Influence of different cover crops on the emergence and development of Digitaria horizontalis

Abstract

The physical and / or allelopathic effects caused by cover crops residue can be used to suppress the emergence and / or reduce weed growth. Based on the effects of mulch on soil surface, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of cover crops biomass at different residue amount levels in the emergence and development of Digitaria horizontalis. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse from May to August, 2014, in a completely randomized design with four replications in (5 × 4) + 1 a factorial scheme, consisting of 5 cover crop species (millet cv. ADR 300 (Pennisetum glaucum), braquiaria (Urochola brizantha), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and Crotalaria ocroleuca) and four levels of dry mass of the corresponding plant (3, 6, 9 and 12 t ha -1 ) on soil surface, with another treatment without cover crop (0 t ha -1 ). The analyzed variables were the number of emerged plants, shoot dry mass, leaf area, root dry mass and root volume. Cover crops have proven potential to reduce D. horizontalis in all vegetative stages. The species C. ochroleuca and U. Brizantha showed a greater efficiency in reducing the number of emerged plants with a reduction of 86% and 91%, respectively. Amounts between 3 and 6 t ha -1 of cover crops dry mass have been sufficient to promote significant reduction in emergence and growth of Digitaria horizontalis.

Levels of shading and application of glyphosate and carfentrazone-ethyl in the control of Macroptilium atropurpureum

“…The action of herbicides on plants grown under shade is quite variable, depending on the mechanism of action of the herbicide and on the response of the weed species to radiation restriction (Fonseca et al, 2016;Besançon et al, 2017). Thus, knowledge about the effect of herbicides with distinct mechanisms of action in plants established in environments with different levels of insolation is essential to develop improved management strategies.…”

Preliminary Trial of Cover Cropping and Weed Control for Organic Rice

“…The physical and allelopathic effects caused by cover crops residue can be used to suppress the emergence of weed and reduce weed growth [12]. Cover crop mixtures provide more effective weed suppression relative to monoculture cover crops [13] because of complementarity function of cover crop species [14].…”