Emily's Musings

Western Farm Press Article

A nice press clipping from the Western Farm Press.

Salinas Valley trials monitor covers, con-till
Sep 6, 2003 12:00 PM
By Dan Bryant

"Can cover crops and conservation tillage work in Salinas Valley vegetables? Growers likely have their opinions, but University of California researchers hope to harvest details about the concept from current trials with broccoli at USDA's Spence Research Farm south of Salinas."
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Fennimore also cooperated with Shachar Shem-Tov, a visiting scientist from Israel, in a trial at the Spence site to quantify the advantages of pre-irrigating lettuce fields as a weed control practice.

By stimulating early weed emergence, local growers have found that much of the growth can be destroyed by tillage prior to seeding and the amount of herbicide needed can be reduced. In the trial, Kerb was used at rates of 0.6 and 1.2 pounds per acre.

The two researchers confirmed that weed densities and hand weeding time were reduced by preirrigation vs. no preirrigation. They measured weed densities 21 days after planting and the time required to thin the stand.

“Where a one-week preplant interval was used, sprinkler irrigation was the most effective method to deplete weed emergence, while furrow irrigation resulted in no reduction in weed densities,” Shem-Tov reported.

Where a two-week preplant interval was used, he added, weed densities in the control plots were twice those in the preirrigated plots regardless of irrigation method.

“Thinning times in the furrow- and sprinkler-irrigated plot were reduced by 37 percent to 49 percent compared with the control,” Shem-Tov said.

Differences between the preirrigation treatments and the control were significant, regardless of whether the low or high rate of Kerb was applied.

No meaningful difference was observed between the two rates, suggesting that the low rate could be used.