Grain sorghum is one of the major species cultivated as a winter crop in savannah areas in Brazil. Although 2,4-D is currently used on this crop, little has been done to understand crop susceptibility as a function of its vegetative stage at spraying. The present work was carried out to determine the selectivity of 2,4-D applied in post-emergence on grain sorghum. The cultivar AG-1040 was grown in 10 dm-3 pots under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was set up in a completely randomized design, in a factorial scheme 5 x 3, composed by five rates of 2,4-D (0, 210; 420; 840 and 1.608 g ha-1), applied at three phenological stages: three, five and nine completely expanded leaves. Visual crop injuries were more intense when the herbicide was applied at the earlier stages of sorghum development. However, the main negative effects related to plant productivity and lodging were observed in herbicide applications carried out at later stages of crop development.
phenological stage; Sorghum bicolor; synthetic auxins; selectivity
