RESISTANCE TO ALS-INHIBITING HERBICIDES IN WEED POPULATIONS FROM BELGIAN WHEAT FIELDS

In modern agriculture, most farmers rely on herbicides for weed control. The intensive use of herbicides in crops has led to the development of herbicide resistance in numerous weeds worldwide. In Belgium, farmers have encountered problems with controlling populations of Alopecurus myosuroides, Matricaria recutita, Stellaria media and Popover rhoeas in some wheat fields with the conventionally used acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides. Dose response assays were conducted in the greenhouse to test the sensitivity of these populations to the key ALS-inhibiting herbicides mesosulfuron-methyl + iodosulfuron-methyl for A. myosuroides and metsulfuron-methyl and florasulam for M. recutita, S. media and P. rhoeas. The ED₉₀- and ED₅₀-values (effective dose for resp. 90% and 50% biomass reduction) were compared with those of sensitive reference populations and the resistance index (RI) was calculated. High levels of resistance were detected forA. myosuroides (RI: 24.3) after treatment with mesosulfuron-methyl and for M. recutita (RI: 36.4 to 49.5), S. media (RI > 20) and P. rhoeas (RI: 23.6) after treatment with metsulfuron-methyl. However, the metsulfuron-methyl resistant populations of M. recutita and S. media were sufficiently controlled with florasulam at the maximum authorised field dose. This was not the case for P. rhoeas. The metsulfuron-methyl resistant P. rhoeas population were also high-level resistant against florasulam (RI: 29.5). Integrated weed management practices (crop rotation, herbicide mixing, ...) should be applied to reduce the selection pressure for resistant weeds.