What to Do About Herbicide Damage to Crops? A Detailed Guide to Prevention and Remedial Methods

During the crop planting process, herbicides are a fairly common and widely used type of pesticide. So, what should be done about herbicide damage?

1. What to do about herbicide damage?

When the stems and leaves of crops suffer herbicide damage, it is necessary to immediately spray the affected plants continuously with clean water two or three times. For herbicide damage caused by herbicides that readily decompose when exposed to alkaline substances, 0.2% quicklime or sodium carbonate can be added to clean water, mixed evenly, and then sprayed. After the affected plants are rinsed with clean water, they should also be irrigated with water, which can both satisfy the roots' large water uptake and lower the concentration of the chemical in the crop, while also removing herbicide residues from the soil once again.

2. What are the causes of herbicide damage?

1. Improper selection of type

Every herbicide has its corresponding weed-killing spectrum and suitable environment. If selection is not based on the weed species and the specific conditions of the farmland, the selected herbicide variety will be powerless or unable to exert its weed-killing ability. Every herbicide has corresponding quality standards, among which the most important are the content of active ingredients, the types and content of impurities, dispersibility, emulsification, stability and so on, all of which directly affect efficacy and herbicide damage problems. For efficacy and herbicide damage problems caused by pesticide quality issues, both the producer and the seller bear responsibility.

2. Application dosage problems

There are several reasons for incorrect application dosage: first, the farmer's subjective behavior, always suspecting that a low dosage will give a poor weed-killing effect, increasing the dosage beyond the limit; once environmental conditions favor the exertion of efficacy, herbicide damage is unavoidable; second, in order to show that their product is low-cost, pesticide factories recommend very low dosages on the instructions to adapt to the objective fact of farmers' low purchasing power, which cannot guarantee the weed-killing effect; third, the farmer's cultivated land area is inaccurate, causing the rated dosage to not match the actual cultivated land area; fourth, uneven spraying, repeated spraying, missed spraying, especially when using multi-nozzle sprayers, where different liquid output from each nozzle directly leads to uneven spraying.

3. Improper timing of application

For stem-and-leaf treatment agents, the earlier the application after weeds emerge, the better the effect; for soil treatment agents, the later the application before weeds emerge, the better the effect, but the greater the possibility of herbicide damage to crops.

4. Wrong application method

When soil treatment agents are used for stem-and-leaf treatment, most will cause herbicide damage, and a few will have poor efficacy; when stem-and-leaf treatment agents are used for soil treatment, most will be ineffective, and the possibility of herbicide damage is very small.

5. Unsuitable environmental conditions

① In sandy soil with soil organic matter content below 2%, closed treatment is prone to herbicide damage; when organic matter content is above 5%, efficacy is very low.

② After applying closed treatment agents, heavy rain makes the possibility of herbicide damage great; stem-and-leaf treatment requires re-spraying.

③ Continuous low temperatures reduce the weed-killing effect and increase the possibility of herbicide damage.

④ Soil drought reduces the efficacy of closed treatment agents or even makes them ineffective.

⑤ Applying pesticide on windy days of level three or above makes it impossible to ensure even spraying, reduces efficacy, and may cause herbicide damage.

⑥ Poor land preparation quality results in poor closed treatment effects.

In order to prevent herbicide damage caused by improper use of herbicides, application techniques must be strictly followed and operations must be standardized.