Silky bent grass resistance to herbicides: one year of monitoring in Belgium

Silky bent grass (Apera spica-venti (L.) P. Beauv.) is a common weed of cereal crops widely spread in Northern and Easthern Europe (Germany, Czech Republic, ...), Northern Asia, Sibera and Canada. Up to now, no resistant case has been detected in Belgium but some chemical weeding failures have been observed in Wallonia fields. During summer 2011, 37 seed samples of Apera spica-venti were collected in Wallonia and submitted to resistance tests in controlled conditions. Three modes of action were tested: acetyl coenzyme-A carboxylase inhibitors (pinoxaden and cycloxydim), acetolactate synthase inhibitores (mesosulfuron+iodosulfuron, pytroxsulam and sulfometuron) and photosynthesis inhibitors (isoproturon). One susceptible standard population was included in the test in order to validate it and to permit wild populations classification according to "R" rating system developed by Moss et al (2007). Most of populations were susceptible but some populations showed resistance to at least one of the three tested modes of action.