Evaluation of mechanical weed management techniques on weed and crop populations

Abstract

One of the main barriers for conventional farmers converting to organic production is weed control An experiment was set up to evaluate the efficacy of three mechanical weed control methods tine weeder spoon weeder and interrow hoe (only in the beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)) in four organically grown crops In borage (Borago officinalis) weed dry matter (DM) was reduced by 41 in tineweeded plots but there was no treatment effect on crop DM or yield There was no treatment effect in the peas (Pisum sativum) In linseed (Linum usitatissimum) mechanical weeding reduced weed DM by 41 and resulted in a 28 increase in crop yield In beans weed DM was reduced by 74 in mechanicallyweeded plots but the tine weeder reduced crop DM compared with the other mechanical weeding treatments