NEW CHEMICAL FOR WILD OAT CONTROL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 7

NEW CHEMICAL FOR WILD OAT CONTROL

Trials this season with a new chemical called barban to control wild oat infestations in barley and wheat have shown promise in barley crops at Lakeside and Tai Tapu. The trials have been made by the Canterbury (N.Z.) Seed Company Ltd. Observation strips were also put down in a crop of peas for processing. The chemical was first used in the United States in' 1959 and has been used in the United Kingdom for the last tw’o years. The chemical is applied when the wild oats are In the seedling stage when they have between one and two and a-half leaves, which limits the time of application to a fairly brief period of about a week. However, it is generally known if particular paddocks are likely to have wild oats and the ‘I

seedlings are easy to identify. Coming up between the rows they are finer in the leaf than barley and are rather rough and hairy. The rates of application tried at Tai Tapu and Lakeside were two and four pints per acre in 10 gallons of water. While there was some checking of growth of the barley in the four pint strips it was not noticeable in the two pint strips and there was a reduction of about 90 per cent, in the wild oat plants. The chemical apparently has a two-fold effect. The sprayed wild oats seem to make slight stunted growth slowly before dying and the plants which are not killed—possibly those that had more than three leaves at the time of spraying—are checked and the crop has a chance to get away and exert a smothering effect on the survivors.