The effect of living mulches and conventional methods of weed control on weed infestation and potato yield
Introduction
The presence of weeds on crop plantations is an immediate cause of a decline in yields and the worsening of crop quality. This problem is particularly apparent in widely spaced row planting, such as potato cultivation. Weed control on potato plantations is most frequently conducted based on mechanical tending measures and the application of herbicides. Conventional inter-row cultivation considerably reduces weed number and biomass (Mirabelli et al., 2005), but may also favor soil erosion (Dabney et al., 1993). Despite the application of herbicides, which ensures highly effective and wide-ranging weed control that has been in common use for over seventy years, new problems have appeared. These comprise, among others, new weed species in both plants and areas where they have, so far, been absent or where there have, until now, been herbicide resistant biotypes (Dekker, 1997). Changes in the dynamics of weed populations result from both chemical and other methods limiting weed infestation (agrotechnological, mechanical and biological). When seeking to prevent the negative effects caused by weeds, yield losses and economic issues as well as ecological aspects and the maintenance of habitat biodiversity should be also considered. According to Gerowitt et al. (2003), the total liquidation of weeds may negatively affect the functioning of ecosystems. Activities aimed at sustainable development favor the introduction of other methods to regulate weed infestation. One of these is the cultivation of cover crops including living mulches (Hartwig and Ammon, 2002). The ability to suppress weeds by various plant species sown as living mulches is presented in the literature and ranges widely from 34 to 96% (Ilnicki and Enache, 1992, Hoffman et al., 1993, Moynihan et al., 1996, De Haan et al., 1997, Ghosheh et al., 2004, Mohammadi, 2010). The positive role of living mulches is not limited to weed suppression. Their favorable effect has been observed, among others, on limiting soil erosion, the improvement of the biological activity and structure of soil, preventing nutrient leaching into the soil profile, limiting soil evaporation, diminishing daily soil temperature amplitude and limiting some pest populations (Wall et al., 1991, Leary and DeFrank, 2000, Dabney et al., 2001, Hartwig and Ammon, 2002, Nakamoto and Tsukamoto, 2006, Steenwerth and Belina, 2008). The plants that form living mulches grow simultaneously with the crop and compete with it for light, water and nutrients, as do weeds, so therefore, crop yields are lower (De Haan et al., 1997, Carof et al., 2007, Jędrszczyk and Poniedziałek, 2007). Numerous studies indicate a comparable or even greater crop productivity in this system of cultivation than in conventional ones (Ateh and Doll, 1996, Boyd et al., 2001, Adamczewska-Sowińska et al., 2009). In the above mentioned authors’ opinion, the success of crop cultivation depends not only on the proper selection of species and the sowing date, but also on the method of limiting the growth of living mulches.
In this work, we studied the effect of the living mulches of white mustard, common vetch, Persian clover and tansy phacelia, as well as mechanical and mechanical-chemical weed control treatments on the infestation of weeds and potato yield cultivated on heavy soil. The research hypothesis assumes that living mulches protect potatoes from the adverse effects of segetal vegetation as effectively as traditional weed control methods.
Section snippets
Field experimental design
The investigations were conducted in 2009–2011 at the Experimental Station of the University of Agriculture in Krakow (50°07′ N and 20°05′ E, 271 m a.s.l). The field experiment was set up in a randomized block design in four replications. The experimental factors were the cultivar and weeding method. Two potato cultivars were assessed: early ‘Vineta’ and medium early ‘Tajfun’. These cultivars differ not only in the length of their vegetation period, but also in the habit of plants and their
Biomass of living mulches and weeds
The research demonstrated the significant effect of the weather conditions, experimental factors and their cooperation on shaping living mulch and weed biomass on potato plantations (Table 3). In the group of tested species used as living mulches, Persian clover plants produced the largest biomass, whereas, tansy phacelia generated the smallest (Table 4). Weather conditions favoring mulch development occurred in 2009 when cover plant biomass was twice as big as in the other years of the
Conclusion
Each method of regulating weed infestation significantly reduced weed biomass. In this respect, mechanical-chemical treatments proved the most efficient, whereas exclusively mechanical ones proved to be the least efficient. Also, living mulches inhibited the development of segetal vegetation. Nonetheless, the combined biomass of living mulches and weeds was larger than the biomass of weeds at the site weeded by mechanical operations, while in the case of Persian clover it was also larger than
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