Occurrence of horse nettle (Solanum carolinense L.) in North Rhine-Westphalia

Abstract

In autumn 2008 during corn harvest (Zea mays L.), the driver of the combine harvester spotted an unfamiliar plant species in the field. It turned out that Solanum carolinense L. was the unknown weed species. The species had overgrown 40 % of the corn field which had a size of 10.2 ha. The farmer who usually effectively controls all weeds on his field had so far not noticed the dominance of the solanaceous herb species. From his point of view, the weed must have germinated after the corn had covered the crop rows. On the affected field, corn is grown in monoculture since 1973. When the horse nettle was first spotted in October 2008, the plants had reached a height of about 120 cm, rhizomes had grown 80 cm deep and a horizontal root growth of 150 cm could be determined. In the following season (2008/2009), winter wheat was grown instead of corn on the respective field. This was followed by two years of winter rye (2009/2010 and 2010/2011). The change in crop rotation plus an application of ROUNDUP ULTRA MAX® (glyphosate) and SIMPLEX® (fluroxypyr + aminopyralid) had a significant influence on the biomass of horse nettle roots, rhizomes and shoots. A reduction of up to 75 % could be observed until autumn 2011. Apart from that, an experimental trial showed that SIMPLEX® (fluroxypyr + aminopyralid), GARLON 4® (triclopyr), ARRAT® (dicamba + tritosulfuron) + DASH® (adjuvant), MAISTER FLÜSSIG® (foramsulfuron + iodosulfuron), LAUDIS® (tembotrione), ROUNDUP ULTRA MAX® and especially ARRAT® + DASH® + PEAK® (prosulfuron) were suitable for the suppression of Solanum carolinense L..

Keywords

• Arrat®
• Dash®
• Fruchtfolge
• Langzeitwirkung
• Mais
• Peak®
• Rhizome
• Simplex®
• corn
• crop rotation
• long term reduction
• rhizomes