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Title: SOLARIA HELP PREDICT IN-CROP WEED DENSITIES

Author
item EYHERABIDE, JUAN - UNIVERSIDAD DE MAR DEL PL
item CALVINO, PABLO - UNIVERSIDAD DE MAR DEL PL
item Forcella, Frank
item GABRIELA, CENDOYA - UNIVERSIDAD DE MAR DEL PL
item ERADAT OSKOUI, KAZAM - W CENTRAL ENVIRON CONSULT

Submitted to: Weed Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/24/2002
Publication Date: 3/24/2003
Citation: EYHERABIDE, J.J., CALVINO, P.A., FORCELLA, F., GABRIELA, C., ERADAT OSKOUI, K. SOLARIA HELP PREDICT IN-CROP WEED DENSITIES. WEED TECHNOLOGY. 2003. V. 17. P. 166-172.

Interpretive Summary: The ability to predict the species and abundance of weeds in cropped fields before crops are sown gives farmers and crop advisors valuable information for weed control. The necessity of treating fields with soil applied herbicide, and the type of herbicides to use, are decisions that could be facilitated if weed species and abundances were known ahead of time. In the past, weed scientists developed such information from sampling soil seed banks, but this labor-intensive technique was never adopted by crop advisors. Consequently, a team of researchers in Argentina and Minnesota conducted joint experiments to test whether a simpler technique could be used for the same purpose. This team used "solaria" (tiny portable greenhouses) that were placed in fields in late winter to stimulate weed seeds to germinate early. The species composition and density of the early-emerging seedlings under solaria then were compared to the density and species of weeds that emerged in the same fields about one month after crop sowing. For dominant weed species there was good correspondence between seedling densities in solaria before crop sowing and in the same fields one month after crop sowing. This indicates that cheap and portable solaria can be used to predict forthcoming weed problems in summer-growing crops. Crop consultants, in particular, may benefit from this type of information, and their resulting recommendations could increase the efficiency of weed control in crops such as corn and soybean.

Technical Abstract: At locations in Argentina and USA, solaria (miniature, portable, plastic greenhouses or plastic sheets about 1 m**2) were placed on field soils in autumn or late winter in an attempt to predict summer annual weed densities. Initial emergence of summer annual weeds, covered by solaria commenced weeks before that of weeds in exposed seedbeds. Cumulative emergence of many species in solaria reached asymptotes before crops were sown. At asymptotic cumulative emergence, densities of dominant weeds in solaria (common lambsquarters, green foxtail, and large crabgrass) were correlated with weed densities occurring four weeks after sowing, the typical time for making postemergence weed control decisions. These results indicate that solaria may supplement seedbank sampling techniques for predicting weed densities in crops.