-free further into the growing season
- Use multiple modes of effective action pre-seed or pre-emerge for improved resistance management
- Use a herbicide layering approach where your pre-seed or pre-emergent herbicide groups are different than your in-crop herbicide groups
Weeds are difficult to manage in lentils but our team of weed specialists is committed to seeing lentil production continue to grow in Western Canada. See below for the latest research to help you produce a higher yielding crop.
Learn About Lentils
Keeping lentils competitive
Lentils need all the help they can get. Use these adaptive weed control strategies to get your crop through the long weed-free period that is necessary to achieve full yield potential.
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Stick to the blueprint to help maximize yields in lentils
Lentils are a poor competitor when it comes to weeds. To win at lentils, you need a whole farm weed management strategy. Learn how two growers in Saskatchewan manage their crops to maximize yields.
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Burnoff vs. burnoff plus extended weed control
With limited in-crop herbicide options, you need your pre-seed weed control in lentils operating at peak performance. Join our technical experts at a lentil plot in Swift Current, SK that compared burnoff plus extended weed control to burnoff alone.
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Early season weed control
Applied with or without glyphosate, Focus herbicide gives you effective pre-seed control of grassy and broadleaf weeds by creating a soil-based barrier that weeds can’t get past.
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Managing resistance means using different modes of action
Weed resistance to herbicides has been a reality for a long time. The discovery of glyphosate-resistant kochia biotypes is spreading rapidly across Western Canada. Get ahead in your resistance management by using multiple modes of action and by practicing herbicide layering.
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A complete solution for a clean start
Using glyphosate over and over again is asking for trouble. Layering in novel modes of action is an excellent resistance management strategy. Here's a plan to make that happen pre-seed and pre-emergent in wheat and lentils.
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Three Effective Tools to Combat Resistant Grassy Weeds
The number of grassy weeds resistant to in-crop herbicides is increasing. Dr. Breanne Tidemann, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe, AB, presented some sobering statistics during the FMC Pre-School webinar, AGRC*104: Grassy Weeds in the Prairies: The Pests, the Problems, the Plans.
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Managing Herbicide-Resistant Russian Thistle
Like its cousin kochia, Russian thistle is an annual weed that is highly adaptable to hot, dry conditions. It grows rapidly with its red-striped stems growing over one metre high with its extensive root system reaching almost two metres down.
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Everything in Order: Tips for mixing herbicides in the right order
To be sure you are getting the most effective results from your herbicide investment requires paying close attention to the order you add products to your spray tank. A good rule of thumb is using the WAMLEGS method as follows:
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Herbicide layering: How to get effective weed control using multiple modes of action
The practice of using herbicides from multiple groups in sequential applications to target the same weeds and will include soil-applied herbicides combined with pre-seed burnoff, followed by an in-crop herbicide application.
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Growing lentils isn't easy. We break down the current best practices in our easy-to-follow Lentil Production Manual. We've summarized the latest research from top scientists and agronomists under the key areas that affect yield and quality: Seeding, fertility, weed control, disease and insect management, and harvesting. Find everything you need to grow top-quality, high-yielding lentils in this must-have reference.
Your Lentils Solution
Focus® herbicide delivers extended weed control with multiple modes of action to set you up for a great crop. It delivers early removal of emerged weeds when added to glyphosate followed by up to eight weeks of extended weed control of emerging weeds once activated by rain.
With Focus® herbicide, you get extended weed control on kochia1, wild buckwheat1, wild mustard1 and foxtail barley1. Plus, get extended control of downy brome, cleavers and pigweeds. The extended control protects your crop, even if your in-crop herbicide application is delayed.
Focus® herbicide, applied with or without glyphosate, should be a key component of your strategy for growing high-yielding lentils:
- Early weed removal – excellent control of a broad range of grassy and broadleaf weeds helps create a weed-free period for your crop at a critical point in the growing season
- A complete solution for your weed control
- Boosted burnoff – can speed up the control of emerged weeds when added to glyphosate
- Extended weed control – once activated by moisture, it creates a soil-based barrier for up to 8 weeks of extended control on emerging weeds
- Strong defense against herbicide resistance –combines Groups 14 and 15
1 Suppression
Learn More Details about Focus® Herbicide for Pre-Seed Applications in Western Canada