Physical weed control in protected leaf-beet in central Italy

Abstract

Leaf-beet is a typical and very important protected cultivation crop in central Italy. In leaf-beet protected cultivation, weed control is one of the most important problems because of its fairly long crop cycle (approximately 4-5 months). The aim of this research was to set up an efficient non chemical weed control strategy performed with innovative machines built and set up by the University of Pisa. A two-year (2006-2007) 'on-farm' experimental trial was carried out in Crespina (PI). A conventional weed management technique (consisting of one pre-transplanting chemical treatment) was compared with an innovative physical weed control strategy in an organic production system (consisting of using a stale seedbed technique, in several post-emergence precision hoeing and in-row hand-weeding treatments). In the conventional technique, leaf-beet was manually transplanted, while it was sown with a precision pneumatic planter in the organic system. All innovative machines for physical weed control were adjusted and set up for the protected cultivation. Similar yields were recorded for the two systems in this two-year trial. Total labor time (for weed management and crop planting) was appreciably lower in the conventional system in the first year of the experiment (-67%), while in the second year, some improvement in the physical weed control techniques decreased labor needs with respect to the conventional technique (-40%). Weed dry biomass at harvest was significantly lower in the organic cropping system (on average -50%).

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.…”

“…Flaming took place just before transplanting (Table 2). Post-transplant weed control was carried out with a precision hoe equipped with rigid tools and torsion weeders working in the inter-row and intra-row space, respectively Raffaelli et al, 2010). Hand-weeding was also performed when needed.…”

“…The rolling harrow has a steering handle system for precision weeding. The operative machine is modular, so it can be built with different working widths depending on the space between rows (Cloutier et al, 2007;Raffaelli et al, 2010Raffaelli et al, , 2011. In these trials, a 2 m wide rolling harrow (with an actual working width of 1.5 m) was used just for the stale seedbed technique.…”

“…The false seedbed technique can be carried out by means of various machines: chain harrows, flex-tine harrows, rotary hoes and the rolling harrow (Cloutier et al, 2007). Our machine was designed, developed and patented at the University of Pisa, Italy, and has been used with several vegetable crops for pre and post-planting weed control (Raffaelli et al, 2010(Raffaelli et al, , 2011.…”

“…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).…”