Abstract
Crop rotations dominated by winter annual crops and relying on the use of herbicides to control weeds have resulted in weed communities dominated by a few highly specialized species such as Alopecurus myosuroides. Integrated weed management (IWM) represents a sensible strategy to target such difficult weeds, through a combination of preventive, cultural, and direct means. In six field trials over three years, we tested the effect of stale seedbed preparation, winter wheat seed rate, and chemical weed control strategy on Alopecurus myosuroides control efficacy and variability in efficacy. The field experiments were carried out under reduced tillage practice and without pre-sowing use of glyphosate. Stale seedbed preparation alone reduced A. myosuroides infestation level by 25% on average. No clear effect was found of increasing winter wheat seed rate from 300 to 400 seeds m−2. A combination of stale seedbed preparation and herbicide treatment in autumn and spring was found to be synergistic, improving weed control efficacy significantly and moreover reducing the variability in control efficacy and hence the risk for weed control failure.
Highlights
We examined (i) the efficacy of preventive, cultural, and direct weed control measures and the nature of their interaction; (ii) the risk of weed control failure associated with single and combined control measures; and (iii) the proportion of weed density and reproduction variability explained by factors other than those controlled in the experiments
Considering that only 28% of the observed variation in A. myosuroides density and 36% of the observed variation in A. myosuroides reproduction could be explained by the experimental factors, a large proportion of the probability of weed control failure cannot be controlled by agronomic means
The results suggest that stale seedbed preparation alone, enabled by delaying winter wheat sowing by three weeks on average, can reduce the A. myosuroides infestation level by 25% on average
Summary
In temperate regions of central Europe, these developments have enabled the implementation of intensive production systems for cultivation of winter wheat, barley, and winter oilseed rape. These systems, hereafter termed ‘conventional’ production systems, are typically characterized by reduced tillage with alternating inversion tillage, combined with frequent use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Weed control is achieved solely by use of herbicides This overreliance on herbicides in conventional farming has caused novel and complex problems, including the rapid evolution and spread of herbicide-resistant weeds [5], pesticide contamination of the environment and food chain [6,7], health risks to pesticide users and end consumers [8], and a tremendous loss of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems [9].
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