Polyacrylamide (PAM) has successfully reduced erosion and increased infiltration on a million U.S. irrigated acres. PAM is a potent and environmentally safe industrial flocculent that greatly accelerates separation of suspended solids from water. It also improves particle cohesion, stabilizing soil structure. We hypothesized that in irrigation furrows PAM prevents loss of weed seed. We grew corn (Zea mays) in plots having no herbicide, or that were treated with either Eradicane or Dual II and irrigated in furrows that had either no PAM, or that were treated either with 10 ppm predissolved PAM during advance (NRCS standard), or with PAM applied as a powder patch at the furrow head. As in previous studies, erosion was greatly reduced with PAM and infiltration was increased. PAM also reduced runoff loss of the four weed seeds (kochia, redroot pigweed, lambsquarters, and hairy nightshade) 49 to 93%. Interactions of herbicide treatments and PAM on erosion, infiltration and weed-seed-loss were related to the mulching effect of weed vegetation. PAM is an effective and environmentally safe means of reducing weed seed distribution in furrow irrigation while simultaneously reducing erosion and increasing infiltration in weed-free crop production.
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| [Title] [Abstract] [Approach] [Table 1] [Table 2] [Table 3] [Table 4] [Conclusions] | |