Sweetpotatoes (Ipomoea batatas L.) are among the most important food crops worldwide, but production in Missouri is limited. Weed competition, especially early in the growing season, is a major factor impacting sweetpotato yields. The objective of this study was to optimize early season weed control in sweetpotatoes using fall seeded cover crops and spring applied herbicides. Cover crops, cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) or winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), were seeded in the fall. Before sweetpotato transplanting the following spring, glyphosate was applied to terminate cover crop growth along with flumioxazin as a residual herbicide. In designated treatments, S-metolachlor was applied 3 weeks later to extend residual activity. A total of eight treatments, including an untreated control, and a second control consisting of herbicides followed by tillage and hand-weeding as Missouri standard practice, were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Sweetpotato ‘Beauregard’ slips were transplanted in early June 2023. By 4 weeks after transplanting (WATr), weed biomass in cover crop plus herbicide plots was reduced by 99.3% and 86.3% for broadleaf and grass weeds, respectively, compared to the untreated control. An orthogonal test found that sweetpotato production in plots that received winter wheat as cover crop resulted in a significantly higher yield compared to plots that received cereal rye as a cover crop. Winter wheat combined with flumioxazin applied PRE and S-metolachlor applied as an overlapping residual herbicide demonstrated the greatest yield among all treatments, resulting in over 200-fold greater yield compared to the untreated control. The Missouri standard practice, represented as the weed-free control, produced statistically the same yield as the best treatment. However, this was the most time-consuming and labor-intensive practice and would be challenging for commercial production. Collectively, our results suggest that sweetpotato production in Missouri should consider integration of cover crops and herbicides to allow strong establishment of sweetpotato vines early in the early growing season, and hence ensure higher profitability without intensive labor inputs.
