2018 ASHS Annual Conference

The majority of the broccoli grown in the US is located in California and Arizona. However, USDA-SCRI-funded grants have focused on establishing an east coast broccoli industry. One of the reasons it can be more difficult to grow broccoli on the east coast from a weed management perspective is higher rainfall, which can lead to greater and more consistent weed pressure as well difficulties utilizing a soil cultivator due to high soil moisture. Thus a better understanding regarding weed control strategies is needed for Research was conducted at the United States Vegetable lab in Charleston, SC to evaluate the impact of herbicides and cultivation on weed control and crop health. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block with 3 replications and 10 treatments. Two Broccoli cultivars, Lieutenant and Emerald Crown were transplanted to the field on September 22nd 2017. The treatments were structured as a factorial with 5 herbicide treatments (pyroxasulfone, oxyflurofen, S-metolachlor, napropamide or no herbicide) x 2 cultivation treatments (Cultivated or Not Cultivated). The herbicides were applied to the soil 3 days prior to transplanting. Cultivation treatments were applied three weeks after transplanting. Weed species in the plots included yellow nutsedge, carpetweed, purslane, and yellow foxtail. Twelve weeks after transplanting the best treatments for controlling theses weeds were oxyflurofen with Cultivation and S-metolachlor with cultivation, which provided 85 and 88% respectively. No injury was observed from any of the treatments.