Potato herbicide Titus back in Corteva stable

Small weeds germinating in a field of emerged potato plants.

Corteva Agriscience will be marketing the renowned post-emergence herbicide Titus in 2020, bringing the product back inside the company that developed it more than 20 years ago.

Titus was developed by DuPont – a heritage company of Corteva – in the late 1990s.

Containing the active ingredient rimsulfuron, it is now firmly back in the Corteva stable and widely available for use this season through the usual distribution channels.

The selective herbicide has been a mainstay of potato growers’ early-season programmes to control a wide range of broadleaf weeds including cleavers, chickweed, redshank, mayweed and oilseed rape volunteers.

Titus has also demonstrated excellent activity on some grasses, notably couch.

Alister McRobbie, category manager for potatoes at Corteva, said: “The qualities of Titus are well known to UK and Irish potato growers and agronomists and with fewer options available for weed control, Titus will become an ever-more important tool.

“It is effective on a wide spectrum of broadleaf weeds and is typically used when small weeds have broken through residual programmes or germinated late.

“It is suitable for use on all potato varieties except seed crops and is compatible with metribuzin products. It should always be used with an adjuvant.”