Weediness of oil flax (<i>Linum usitatissimum L.</i>) crops depending on the cultivation technologies and seed inoculation in the steppe Crimea

Abstract

Weed control is one of the important issues that modern agriculture sets itself, especially in conditions of minimization of production. The purpose of the current study was to comparatively research the effect of direct sowing and the traditional cultivation technology of oil flax when treating seeds with a complex of microbial products on the weediness of agrophytocenosis. The study was carried out in the stationary trial of the FSBSI “Research Institute of agriculture in Crimea” in 2017-2019, in dry conditions of the steppe Crimean Peninsula, on southern low-humus blackearth (chernozem). Weediness of flax crops was estimated by a quantitative method with the determination of the varietal composition of weeds in the phase of full germination and before harvesting. In all variants, in the “herringbone” phase there was applied a tank mixture of herbicides Herbitox, VKR (MCPA 500 g/l) with a rate of 0.5 l/ha + Magnum, VDG (metsulfuron-methyl 600 g/kg) with a rate of 5 g/ha to fight against monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous weeds. There was found that for three years of study, the varietal composition of weeds differed insignificantly for both technologies, but their number under a direct sowing in the phase of full sprouting was in 1.6 times more than in the case with traditional technology. By the phase of full flax ripeness, the number of weeds decreased in 1.3 times using traditional technology and in 2.4 times under a direct sowing, and the difference between technologies was leveled. Seed inoculation had no significant effect on the weediness of the sowing. The conditions of the year had a significant effect on the weed component of the agrophytocenosis.