Integrating Cover Crops and Preemergence Herbicides for Palmer Amaranth Control in Cotton

Adequate weed control in cotton production areas continues to be difficult to achieve due to the widespread populations of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds that are dominating weed management decisions across the U.S.  The most widespread GR weed is Palmer amaranth.  With few effective postemergence (POST) options available, area producers are relying heavily on the use of preemergence (PRE) residual herbicides.  Moreover, there is increased interest in integrating cover crops as a conservation practice and for early-season weed control.  Integrating cultural control methods, such as cover crops, is a viable option available for area producers to reduce selection pressure on POST herbicides and gain early season weed control.  Unfortunately, research on integrating herbicides with a cover crop system is limited.  Therefore, this trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating high residue cover crops with PRE residual herbicides in cotton.