Innovative strategies for on-farm weed management in organic carrot

Abstract

Weed management is often the most troublesome technical problem to be solved in organic farming, especially in poorly competitive crops like vegetables. A four-year (2000-2003) series of trials was established to assess the possibility of adopting an innovative non-chemical weed management system in organic carrot grown on the Fucino plateau, i.e., the most important carrot-growing area in Italy. The system utilized for physical weed control was based first on a false seedbed technique followed by pre-sowing weed removal, performed with a special 2 m wide 6-row spring-tine harrow. Prior to crop emergence, a pass with a flame weeder equipped with four 50 cm wide-open flame burners was also performed. Post-emergence weed control consisted of one or more hoeing passes with a purpose-designed 11-tine precision hoe equipped with spring implements (torsion weeders and vibrating tines), in addition to hand weeding. This innovative system was applied to a novel planting pattern (sowing in ten individual rows within 2 m wide beds) and compared to the standard management system of the area (sowing within 2 m wide beds but in five bands, use of spring-tine harrowing and flame weeding pre-emergence and of traditional hoeing post-emergence). The new system was tested in different commercial farms including both early and late-sown carrot. Assessments included machine operative characteristics, labor time, weed density and biomass, crop root yield and yield quality, and economic data (physical weed control costs and crop gross margin). Compared to the standard system, the innovative system usually resulted in reduced labor time (from 28 to 40%) and total costs for physical weed control (on average -416 € ha-1). Use of the precision hoe resulted in intra-row weed reduction ranging from 65 to 90%, which also led to a marked reduction in the labor required for hand weeding. In 2001 the two systems did not differ in terms of yield and yield quality, whereas in 2002 and 2003 the innovative system showed a higher mean density of carrot plants (from 28 to 55%), root yield (from 30 to 42%), and gross margin (from 40 to 100%). Carrot yield was higher in farms which adopted an early sowing whereas root commercial quality was somewhat variable between systems and years. In general, results obtained with the innovative management system look very promising

The influence of non-living mulch, mechanical and thermal treatments on weed population and yield of rainfed fresh-market tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

“…Different weed control strategies carried out on fresh market tomato in the three-year experiment (2006-2007-2008 The pre-transplant treatments included a stale seedbed technique carried out with the rolling harrow (Raffaelli et al, 2010(Raffaelli et al, , 2011) and a flaming machine (Raffaelli et al, 2010(Raffaelli et al, , 2011Peruzzi et al, 2007). The stale seedbed technique depletes weed seedbank by stimulating weed emergence leading to devitalisation by repeated mechanical/thermal treatments.…”

“…Flame weeding is used to control weeds in stale seedbed technique prior to crop emergence or planting (Cloutier et al, 2007;Peruzzi et al, 2007;Raffaelli et al, 2010Raffaelli et al, , 2011. It can also be used after crop emergence in crop rows in heat-tolerant crops (Ascard & Van der Weide, 2011).…”

Occupational risks related to vibrations using a brush cutter for green area management

“…Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of mechanical and physico-chemical methods used for this practice [1,2,3], as well as to quantify the various risks to which the operators are often exposed,such as vibrations, noise, physical fatigue, difficult postures and exposure to chemicals [4,5].…”

Mechanical weed control in organic winter wheat

“…Indeed, Pannacci and Tei (2014), summarising the results of eight field experiments on the mechanical weed control in the same area, showed an average weed control efficacy of 37% and 73%, for spring-tine harrow and split-hoeing respectively. Furthermore, other authors affirmed that for the inter-row cultivators the trade-off between weed control and crop damage is not significant and weeds are generally well managed by cultivation, while whole-crop cultivators, like springtine harrows show varying and sometimes poor results (Cirujeda and Taberner, 2006;Cloutier et al, 2007;Peruzzi et al, 2007;Van der Weide et al, 2008;Rasmussen et al, 2010). However, it should be point out as by an economical point of view the inter-row cultivators, like split-hoeing or traditional hoeing, seems to be less sustainable than whole-crop cultivators, like spring-tine harrowing.…”