Mechanical Weed Control Research Articles

Analysing Efficacy of Chemical and Mechanical Weed Control Methods to Growth and Quality Enhancement in Grapes (Vitis vinifera)

Analysing Efficacy of Chemical and Mechanical Weed Control Methods to Growth and Quality Enhancement in Grapes (Vitis vinifera)

Automation in Agriculture: A Robotic Approach to Weed Control for Greenhouse Cucumber Cultivation

The increasing global population has heightened the demand for efficient food production, leading to the adoption of compact cultivation methods such as greenhouses. However, weed growth within these controlled environments significantly challenges crop productivity. The application of robots can be a useful and economic choice. This study presents an innovative, purely mechanical system for weed control in greenhouses, specifically designed to operate autonomously on a monorail. The machine stops in the distance between the two main plant rows (cucumber) and its arm goes into the gap to deploy the weeds by rotating its blades. This is continued repeatedly. The cutting is by the rotational speed of the blade. Variable-speed motions of the blade were at 3500, 2500 and 1500 rpm for 3 types of moulinex, triangular, and circular blades. The movement speed of the arm was 10 and 30 rpm and the forward movement speed of the machine was 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 and 120 rpm. The results showed that different blades, blade speeds and engine speed affect significantly (p <0.05) the percentage of weeds being cut. Although the interactions of these factors have no significant effect on percentage; the average percentages by the blades have significant differences. Although the interactions between these factors were not statistically significant, the comparison of means revealed that at lower blade speeds, the blade type had a pronounced effect on weed-cutting efficiency. As blade speed increased, differences in blade performance diminished. The most effective combination was achieved using Moulinex blades at 3500 rpm with a 10-rpm arm speed, resulting in the highest percentage of weeds cut. These findings suggest that optimizing blade type and speed can significantly enhance the mechanical weed control efficiency in greenhouse environments.

Effectiveness of Weed Control on Two Varieties of Corn (Zea Mays L.) in West Aceh Regency

This research aims to find out which weed control techniques are most effective in suppressing weed growth on corn plants, to find out the interaction of manual, mechanical, and chemical weed control on corn plants, to find out the influence of weed control techniques on the production and growth of corn plants. This research be carried out in West Aceh Regency on corn farming land in the Pante Ceureumen District. The time allocation is from April to June 2014. The research was conducted using a randomized block design with a factorial pattern with two factors being studied. The first factor is the weed control technique (T): no control, manual control, using husk charcoal, chemical, atrazine + mesotrion 1.35 ml each 9 m² and the second factor is the variety (V): Bisi-2 and Bisi-18. Based on the treatment of 12 plots with 3 repetitions times until there are 36 experimental units. Each treatment plot measures 300 cm x 300 cm with a planting distance of 75 cm x 25 cm so that the number of sample plants in each plot is 48 plants and the number of sample plants in each plot is 8 plants. The distance between plots is 50 cm and the distance between replications is 100 cm. The results obtained from observations are analyzed using the F test. If the results obtained from the variance are significantly different at the 5% level. The result of the research that has been carried out is that the most effective control technique in suppressing weed growth in corn plants is found at T5 (chemistry, topramezone + atrazine 1.35 ml each 9 m², at 21, 40, and 56 HST), followed by T2 (culture technique using rice husk charcoal), T4 (Chemical, nicosulfuron + atrazine 1.35 ml each 9 m², at 21, 40, and 56 HST) and T1 (manual, at 21, 40, and 56 HST) have the same position, then T3 (chemistry, atrazine + mesotrione 1.35ml each 9 m², at 21, 40 and 56 HST), and the last position in weed control techniques is WC (without control).

