Reducing Fall Weed Pressure in Your Orchard

For several years, Rob Crassweller in the Department of Plant Science at Penn State University has been trying to stress the importance of applying herbicides in the fall as a key management tool. “A fall application of an herbicide can be part of an integrated management approach for other orchard pests like cat facing insects and rodents,” he says. “Elimination of winter annual weeds, which are hosts for insects, from the orchard floor reduces cat facing insect populations. Rodents find orchards infested with winter annual weeds attractive. Ground cover provided by weeds creates a desirable rodent habitat.”

In a recent article in the Penn State Fruit Times newsletter, Crassweller goes into more detail. “Fall herbicides aid spring and summer weed control by delaying spring application time. A fall herbicide spray can delay the spring application for six to eight weeks. The result is a six- to eight-week extension of pre-emergence weed control into the summer.”

Read more from Crassweller here.