Field conditions have changed dramatically since posts a few weeks ago about dry soil and suggestions on planting and weed management. At this point, we may have fields with emerged weeds growing in beds that are ready for planting. If there are delays in planting due to wet soils, if will be important to either reconstruct beds to make sure weeds are killed or spray herbicide and then plant into beds. In my experience, weeds get big enough (quickly) to withstand knocking down rows only, followed by planting. A burndown herbicide application even in conventional tillage will be needed to make sure weeds do not survive the planting operation and get a jump on the peanut crop.

With resistance present for several key summer weeds relative to glyphosate, paraquat is the best option. My suggestion is to apply paraquat a few days before additional tillage or planting takes place.

Glufosinate (Liberty) comes up in conversations about burndowns prior to peanut planting. My recommendation continues to be paraquat (Gramoxone and other formulations of paraquat.) In my view, a burndown rate of paraquat is more effective than glufosinate across the weed spectrums we often have. Paraquat also has a different site of action than glufosinate. For our Liberty Link crops, decreasing selection pressure on glufosinate is an important avenue for herbicide resistance management. Applying glufosinate as a burndown prior to peanuts adds to selection pressure, especially on weeds like Palmer amaranth.