- Author: Lynn M. Sosnoskie
- Author: Stanley Culpepper
- Author: Ted Webster
Cover crops have been/are being used as organic mulches in crop production systems in order to increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure, conserve water and reduce erosion. Cover crops can also suppress weeds by serving as a physical barrier to seedling emergence, inhibiting seed germination via reduced light transmittance, through the release of allelopathic chemicals, and by preventing herbicide loss.
Attached is a video from the University of Georgia describing how to mange and roll rye (not ryegrass) for Palmer amaranth control in a cotton conservation-tillage system. Although much of the information (i.e. herbicide recommendations) may seem specific to the eastern coastal plain, the clip does provide a...
- Posted By: Gale Perez
- Written by: Posted by David Low | WeedsNews2801 | January 22, 2012 | 11:15 PM
Abstract: Organic mulches could be a part of a wide strategy of integrated weed management in vegetable production systems. A 2-year field experiment was carried out in Central Italy with the aim of assessing the effect of grass and legume mulches, coming from winter cover crops, combined with herbicide or mechanical hoeing on weed control, on weed community (density and aboveground biomass of each species), and yield of a pepper crop. Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), oat (Avena sativa L.) and their mixture were sown in early autumn and suppressed in May. The cover crop aboveground biomass was cut and arranged in strips which were used as beds for pepper seedlings transplanted in paired rows. A conventional treatment...