SOIL CULTIVATION IN DARKNESS REDUCED WEED EMERGENCE

Field experiments during the last few years have shown that soil-disturbing operations such as ploughing, seedbed preparation and sowing when carried out at night, reduced the subsequent emergence of weed seedlings, compared with the emergence after the same tillage operations in daylight.
This paper presents the results of three field experiments in crop-free fields.
In one experiment, harrowing one hour after sunset significantly reduced the emergence of weeds by 40% compared with harrowing during the daytime.
In the other two experiments weed emergence was significantly reduced when soil cultivation was performed in daylight with a light-proof cover on the harrow, compared with conventional harrowing in daylight.
Harrowing was also conducted at night and the emergence was then reduced slightly more than after harrowing in daylight with a protective cover, but this difference was not significant.
With further development of the technique and the equipment, cultivation and sowing in darkness may become a valuable contribution to the environmentally-friendly weed control methods of the future.

Symposium on Engineering as a Tool to reduce Pesticide Consumption and Operator Hazards in Horticulture

J. Ascard

Photocontrol, cultural weed control, tillage, seed, germination, phytochrome, light

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.372.20