Corchorus aestuans: How to Spot and Control Salsaluyot in Palay
Corchorus aestuans is a small broadleaf weed that many farmers call salsaluyot. It is a close cousin of saluyot, but it grows smaller. You will see it in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it among your palay and how it steals from the crop. It also shows how to control it before it drops seed.
What Is Corchorus aestuans?
Corchorus aestuans is an upright plant with a hard, woody stem. Farmers call it salsaluyot, because it looks like a smaller saluyot. In English it goes by East Indian jute, and it belongs to the jute family, Tiliaceae. It is a broadleaf weed, so its leaves are wide, not long blades like palay or grass.
You will find this damo in rainfed lowland rice fields. Its whole life lasts one season only. Within one crop it sprouts, grows, flowers, sets seed and dies. Seed is its only way to spread. Each long pod holds many small seeds, and these fall to the soil when the pod dries and splits open. Then they wait in the bukid and sprout with the next crop. So one plant you leave standing now can become many plants next season.
| Name | Corchorus aestuans |
|---|---|
| English name | East Indian jute |
| Family | Tiliaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Salsaluyot |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Corchorus aestuans
Look for an upright plant with a woody stem, shorter than true saluyot. The leaves are oval or long oval, with a rounded base and fine, rounded teeth along the edge. Like other broadleaf weeds, the leaves are wide with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The flowers are yellow. Still, the best clue is the pod. It is long, carries 6 to 8 thin wings along its sides, and ends in a beak split into three points.
- An upright plant with a woody stem standing among the rice hills, smaller than true saluyot.
- Oval leaves with a rounded base and fine, rounded teeth along the edges.
- Yellow flowers among the leaves, a sign that seed pods will soon follow.
- Long pods with 6 to 8 thin wings running along their length.
- A pod tip that splits into three short points instead of one beak.
- Look alike tip: true saluyot grows bigger, and its pods have ten ribs instead of wings.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Like most broadleaf weeds, this plant competes with your palay for sunlight, water and fertilizer. It stands upright and spreads its leaves, so it shades the young rice beside it. That shade hurts most early in the season, when the rice is still small. Also, every bag of fertilizer you apply feeds the weed, not only the crop.
Because it is an annual that spreads by seed, every plant left to mature adds to the seed supply in your soil. Its woody stems can also get in the way at harvest. Seeds and pod pieces may mix with the harvested palay and lower its quality, which matters if you keep part of it as binhi. Weedy patches can give insects and rats a place to hide too.
How to Control Corchorus aestuans
- Pull the plants by hand while they are young, before the yellow flowers open. If pods have formed, carry the plants out of the field so no seed drops.
- Since it spreads only by seed, clean the bunds and field edges too. Plants on the pilapil can seed back into the paddy every season.
- Keep standing water in the paddy when rain or irrigation allows. Most weeds that grow from seed sprout more easily on exposed soil than under water.
What to Do at Each Age of Your Rice
- 0 to 5 days: keep the soil saturated. Use a pre emergence herbicide only if the field had many weeds last season.
- 6 to 10 days: hand weed in transplanted rice. In direct seeded rice, this is the window for an early post emergence spray.
- 11 to 20 days: keep water in the field, weed by hand or with a rotary weeder, and let Azolla and the Altica beetle help. Spray only if those fail.
- 21 to 30 days: top up the water and keep weeding. Spray only if weeding fails.
- 31 to 40 days (transplanted rice): hand weed. A spray this late is only a rescue.
- After any post emergence spray, bring the water back within 1 to 3 days at 3 to 5 cm and hold it for 4 to 5 days. Keep young rice above it.
Active Ingredients That Work on Broadleaves
If water and weeding cannot hold Corchorus aestuans down, choose an active ingredient that works on broadleaves at the age of your rice. Each active ingredient in it is in a herbicide registered in the Philippines for rice. Shop by the ingredient on the label, never by the brand. If your field also has other kinds of weeds, the weed control helper in anee.io finds the ingredients that cover all of them.
| Rice age (days after planting) | Transplanted rice (lipat tanim) | Direct seeded rice (sabog tanim) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 days | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Imazosulfuron, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Butachlor with safener |
| 6 to 10 days | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Pendimethalin, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Imazosulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Pendimethalin, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Pretilachlor plus pyribenzoxim, Penoxsulam, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 11 to 20 days | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Pyribenzoxim, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 21 to 30 days | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Pyribenzoxim, Carfentrazone ethyl |
| 31 to 40 days | Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl | Not listed for direct seeded rice |
Spray Safely
Use only herbicides registered with the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, and follow the label on the pack: the rate, the timing, the water and the protective clothing. Switch herbicide groups between seasons so the weeds do not learn to survive them. Our guide to herbicides for rice explains the groups.
Keep Corchorus aestuans Out Next Season
- Plant clean, certified seed. Weed seeds mixed into the punla are the easiest way in.
- Keep the seedbed, the canals and the bunds free of weeds, so seed does not wash or blow into the paddy.
- Prepare the land well: flood, plow, let the weed seeds sprout, then kill them when you harrow. Level the field so water covers it evenly.
- Pull escapes before they flower and set seed, and carry them out of the paddy instead of leaving them on the bund.
- Keep the field clean after harvest and through the fallow, so fewer seeds build up in the soil for next season.
These steps work for every broadleaf weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Corchorus aestuans?
Take a clear photo of the leaf, the stem and the flower or seed head, then ask Anee, the smart farm technician in anee.io, in Tagalog or English. Anee tells you which weed it most likely is, its group, and what to do at the age of your rice. You can also put the weeding days on your cropping calendar, so the team knows when to go in.
anee.io keeps your weeding, spraying and water on one calendar, and Anee answers when a plant looks wrong.
- Weeding days on the season calendar
- Photos and notes for every lot
- Anee, the smart farm technician, in Tagalog or English
Questions Farmers Ask About Corchorus aestuans
What do farmers call Corchorus aestuans in the Philippines?
How do I control salsaluyot in my rice field?
Is salsaluyot the same plant as the saluyot we eat?
Get Corchorus aestuans out of your field
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