Impact of mechanical weed control on soil N dynamics, soil moisture, and crop yield in an organic cropping sequence

Mechanical weed control is a major element of weed suppression in organic farming systems. In addition to the direct effect on weed growth, mechanical weeding, such as harrowing or hoeing, is known to induce side effects on several soil- and crop-related properties. In this study, we investigated the impact of mechanical weeding on soil mineral nitrogen (SMN), soil moisture, and crop yield in an organic crop rotation of grass-clover (Lolium multiflorumLam., Trifolium pratense L.), silage maize (Zea mays L.) and winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The experiment was conducted in two consecutive years (2021, 2022), where each crop was grown in each year on a Plaggic Anthrosol with sandy loam in North-West Germany. Two weed control treatments (mechanical: harrowing, hoeing; chemical: herbicide application) were implemented in a randomized block design with four replications. Greater net nitrogen (N) mineralization in maize compared to winter barley were attributed to the incorporation of grass-clover residues before sowing of maize and greater mineralization potential during the maize growing season. Higher weed growth in maize after mechanical weeding resulted in a reduction of up to 47% in SMN content in the topsoil. In barley, no differences in weed suppression were observed between the treatments and only small effects on SMN were determined after mechanical weeding. The soil water content in the mechanically weeded plots was significantly higher at several events in both years and for both crops, which was attributed to increased water infiltration by disrupting the soil crust. Neither crop yield nor N uptake in harvest products was affected by the different treatments.

Screening the Potential f Fungal Derived Bioherbicide in Weed Management

Synthetic herbicides have long been a cornerstone of modern agriculture, providing effective weed control but often at significant environmental and health costs. These chemicals can persist in the environment, leach into groundwater, and harm non-target organisms, including humans. Additionally, the overuse of synthetic herbicides has led to the development of herbicide-resistant weeds, further complicating weed management strategies. In response to these challenges, researchers and farmers alike are increasingly turning to bioherbicides derived from fungi as a sustainable alternative. Fungal bioherbicides harness the natural antagonistic properties of fungi to target weeds. Unlike synthetic herbicides, which are chemically synthesized and often broad-spectrum in action, fungal bioherbicides utilize either the fungi themselves as pathogens or their metabolites to disrupt weed growth. This approach offers several distinct advantages:Target Specificity: Fungal bioherbicides can be highly specific to certain weed species or even to specific stages of weed growth. This specificity reduces collateral damage to non-target plants and organisms, making them particularly suitable for environmentally sensitive areas such as organic farms, riparian zones, and protected ecosystems. Environmental Friendliness: Unlike synthetic herbicides that can persist in the environment and accumulate in soil and water bodies, fungal bioherbicides generally have lower persistence. They degrade more rapidly and often have minimal impact on non-target organisms, thereby preserving biodiversity and ecosystem health. Reduced Risk of Resistance: Synthetic herbicides often face the challenge of herbicide-resistant weeds, which evolve due to continuous and widespread use. Fungal bioherbicides, by contrast, pose a lower risk of resistance development. This is because they typically act through multiple modes of action or biochemical pathways within the weed, making it harder for weeds to develop resistance mechanisms. Research into fungal-derived bioherbicides is actively exploring and harnessing these advantages. Scientists are screening diverse fungal species to identify potent pathogens or metabolites that effectively inhibit weed growth. Moreover, advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering allow for the enhancement of fungal strains to optimize their bioherbicidal properties while ensuring safety and efficacy. One promising example is the use of fungal pathogens like Phomamacrostoma and Colletotrichum truncatum, which have demonstrated efficacy against various weed species including common agricultural weeds like velvetleaf and pigweed. These fungi infect weeds through mechanisms such as spore attachment, penetration of plant tissues, and secretion of phytotoxic metabolites that inhibit weed growth. In addition to their direct impact on weed management, fungal bioherbicides contribute to sustainable agricultural practices by reducing reliance on synthetic chemicals. They align with principles of integrated pest management (IPM) by offering a biological control method that complements cultural and mechanical weed control strategies. Moving forward, continued research and development efforts are essential to refine fungal bioherbicides, optimize application techniques, and expand their practical use in diverse agricultural settings. Challenges such as formulation stability, cost-effectiveness, and regulatory approvals also need to be addressed to facilitate widespread adoption by farmers.

