Weed management
Good weed control does not happen by pulling a sprayer across the field once or twice a year.
Effective weed management depends on a balance of cultural, mechanical and chemical control strategies. This requires a year-round approach to every aspect of the crop production system.
For example, the way you fertilize can affect the growth of certain weeds.
Many shallow-rooted weeds thrive on fertilizer that is broadcast. Banded fertilizer placed two or three inches deep is not readily available to many weeds, but is easily used by most crops. This can have a profound effect on the way weeds grow.
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Research in Alberta shows the benefits over time of banding fertilizer. Three years after the study was initiated, green foxtail populations decreased with increasing rates of urea nitrogen banded two to three inches deep.
At the highest rate of nitrogen applied, there was almost no green foxtail.
In 1992, test plots at Alliance, Alta., showed 138 green foxtail per sq. metre where there was no applied nitrogen, and only one green foxtail per sq. metre where 180 kilograms per hectare were banded.
Tillage was also a factor in foxtail growth. Far more green foxtail plants germinated under conventional tillage than zero tillage – 287 per sq. metre in 1992 for conventional tillage, compared with 138 per sq. metre for zero tillage.
Regardless of tillage system used, increasing the rate of banded fertilizer was an effective way to reduce green foxtail populations.
The weeds decreased in this experiment because banding the nitrogen made it inaccessible to the foxtail and the increased rates of fertilizer produced a stronger crop that was better able to compete with weeds.
– Manitoba Agriculture
