An experiment was carried out in a commercial sugarcane plantation area in Jaboticabal, Sao Paulo, Brazil, from August 2008 to June 2009 to evaluate the effect of herbicides applied in preemergence and postemergence, alone and combination, during the dry and wet seasons, for poinsettia control (Euphorbia heterophylla). The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design in split-plot, and four replications. Three herbicide treatments [amicarbazone (1.4 kg ha-1),imazapic (0.147 kg ha-1) and sulfentrazone (0.9 kg ha-1 plus 0.2 kg ha-1),applied on August 01, 2008 after sugarcane harvest, and one treatment without herbicide were tested. The herbicides used during the wet season were: mesotrione alone (0.192 kg ha-1), and in mixture (0.12 kg ha-1) with ametryn (1.5 kg ha-1), atrazine (1.5 kg ha-1) or diuron plus hexazinone (0.702 plus 0.198 kg ha-1), applied in postemergence on November 14, 2008, and two treatments without herbicide. The application of imazapic during the dry season was efficient for E. heterophylla control, without the need of management complementation during the wet season. However, the amicarbazone and sulfentrazone treatments required mesotrione application, alone or mixed with ametryn, atrazine or diuron, plus hexazinone to control E. heterophylla during the wet season (105 to 230 days after application during the dry season). Without herbicide application during the dry season, mesotrione mixed with ametryn, atrazine or diuron plus hexazinone resulted in a better weed control than when applied alone. Despite the visual symptoms of phytointoxication caused by the treatments mesotrione plus ametryn and mesotrione plus (diuron plus hexazinone), none of the types of management adopted or combinations between them interfered in the number of viable stalk by linear meter, and in stalk diameter and height in sugarcane.
herbicide combination; poinsettia; weed; mulch; Saccharum officinarum