Theoretical and practical propositions for more sustainable livestock production

A brief review is made of theoretical and practical propositions for more sustainable livestock production (meat and milk). An Organic Livestock Conversion Index (OLCI) was developed to evaluate the level of approximation of Livestock Production Units (LPU) to the organic model. Organic practices such as crop rotation, use of cover crops, mechanical and manual weed control, and recycling of manure reduce soil erosion and pest problems and generally allow for avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which - along with the substitution of nitrogen fertilizer with legumes and/or manure – reduces energy use in organic systems. Furthermore, practices by LPU contribute to sustainable livestock production by means of minimal use of chemical fertilizers in pastures; adding nutrients to the soil solely by cattle depositing manure during grazing, manual weed control, use of silvopastoral systems, and energy efficiency by the farmers. The approximation of the LPU to organic production, the use of organic practices, Silvopastoral Systems and more energy efficiency demonstrate the potential of organic livestock farms for contributing to more sustainable production as compared to conventional livestock production.

The finger weeder cultivator for intra‐row mechanical weed control: Effects of uprooting force on selected weed species

AbstractMechanical weed control tools are commonly used in the production of many vegetable and field crops. This study aimed to determine the impact of weed species and growth stage on the finger weeder performances and to reveal the relation between root morphology, uprooting force and control efficacy. A one‐month field experiment with two model species, Triticum aestivum L. (grass) and Sinapis alba L. (broadleaf), showed that finger weeder control efficacy was affected by species and growth stage: Finger‐weeder application during the first two growth stages (cotyledon and second leaf) was more effective for S. alba than for T. aestivum (p < 0.0001), but at fourth‐leaf stage values for control efficacy were not significantly different (p = 0.134). In an experiment conducted in pots it was found that, at all three growth stages, the uprooting force required for S. alba was significantly lower than that for T. aestivum (p < 0.0001), indicating a lower anchoring force of the former. Determination of root‐morphology parameters revealed significantly higher root parameters, like length, in T. aestivum than in S. alba at the early developmental stages. Correlation of the control efficacy and uprooting force revealed a 2.5‐N threshold value for effective weed control. Additionally, net‐house and field experiments showed significant differences in the uprooting forces required for 10 different Mediterranean grasses versus broadleaves weed species at all developmental stages. To translate these findings into applicative recommendations, future research should characterize the relationship between the operational factors of this tool and the required uprooting force.

Laser weeding: opportunities and challenges for couch grass (Elymus repens (L.) Gould) control

Laser weeding may contribute to less dependency on herbicides and soil tillage. Several research and commercial projects are underway to develop robots equipped with lasers to control weeds. Artificial intelligence can be used to locate and identify weed plants, and mirrors can be used to direct a laser beam towards the target to kill it with heat. Unlike chemical and mechanical weed control, laser weeding only exposes a tiny part of the field for treatment. Laser weeding leaves behind only ashes from the burned plants and does not disturb the soil. Therefore, it is an eco-friendly method to control weed seedlings. However, perennial weeds regrow from the belowground parts after the laser destroys the aerial shoots. Depletion of the belowground parts for resources might be possible if the laser continuously kills new shoots, but it may require many laser treatments. We studied how laser could be used to destroy the widespread and aggressive perennial weed Elymus repens after the rhizomes were cut into fragments. Plants were killed with even small dosages of laser energy and stopped regrowing. Generally, the highest efficacy was achieved when the plants from small rhizomes were treated at the 3-leaf stage.

Automatic Localization of Soybean Seedlings Based on Crop Signaling and Multi-View Imaging.

Soybean is grown worldwide for its high protein and oil content. Weeds compete fiercely for resources, which affects soybean yields. Because of the progressive enhancement of weed resistance to herbicides and the quickly increasing cost of manual weeding, mechanical weed control is becoming the preferred method of weed control. Mechanical weed control finds it difficult to remove intra-row weeds due to the lack of rapid and precise weed/soybean detection and location technology. Rhodamine B (Rh-B) is a systemic crop compound that can be absorbed by soybeans which fluoresces under a specific excitation light. The purpose of this study is to combine systemic crop compounds and computer vision technology for the identification and localization of soybeans in the field. The fluorescence distribution properties of systemic crop compounds in soybeans and their effects on plant growth were explored. The fluorescence was mainly concentrated in soybean cotyledons treated with Rh-B. After a comparison of soybean seedlings treated with nine groups of rhodamine B solutions at different concentrations ranging from 0 to 1440 ppm, the soybeans treated with 180 ppm Rh-B for 24 h received the recommended dosage, resulting in significant fluorescence that did not affect crop growth. Increasing the Rh-B solutions reduced crop biomass, while prolonged treatment times reduced seed germination. The fluorescence produced lasted for 20 days, ensuring a stable signal in the early stages of growth. Additionally, a precise inter-row soybean plant location system based on a fluorescence imaging system with a 96.7% identification accuracy, determined on 300 datasets, was proposed. This article further confirms the potential of crop signaling technology to assist machines in achieving crop identification and localization in the field.

