The effect of a novel herbicide adjuvant in treating Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)

Abstract

Invasive woody perennials pose an immense threat to the diversity and function of many ecosystems, including forests in the eastern United States. While herbicide treatments have proven effective in controlling many plant invasions, there is considerable interest in the refinement of herbicide prescriptions to improve efficacy and prevent non-target damage. Adjuvants are widely utilized to improve herbicide efficacy but research on novel adjuvants is often lacking. Furthermore, adjuvant research has generally focused on enhancement of foliar herbicide absorption and few studies focus on adjuvant utility for other herbicide delivery techniques such as cut-stump treatments. We evaluated ‘2XL’ – a cellulase enzyme derived from fungi, as a potential herbicide adjuvant for use with glyphosate applied in a cut-stump treatment due to its ability to degrade a key component of cell walls. We conducted a field experiment using the cut-stump method (cut surface treated with herbicide) of treatment on a problematic invasive shrub, Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii [Rupr.] Herder). We tested combinations of three concentrations of 2XL with five concentrations of glyphosate and hypothesized that low concentrations of glyphosate combined with 2XL would be as effective in limiting the resprouting of L. maackii as higher concentrations of glyphosate without the enzyme. Our results indicated that 2XL did not improve glyphosate efficacy for reducing the number of resprouting stems or the length of the longest resprouting stem within the same or following year as treatment. Limited data indicated the combination of 2XL and glyphosate applied at 30 g L−1 slightly increased resprouting in the year following treatment. While 2XL did not improve glyphosate efficacy, our results showed effective control of L. maackii at the lowest concentration of glyphosate tested (30 g L−1), suggesting that concentrations lower than those typically applied may be effective in controlling L. maackii under similar parameters as tested here.