Herbicides for Potential Use in Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus) Production

Abstract

Herbicides registered for lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) do not consistently control many troublesome weeds. Some herbicides registered for soybean (Glycine max) will control these weeds, but tolerance to lima bean is not known. Two field and two greenhouse studies were conducted to evaluate recently registered soybean herbicides for lima bean tolerance. Field studies were conducted in Delaware from 1996 to 1998, and in North Carolina during 1997 and 1998. The first field study evaluated the preemergence (PRE) herbicides cloransulam at 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04 kg ai/ha; flumetsulam at 0.04, 0.05, 0.06, and 0.07 plus metolachlor at 1.3, 1.6, 1.8, and 2.1 kg ai/ha; sulfentrazone at 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25 kg ai/ha; lactofen at 0.2 and 0.25 kg ai/ha; and the commercial standard treatment of imazethapyr plus metolachlor at 0.05 and 1.7 kg ai/ha, respectively. Lima bean injury 5 to 8 wk after emergence was lowest for imazethapyr plus metolachlor (standard treatment) and all four rates of cloransulam. Crop injury with flumetsulam plus metolachlor ranged from 0 to 18% and sulfentrazone ranged from 3 to 75% depending on location and rate. Lactofen treatments caused unacceptable lima bean injury. Yield in plots treated with cloransulam were consistently greater than in the plots treated with other herbicides. The second field study examined the postemergence (POST) herbicides cloransulam (0.013 or 0.02 kg ai/ha), bentazon (1.1 kg ai/ha), imazethapyr (0.035 or 0.053 kg ai/ha), and imazamox (0.018 or 0.036 kg ai/ha), applied when the crop was at the first trifoliolate stage. Cloransulam caused 0 to 13% crop injury and imazamox caused 3 to 25% injury depending on rate and location. In greenhouse studies, no differences were observed among eight common processing lima bean cultivars in tolerance to sulfentrazone applied PRE or to cloransulam, imazamox, imazethapyr, or bentazon applied POST.