IMPACT OF SOIL STERILIZATION FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS, WHEAT SEEDS CLEANING AND THEIR INTERACTIONS ON WEED CONTROL, AND YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS

IMPACT OF SOIL STERILIZATION FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS, WHEAT SEEDS CLEANING AND THEIR INTERACTIONS ON WEED CONTROL, AND YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS

Laser weed seed control: challenges and opportunities

Farmers are greatly interested in reducing weed seeds in their fields to avoid unnecessary weed infestation. Autonomous vehicles equipped with plant recognition systems and lasers can be used to control weed plants and may therefore be used to replace or supplement herbicides and mechanical weed control. However, less is known about the ability of laser to control weed seeds. In this study, seeds of weeds (Alopecurus myosuroides, Anisantha sterilis, Avena fatua, Centaurea cyanus, Silene noctiflora) and crops (wheat (Triticum aestivum), maize (Zea mays)) were exposed to increasing dosages of laser energy. The species represented dicots and monocots with different seed sizes and morphology. We used a thulium-doped 50 W fiber laser with a wavelength of 2 µm and a diameter of 2 mm developed for weed control. The seeds were exposed to laser directly on the seed surface or after been covered with soil (2.5 and 5 mm). Small doses of energy (0.4 J mm−2 and 0.8 J mm−2) affected the germination ability of small seeds (S. noctiflora and C. cyanus) when the seeds were irradiated directly on the seed surface, and they were completely burned at the high doses (8.0 J mm−2 and 15.9 J mm−2). However, there was not a clear relationship between seed size and sensitivity to laser dose. Additionally, increasing the laser dose on the seed surface resulted in increasing infection of fungi. Seeds covered with soil were not affected by the laser treatments except C. cyanus seeds. Controlling large seeds on the ground while weed seedlings are controlled with laser robots seems realistic in the future. However, dosages higher than 50 J (~15.9 J mm−2) is necessary to control large seeds.

Design and experiment of an adaptive cruise weeding robot for paddy fields based on improved YOLOv5

Weed control in paddy fields is a critical agronomic practice for enhancing rice yield, in which mechanical weed control is widely used due to its high weed control rate and convenient operation. However, traditional mechanical weed control methods require manual operation, leading to increased operational costs. Therefore, adaptive cruise weeding robots hold significant application promise and market potential. In this paper, an adaptive cruise weeding robot for paddy fields based on improved YOLOv5 is designed to adaptively perform weeding operations. Firstly, a real-time rice seedling recognition method based on MW-YOLOv5s is proposed by establishing a rice seedling dataset under different paddy field environments and growth stages. The model combines the Backbone network structure with MobileViTv3, replacing GIoU_loss with WIoU_loss, which significantly improves the precision and speed of rice seedling recognition. Next, the MW-YOLOv5s was integrated into a paddy weeding machine, and seedling navigation lines were extracted using the least square method. Finally, the control system autonomously operates the weeding machine in real time through feedback control based on the navigation path. The test results showed that the MW-YOLOv5s model exhibits strong recognition performance for rice seedlings under different paddy field backgrounds and growth stages, with a precision of 90.05 % and an mAP of 92.32 %, while the real-time performance reaches 19.51 FPS, which meet the requirements for real-time operation of the weeding machine in paddy fields. The results of the paddy field weed control experiment reveal a weed control rate of 82.4 % and a seedling injury rate of 2.8 %, which meet the agronomic requirements for mechanical weed control in paddy fields. The research findings contribute to the design of intelligent agricultural equipment and promote the practice and application of machine vision in the field of paddy field plant protection.

