Weed control in spring barley by lower doses of herbicides in Estonia
Talgre, L.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia))E-mail:[email protected] | Lauringson, E.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia)) | Koppel, M.(Jogeva Plant Breeding Inst. (Estonia)) | Nurmekivi, H.(Jaeneda Training and Advisory Centre, Jaervamaa (Estonia)) | Uusna, S.(Estonian Research Inst. of Agriculture, Saku, Harjumaa county (Estonia))
As herbicides are expensive and detrimental to the environment, it is necessary to restrict their use. One option is to reduce the used herbicide concentration. To study the efficiency of reduced herbicide concentrations, field experiments have been performed in Estonia since 2000. All the herbicides were applied at their standard, half and quarter doses. The experiments were conducted in spring barley in three replications. During treatment with herbicides, the weeds were in stage of 3-4 true leaves. Prior to spraying, the dominant weed species in the field were determined, as well their density per 1 square m and growth stage. The unsprayed control variant was used for comparison. Using the databases compiled by the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, two prototypes of different weed control capacity were created in Estonia for spring wheat and barley. The local prototype was tested in the field experiments in 2002 and 2003. The efficiency of the used herbicide depends on the species composition of the prevalent weeds in the field. If only weeds sensitive to the herbicide used are present, adequate efficiency is attained already with a half dose or even a quarter dose. The preliminary results from the medium- and high-efficiency weed control models used in the experiment are positive. In the experiment with barley, it was possible to reduce the herbicide rate to 45% of the recommended full concentration. The program-calculated herbicide doses put the weed control efficiency at 62-86%.
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