Cutleaf Groundcherry in Rice Fields: How to Spot and Control It
Cutleaf groundcherry is an upright, branched broadleaf weed from the tomato family that farmers call potokan, sisiu or tino tino. It grows in rainfed lowland rice fields, where it can rise above young palay. This page shows you how to spot it by its leaves, flowers and fruits, and how to control it before it drops seed.
What Is Cutleaf Groundcherry?
Cutleaf groundcherry belongs to the Solanaceae, the same family as tomato, eggplant and siling labuyo. Its local names include asisiu, kugut, potokan, sisiu, tutulakak and tino tino. It is a broadleaf weed with an upright, branching body. In the Philippines, you find it mostly in rainfed lowland rice fields, on soil that is not under water.
This weed is an annual. It sprouts, flowers, bears fruit and dies within one season, and it spreads only by seed. Each small fruit sits inside a papery husk and holds many tiny seeds. When the fruits fall and rot on the ground, those seeds wait in the soil and sprout with the next crop. So a few plants left standing now mean many more next season.
| Name | Cutleaf groundcherry |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Physalis angulata |
| Family | Solanaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Asisiu, kugut, potokan, sisiu, tutulakak, tino tino |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Cutleaf Groundcherry
Look for an upright, branched plant that rises among the rice hills. As a broadleaf, it has wide, flat leaves with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The leaves are oval to oblong, and the edges usually show uneven teeth, which gives the plant its English name. Its flowers are small and pale yellow. Later, each fruit hangs inside a papery husk that looks like a little lantern.
- Upright, branched plants rising between the rice hills, sometimes above young palay.
- Oval to oblong leaves with uneven, toothed edges and netted veins.
- Small, pale yellow flowers that hang from the leaf joints.
- Oblong to egg shaped fruits wrapped in a papery husk, like tiny lanterns.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
This weed grows tall and leafy, so it shades young palay and takes the light that rice needs. Its roots also draw water and fertilizer from the same soil. The damage hits hardest early, while the rice is still small.
Since it spreads only by seed, plants that escape weeding refill the soil with seed for next season. Its fruits can also end up mixed with harvested palay and dirty your grain. Besides, weedy patches give pests a place to hide between the rows.
How to Control Cutleaf Groundcherry
- Pull plants before the husked fruits form. Once fruits ripen and fall, each one adds many seeds to the soil.
- Carry pulled plants with fruits out of the field, and do not leave them on the bunds to rot.
- Keep water in the field when rain allows, because standing water keeps many land weeds like this from sprouting.
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 cutleaf groundcherry 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 Cutleaf Groundcherry 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 Cutleaf Groundcherry?
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 Cutleaf Groundcherry
What is cutleaf groundcherry called in the Philippines?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
Is cutleaf groundcherry harmful to my rice?
Get Cutleaf Groundcherry out of your field
With Libre + Anee, read the whole guide: how to tell it from your crop, and what to do and spray at every age of your crop.
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