Economic Threshold of Volunteer Corn GR® in Soybean as a Function of Emergence Time and Origin of Corn

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Volunteer corn is extremely competitive with soybean and the degree of interference varies with the corn density, time of emergence and origin. The objectives of this work were to determine the economic threshold (ET) of volunteer corn GR® F2 in soybean as a function of the time of emergence (same day and nine days after soybean) and origin (individual plants or clumps). Each clump was manually adjusted to have seven corn plants. Four field experiments were conducted in randomized blocks design with four replicates in Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil. The soybean yield losses (%) were calculated and adjusted to the model of the rectangular hyperbola and generated the parameters for the determination of the ET, that was calculated based on the volunteer corn control costs (US$ ha-1), efficiency of control (%), price paid for soybean (US$ kg-1) and soybean yield (kg ha-1). The ET mean was 0.3 and 0.48 for individual corn plants m-2 emerged together and nine days after soybean, and 0.08 and 0.03 m-2 for individual plants and clumps, respectively. Increases in grain yield and price paid for soybean, greater control efficiency of corn and lower control cost promote reduction in the ET of volunteer corn in soybean. The control of volunteer corn is justified in a density less than 0.5 individual plant m-2 and is close to zero when corn originates from clumps. Volunteer corn is one of the most competitive weed in soybean crops.