A preliminary investigation into the effects of night cultivation and tillage method on weed emergence

摘要

Recent research has suggested conducting tillage operations at night can reduce weed emergence. This has sparked a great deal of interest, particularly overseas, in determining the usefulness and accuracy of these claims. There have been quite mixed results, due to differences in species responses to light exposure. Interactions with environmental conditions also seem to have a large influence on the 'photo-control' of weed species. In this research, we investigated the effects of night and day cultivation on the background weed flora in a weed-infested paddock. This was coupled with the use of two different methods of tillage, which were discing and scarifying. The results showed that there were early trends towards greater emergence of grass and broadleaf weeds in the day cultivations compared with the night. At the conclusion of the experiment there were lower numbers of grass weeds (P=0.05) with greater than four leaves in the night scarify treatment compared with the day scarify treatment. There were similar trends for the night disc treatments. After 57 days, the disc treatments had greater weed emergence (P=0.05) than the undisturbed control. The same trend was seen in the scarify treatments. These preliminary results suggest that photo-control of weeds may hold potential benefits for integrated weed management in Australian cropping systems.