Current and future glyphosate use in European agriculture

AbstractThere has been a longstanding and contentious debate about the future of glyphosate use in the European Union (EU). In November 2023, the European Commission approved the renewal of the use registration for glyphosate for a further 10 years. Nevertheless, the EU Farm to Fork strategy calls for a 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2030. In November 2022, the European Weed Research Society organised a 2 day workshop to identify critical glyphosate uses in current EU cropping systems and to review the availability of glyphosate alternatives. Workshop participants identified four current, critical uses in EU cropping systems; control and management of perennial weeds, weed control in conservation agriculture, vegetation management in tree and vine crops and herbicide resistance management. There are few herbicide alternatives that provide effective, economic, broad‐spectrum control of weeds, particularly perennial weeds. Mechanical weed control, and in particular, soil cultivation is the most obvious glyphosate alternative. However, this is not possible in conservation agriculture systems and, in general, increased soil cultivation has negative impacts for soil health. Emerging technologies for precision weed control can enable more targeted use of glyphosate, greatly reducing use rates. These technologies also facilitate the use and development of alternative targeted physical weed control (e.g. tillage, lasers, electricity), reducing the energy and environmental costs of these approaches. In tree crops, the use of organic and inorganic mulches can reduce the need for glyphosate use. In general, reduced use of glyphosate will require an even greater focus on integrated weed management to reduce weed establishment in agroecosystems, increase weed management diversity and limit the use of alternative resistance‐prone herbicides.

Design and Experiment of a High-Clearance Mid-Tillage Weeder for Dryland Farming

Mechanical weeding is an important technical means for organic and regenerative agricultural systems. Current weed control equipment has a variety of problems, such as difficulty adapting to high-stalk crops and poor operational quality. A high-clearance mid-tillage weeder (HMTW) has been developed to meet the mechanical weed control needs of high-stalk crops. The weeder mainly comprises a suspension device, a frame, parallel four-rod profiling mechanisms, weeding operation components, and depth-limiting soil-cutting devices. Based on the agronomic requirements of dryland flat planting, the overall structure of the HMTW was determined, and the weeding unit and flat shovel hoe were designed. Theoretical analysis was conducted on the depth stability of the HMTW, and an optimization mathematical model of the HMTW was established to further improve its tillage depth stability for agronomic requirements. The optimization objective was to minimize the deflection angle (∆β) of the profiling rod on a vertical plane, and the parameters of the parallel four-rod profiling mechanism were optimized. Based on the optimized structural parameters, a prototype of the HMTW was developed and evaluated. The test results show that the optimized HMTW exhibited a good weeding effect, and the tillage depth stability was within the design operating range. When the driving speed was 1.0 m/s and the tillage depth was 8 cm, the weed removal rate, seedling injury rate, seedling burial rate, and qualified rate of tillage depth were 90.8%, 3.2%, 4.1%, and 94%, respectively. The proposed HMTW successfully meets the weeding agronomic requirements of high-stalk crops for dryland farming, and the performance analysis and optimization models provide technical references for the design and development of such structures.

Weed Management Methods for Herbaceous Field Crops: A Review

Weeds compete with crops for water and nutrients and can adversely affect crop growth and yield, so it is important to research effective weed control methods. This paper provides an overview of the impact of weeds on crop yield and describes the current state of research on weed management in field herbaceous crops. Physical weed control mainly refers to thermal technologies represented by flame weed control and laser weed control, which can efficiently and accurately remove weeds. Mechanical weed control requires a combination of sensor technologies, machine vision technology, and high-precision navigation to improve weed control accuracy. Biological weed control relies heavily on plant extracts and pathogens to create herbicides, but it is costly, and some can be toxic to mammals. Chemical weed control is a common method, resulting in environmental pollution and weed resistance. To reduce the use of chemical herbicides, scholars have proposed integrated weed management strategies, which combine biological control, control of the seed bank, and improve crop competitiveness. Integrated weed management strategies are considered to be the future direction of weed management. In conclusion, physical, mechanical, biological, and chemical weed control methods are commonly used in weed management. Each method has its applicable scenarios, and the implementation of integrated weed management strategies can lead to better weed control, improving crop yield and quality. The main objective of this review is to organize the research progress on weed management methods for herbaceous crops in the field and to provide a reference for the agricultural sector to develop weed control strategies. Specifically, this paper categorizes weed management methods into four groups, discusses and presents the advantages and disadvantages of the aforementioned weed control methods, and discusses future research directions.

