Two Louisiana sugarcane cultivars (interspecific hybrids of the genus Saccharum) CP 52–68 and L 60-25 were sprayed with herbicides commonly used for preemergence and postemergence control of johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers.) and other weeds. The preemergence weed control treatments of 3-tert-butyl-5-chloro-6-methyluracil (terbacil) at 1.8 kg/ha and (2,3,6-trichlorophenyl)acetic acid (fenac) at 5 kg/ha were compared to a mixture of sodium salt of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) at 11 or 19 kg/ha plus 2-(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)propionic acid (silvex) at 3.4 kg/ha (control). Herbicides were applied after planting in the fall, reapplied the following spring (after sugarcane emerged), and applied again in the second spring on the stubble crop (after sugarcane emerged). In the stubble crop the sodium salt of 2,2-dichloropropionic acid (dalapon) at 0, 5, or 10 kg/ha was applied as a postemergence spray over the top of sugarcane. In the factorial arrangement each cultivar received all combinations of the preemergence x postemergence treatments.

Terbacil did not injure either cultivar, but fenac injured both enough to reduce the yield of sugar in plant cane by about 10% as compared to the TCA plus silvex control. Stubble crop yields were not affected by fenac or terbacil. CP 52–68 was more tolerant to dalapon treatments than L 60–25. Both cultivars tolerated dalapon at 5 kg/ha relatively well although the yield of L 60–25 was reduced by about 5%. However at 10 kg/ha, dalapon reduced yields of CP 52–68 and L 60–25 by about 10 and 18%, respectively. Combinations of preemergence and postemergence treatments did not interact to reduce yields more than the combined effects of each treatment.