Looking for a residual corn herbicide that won’t quit?

CRAWFORD, Texas — Farmers need residual corn herbicide Storen now more than ever.

Contact herbicides used to control weeds like Palmer amaranth and grasses before they became resistant.

Now farmers have adapted their approach to rely on strong residual herbicides that prevent weeds from emerging and taking over their fields.

That is why they are looking for a longer-lasting herbicide that is going to get them through canopy, said Tony Driver, a Syngenta agronomic service representative.

“When you’re talking about resistant weeds, they’re going to cost you a lot of yield,” he said. “Storen can provide a lot of solutions.”

Storen combines four powerful residual active ingredients — bicyclopyrone, mesotrione, S-metolachlor and pyroxasulfone — to deliver consistently clean rows up to three weeks longer than other leading corn herbicides, Driver said.

“Syngenta scientists, they test and test and test until they get a product out there that’s going to be very effective in managing tolerant and resistant weeds,” he said. “With all the tests they do, when they release a product, they know it’s going to do what they want it to do.”

Storen can be used in reduced tillage systems and conventional tillage systems.

“It fits across all the different tillage systems,” Driver said. “And there’s really no gaps in the performance that you’re going to get out of Storen.”

Storen is labeled for pre-emergence and post-emergence in field corn and seed corn and has partial control, or control, of more than 74 weed species — including control of Palmer amaranth, waterhemp, kochia, common lambsquarters, morning glory, giant ragweed, common ragweed and annual grasses.

“What Syngenta likes to do, they do a lot of testing, for years, and put a lot of mixtures together, so that if one of the mixtures they have in there is not as effective then they have another product in there that will manage it,” Driver said.

“They have some in there that’s better on large-seeded broadleaf weeds. They have products in there that are better on small-seeded broadleaf weeds. They have residuals that will do a great job. And so when you put all these mixtures together, then it helps manage resistance.”

And weed resistance is now everywhere, the agronomist warned.

“It’s in the north part of the Corn Belt to the central and south Corn Belt,” he said. “It’s a large geography.”

Storen was announced at the 2023 Commodity Classic. It was registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in July.

How did it perform in field trials last year?

“It was able to deliver,” Driver said. “It had very effective control on the weed targets that growers wanted it to target.”

The new herbicide is another important tool in farmers’ toolbox.

“By keeping your fields clean, longer, this is going to also increase your overall yields,” Driver said. “It’s going to help you preserve the nutrients that you have in the soil. It’s going to help you just make a better overall crop production.”

The agronomist shared this advice: “Start clean and stay clean with the use of Storen.”