Dependence of table beet yield on different doses of compost in organic farming

The paper presents the experimental study results on the effect of different doses of BIAGUM compost on the yield of Dvusemiannaya TSHA table beet variety. The compost was produced from fermented poultry manure. The table beet was grown on sod-podzolic soil on carbonate loam in the frame work of a six-field biology-based crop rotation. No protective agents were used. Mechanical and manual weed control was applied instead. The precursor on the experimental plots was potatoes fertilized with BIAGUM compost in an amount of 4 t∙ha–1 (N = 80 kg∙ha–1) in 2021. The average biological yield of table beet roots in 2022 in the control variant without compost (variant 1) was 24.94 t∙ha–1, in the variant with the compost application dose of 4 t∙ha–1 (N = 80 kg∙ha–1) (variant 2) – 29.40 t∙ha–1, in the variant with the compost application dose of 8 t∙ha–1 (N = 160 kg∙ha–1) (variant 3) – 31.28 t∙ha–1. The study revealed that the compost application (variants 2 and 3) increased the average yield by 17.88 and 25.41 % compared to variant 1, respectively. There were statistically significant differences between the variant 1 and variants 2 and 3: the LSD for the 5 % significance level was 2.42 t∙ha–1. The compost application in variants 2 and 3 increased the average mass of table beet roots by 30.7 and 33 %, respectively, against the variant 1 (control). The share of substandard roots in the total yield for these variants also increased. In all experiment variants, the nitrate content in the table beet roots did not exceed the allowable value of 1400 mg/kg. The experiment findings indicate a positive effect of BIAGUM compost application in the set doses on the table beet yield cultivated in organic farming.

Improving U-net network for semantic segmentation of corns and weeds during corn seedling stage in field.

Weeds are one of the main factors affecting crop growth, making weed control a pressing global problem. In recent years, interest in intelligent mechanical weed-control equipment has been growing. We propose a semantic segmentation network, RDS_Unet, based on corn seedling fields built upon an improved U-net network. This network accurately recognizes weeds even under complex environmental conditions, facilitating the use of mechanical weeding equipment for reducing weed density. Our research utilized field-grown maize seedlings and accompanying weeds in expansive fields. We integrated the U-net semantic segmentation network, employing ResNeXt-50 for feature extraction in the encoder stage. In the decoder phase, Layer 1 uses deformable convolution with adaptive offsets, replacing traditional convolution. Furthermore, concurrent spatial and channel squeeze and excitation is incorporated after ordinary convolutional layers in Layers 2, 3, and 4. Compared with existing classical semantic segmentation models such as U-net, Pspnet, and DeeplabV3, our model demonstrated superior performance on our specially constructed seedling grass semantic segmentation dataset, CGSSD, during the maize seedling stage. The Q6mean intersection over union (MIoU), precision, and recall of this network are 82.36%, 91.36%, and 89.45%, respectively. Compared to those of the original network, the proposed network achieves improvements of 5.91, 3.50, and 5.49 percentage points in the MIoU, precision, and recall, respectively. The detection speed is 12.6 frames per second. In addition, ablation experiments further confirmed the impactful contribution of each improvement component on the overall semantic segmentation performance. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the automated operation of intelligent mechanical weeding devices.

