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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Morris, Minnesota » Soil Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #78678

Title: FORECASTING WEED EMERGENCE AND GROWTH: HOW AND WHY?

Author
item Forcella, Frank

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Weed management decisions often can be more effective if the decision-maker has current knowledge of three weed variables: potential extent of seed germination, timing of seedling emergence, and postemergence rates of seedling development. In turn, such information helps the decision-maker determine three management variables, such as the necessity, type, and timing of weed control. Unfortunately, the three weed variables are difficult to predict because they are regulated by complex interactions among weather, soil, and management practices. Nevertheless, recent gains in our understanding of weed seed and seedling biology allow us to forecast the three weed variables at the times they are needed, that is on a daily basis in spring and early summer. We have synthesized, as much as possible, this new understanding of weed seed and seedling biology into an interactive Windows-based computer program called WeedCast. The intention of WeedCast is not to make management decisions. Instead, it is intended to provide crop consultants, producers, and agri-chemical industry personnel with previously unobtainable biological information data which aids them in making management decisions.