Influence of farming system on weeds in thresh crops of a six-year crop rotation

Published source details Gruber H., Händel K. & Broschewitz B. (2000) Influence of farming system on weeds in thresh crops of a six-year crop rotation. Proceedings 20th German conference on weed biology and weed control, 33-40.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

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	Reduce tillage Action Link

Reduce tillage

A paired sites study in 1993-1999 on arable fields in Gülzow, north Germany (Gruber et al. 2000) found that reduced tillage could lead to higher weed densities and higher weed species numbers compared to ploughing. Single weed species were affected differently by the tillage method in different crops. For example, goosefoot Chenopodium album and couch grass Elymus repens were observed more frequently under reduced tillage than after ploughing in summer cereals, but less frequently in reduced tillage winter cereals. The opposite was found for others such as knotweed species Polygonum spp. and common chickweed Stellaria media, which were more frequent in ploughed than in reduced tillage summer cereal fields, whereas in winter cereals they were more frequent under reduced tillage. Fields were divided into one organically and one integrated managed part (0.55-1.1 ha). Within each management system, two types of soil preparation (ploughing and reduced tillage) were compared. The 6-year crop rotation included clover Trifolium spp.-grass ley, potatoes/corn, spring barley, fodder peas, winter wheat/rye and oat undersown with red clover T. pratense. Mechanical weed control was adopted on the organic fields. Herbicide use in the integrated system was adapted to the actual weed abundance. Weed density (plants/m²), weed cover (%) and species number were recorded yearly before weed control activities on four plots (from 1997) in each field. Note that no statistical analyses have been performed on the data presented in this paper.