Effects of the Tillage Technology and the Forecrop on Weeds in Stands of Winter Wheat

Abstract

The semipilot-scale field experiment was established in the cadastre of the village Letkovice in the South Moravian Region (Czech Republic). The study area was situated in a warm climatic region T2. Winter wheat was cultivated in two variants of tillage, viz. conventional tillage (CT) and minimum tillage (MT) and after three different forecrops (fodder beet, late potatoes, and broad (faba) bean). Weed infestation of wheat stands was evaluated in spring seasons of 2007 and 2008, always before the application of herbicides. Numbers of weed specimens and their species were defined by means of a calculation method. Recorded data were processed by means of multidimensional analyses of ecological data, viz. Data Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA). Within the study period, altogether 22 weed species were identified in all variants with different tillage technologies and different forecrops. In the MT variant, the degree of winter wheat stand infestation with weeds was lower. As far as the forecrops were concerned, the most and the least intensive degrees of infestation were recorded on plots with faba bean and late potatoes, respectively.