Performance Evaluation of Power Weeder with Different Blade Mechanism in Intra-row Weeding Operation

Aims: Weeding operation is one of the most laborious and time-consuming operation in agriculture. Weeds basically an unwanted plant which competes with crop for light, moisture, and nutrient along with lowering the overall yield. Mechanical weed control methods are preferred among all weeding methods due to many reasons such as timeliness, safety, drudgery and cost effective.
 Study Area and Duration: The experiment was conducted in the farmer’s field of Abhayapuri, Bongaigaon, Assam in the year 2021 to 2023.
 Methodology: This study employed a 5.75 hp self-propelled diesel engine with three blade sets—rotary, non-rotary, and a combination of both, designed for weeding in vegetable fields with row spacing up to 75 cm. One-way ANOVA analysis compared group means for statistical significance.
 Results: Results showed that the field efficiency (90%), fuel consumption (7.7 l/ha), cost of operation (Rs 1217.7 per ha) and plant damage factor (0.01%) was better for rotary blade than non-rotary and combined blade. Whereas effective field capacity (0.07 ha/h), performance index (155.7) and man-hour/ha (14.3) was better for non-rotary blade and the parameters such as depth (4.4 cm) and weeding efficiency (94.2%) was better for combined blade mechanism. From the one-way ANOVA analysis, it showed that blade mechanism showed significant difference on parameters like weeding efficiency, field efficiency, fuel consumption, effective field capacity, cost of operation, man-h/ha and performance index at p<0.05 and non-significant for depth and plant damage factor at P<0.05.
 Conclusion: Study concluded that for intra-row weeding operation, rotary blade along with non-rotary blade was suitable economically whereas combined blade was suitable for weeding performance only besides high cost.

Mechanical Weed Control: Sensor-Based Inter-Row Hoeing in Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in the Transylvanian Depression

Precision agriculture is about applying solutions that serve to obtain a high yield from the optimization of resources and the development of technologies based on the collection and use of precise data. Precision agriculture, including camera-guided row detection and hydraulic steering, is often used as an alternative because crop damage can be decreased and driving speed can be increased, comparable to herbicide applications. The effects of different approaches, such as uncontrolled (UC), mechanical weed control (MWC), herbicide weed control (HWC), and mechanical + herbicide control (MWC + HWC), on weed density and yield of sugar beet were tested and evaluated in two trials (2021 and 2022) in South Transylvania Depression at the tested intervals BBCH 19 and 31. Weed control efficacy (WCE) depends on the emergence of the weeds and a good timing of weed controls in all the trials and methods, though the highest yield of sugar beet roots was recorded in the treatment MWC + HWC, with an increase up to 12–15% (56.48 t ha−1) yield from HWC (50.22 t ha−1) and a yield increase of more than 35–40% than MWC (42.34 t ha−1). Our trials show that it is possible to increase yield and have fewer chemical applications with the introduction of new precision technologies in agriculture, including sensor-guided mechanical controls.

Transverse Movement Kinetics of a Unit for Inter-Row Crops—Case Study: Cultivator Unit

Due to the negative impact of chemical inter-row weed control on the environment, mechanical weed control is increasingly used in practice. Machine-tractor units (MTU) are used with the row cultivator’s rear and frontal central position for its implementation. We have designed a unit in which side cultivators are used along with the central one. This paper considers the transverse movement kinematics of such an MTU’s outside right and left cultivators’ working devices in the horizontal plane. The present emulation of side machines is made by changing the longitudinal coordinate of their location relative to the tractor’s front and rear axles. Calculations have established that the frontal cultivator responds more intensively to the control action by changing the turning angle of the tractor’s steering wheels. However, if the value of this parameter is less than 2.75°, a rear-mounted cultivator is preferred, because in this case, the values of lateral deviations for the external, left, and right working device are smaller. When the turning angle of tractor wheels is from 1° to 3° (typical for MTU row work), a threefold increase in the working width of the cultivator causes a slight antiphase deviation in its external working devices (an increase or decrease in the amplitude of these deviations does not exceed 4%). The model that we have developed allows us to select the values of the MTU design parameters for which the lateral displacement will be very small (close to zero). As the turning angle of the tractor wheels increases to 3°, the external left and right working devices of the cultivators react inversely. This means that in the case of the rear machine, the values of lateral displacements increase, while in the case of the front machine, they decrease. At a turning angle of the tires of the tractor wheels close to 2.5°, the lateral displacements for the rear and front machines are the same.