Jeff Schoenau

By Anna Szmigielski, Bryce Geisel, Frederick Holm, Eric Johnson and Jeff Schoenau

Part of the book: Herbicides and Environment

By Anna M. Szmigielski, Jeff J. Schoenau and Hugh J. Beckie

There is an urgent need for rapid, accurate, and economical screening tests that can determine if weeds surviving a herbicide application are resistant. This chapter describes development and application of a simple root length bioassay technique for detection of wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis L.) resistance to ALS-inhibiting herbicides. This bioassay was performed in 2-oz WhirlPak® bags filled with 50 g of soil wetted to 100% moisture content at field capacity. Wild mustard seeds were pre-germinated in darkness in Petri dishes lined with moist filter paper for 2 days. Six seeds with well-developed radicles were planted in the non-treated soil and in soil with added herbicide, and plants were grown in a laboratory under fluorescent lights. After 4 days of growth, WhirlPak® bags were cut open, soil was washed away, intact plants were removed, and root length was measured with a ruler. The concentration of each herbicide in soil at which a significant root inhibition of susceptible biotype, but no root inhibition of a resistant biotype occurred was selected. Susceptibility/resistance of wild mustard populations was estimated by calculating the percentage of uninhibited roots of plants grown in the herbicide-treated soil as compared to the plants grown in the non-treated soil.

Part of the book: Herbicides