Sudan Grass fits well here as a warm season annual crop that is low input, does the ground some good and can be rotated with a variety of winter annual crops. It is fast growing, competes well with weeds and can be helpful in reducing summer annual weed populations. Weeds can be a problem in Sudan grass, however, and herbicides are occasionally needed. Growth regulators like dicamba and 2, 4-D are registered on sudan but are volatile in the summer and can be hazardous to use. Contact herbicides like bromoxynil(Buctril) and carfentrazone(Aim) are also registered but only effective on small weeds and can cause leaf burn. Sudan is known to have a toxic effect (allelopathy) to some weeds. Unfortunately it can also to toxic to some crops as well. Toxicity to lettuce was tested and verified in the Imperial Valley several years ago. Toxicity was reduced when the Sudan residues were broken down and leached before lettuce was planted.

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To contact Barry Tickes go to: btickes@ag.arizona.edu.

For questions or comments on any of the topics please contact Marco Pena at the Yuma Agricultural Center.
College of Agriculture, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.