Herbicides registered in vegetable soybean often fail to control waterhemp. The objective of this research was to quantify vegetable soybean tolerance to preemergence herbicides for early-season waterhemp control, including flumioxazin applied alone PRE or in mixture with chlorimuron, metribuzin, or pyroxasulfone at use rates in grain-type soybean. Crop tolerance to the herbicides was tested in field trials with 20 vegetable soybean cultivars and four grain-type cultivars through 4 wk after treatment (WAT). Flumioxazin-based treatments were equally safe, resulting in only minor, transitory crop response (<5% injury 2 WAT) and no effect on crop emergence or early season growth. Flumioxazin mixtures provided greater than 99% control of waterhemp 4 WAT, as evidenced by reduced weed density from 29.7 plants m−2 in the nontreated control to no waterhemp. Flumioxazin applied alone or in tank mixture with chlorimuron, metribuzin, or pyroxasulfone were as safe in vegetable soybean as previously reported in grain-type soybean. Registration of these products in vegetable soybean would provide the industry with additional options for managing waterhemp.

Edamame, a specialty food-grade soybean popular among health-conscious consumers, is growing in popularity worldwide. Despite a well-developed soybean industry, most edamame consumed in the United States is imported from Asia. Considerable interest exists in growing edamame domestically; however, weed interference is a major problem, and until recently, only a single herbicide was registered for use on the crop. The objectives of this work were (1) to compare effectiveness of weed management treatments that utilize herbicides currently registered for use on edamame or that may be registered in the near future, (2) to determine the significance of edamame cultivar on performance of these treatments, and (3) to identify potential relationships between the crop and weed. Ten different weed management treatments were tested in three edamame cultivars over a 3-yr period. All weed management treatments increased marketable pod yield relative to the nontreated control, but only treatments with saflufenacil or S-metolachlor combinations were comparable to the hand-weeded weed-free treatment. Of the treatments studied, S-metolachlor followed by imazamox was among the greatest yielding, had the least weed density and biomass, and did not reduce crop population density. Also, cultivars differed in their weed-suppressive ability. Path analysis indicated certain relationships were consistent across cultivars, such as weed population density having a direct negative association with crop biomass; however, other edamame–weed interactions were not identical across cultivars. Although more improvements are needed, the vegetable industry is beginning to have nascent weed management options in edamame, which will likely reduce reliance on hand weeding and result in crop-production costs that are more competitive in the global market.

Poor weed control, resulting from limited herbicide availability and undeveloped integrated weed management systems, is a major hurdle to production of vegetable soybean in the United States. Vegetable soybean, the same species as grain-type soybean, has few registered herbicides because of unknown crop tolerance. Tolerance of as many as 128 vegetable soybean entries to a 2X registered rate of bentazon, fomesafen, imazamox, linuron, and sulfentrazone were quantified within 4 wk after treatment in field trials. Several grain-type soybean entries were included for comparison, including entries with known herbicide tolerance or sensitivity. Injury and seedling growth reduction to all vegetable entries was comparable to all grain-type entries for fomesafen, linuron, and sulfentrazone; and less than all grain-type entries for bentazon and imazamox. Responses of ten of the more widely used vegetable soybean entries were comparable to grain-type entries with known herbicide tolerance. Bentazon, fomesafen, imazamox, linuron, and sulfentrazone pose no greater risk of adverse crop response to vegetable soybean germplasm than the grain-type soybean to which they have been applied for years. Since initiation of this research, fomesafen, imazamox, and linuron are now registered for use on the crop in the United States. Development of integrated weed management systems for vegetable soybean would benefit from additional herbicide registrations.

Few herbicides are used in carrot production in the United States, and none suppress volunteer potato, a serious weed where the two crops are grown in rotation. Hand-weeding is the primary method of controlling emerged volunteer potato within carrot. The objective of this work was to evaluate carrot tolerance and volunteer potato control with single or sequential applications of prometryn, prometryn plus fluroxypyr, and ethofumesate. The treatment with fluroxypyr resulted in malformed carrots with numerous root hairs and reduced carrot yield. Treatments with prometryn, either as single or sequential POST applications at 2.23 kg ai/ha, were safe on carrot and frequently controlled volunteer potato similar to the hand-weeded treatment. Ethofumesate applied as single or sequential PRE or POST at 2.2 kg ai/ha proved safe on carrot, but higher rates reduced yield. Ethofumesate applied POST or PRE followed by POST consistently reduced volunteer potato tuber mass. If registered for use in carrot, prometryn and ethofumesate would help modernize weed management in carrot and reduce or eliminate the need for hand-weeding volunteer potato.