Weed Resistance to Herbicides in the Czech Republic: History, Occurrence, Detection and Management

Abstract

In the Czech Republic, herbicide resistance has been reported in 16 weed species, mostly found on non-arable land (railways) and in orchards with a history of intensive herbicide use. In maize and sugar beet, Echinochloa cruss-galli, Chenopodium album, Chenopodium rigidum and Solanum nigrum have been identified with resistance to photosystem 2 inhibitors. Seven Kochia scoparia biotypes resistant to chlorsulfuron have been found on railways, roadsides and car parks in the Czech Republic since 1996 (Salava et al., 2004). Alopecurus myosuroides is the weed with local importance in the Czech Republic. However, the poor weed control had been reported in several fields and the tested populations showed sulfonylurea resistant phenotype (Slavikova et al., 2011). On arable land, the most important seems to be ALS-resistant Apera spica-venti (Hamouzova et al., 2011). ALS-resistant A. spica-venti was first documented in 2005, in populations collected from fields in western and southern part of the Czech Republic that had continuous chlorsulfuron treatment for at least 5 years (Hamouzova et al., 2011). To date A. spica-venti resistant to ALS herbicides has been reported in several countries in Europe (Heap, 2011).