The influence of soil herbicides on weeds in maize

Maize is cultivated on an area of more than a million hectares every year. Effective weed management of this area is only possible with the use of che mical weed control. In the field experiments we used the well-established, long-used herbicides as well as the newest monocotyledonous and dicotyledon ous herbicides in normal and double dose. In June we carried out a weed-control efficiency test at every plot. In the beginning of the vegetation period there was an extreme amount of rainfall (443.5 mm from April until June). We assessed the efficiency of the herbic ides on eight important annual dicotyledonous weeds. In no treatment we fou nd any phytotoxic symptoms on the maize plants. The old, well-established h erbicides, especially the atrazine agent and their combinations, proved aga in their efficiency, despite of these environmental conditions. Isoxaflutol proved to be an prospective agent with its excellent efficiency even under these conditions.