Weed Management

Weed Management

Greenhouse Herbicides for Vegetables

Organic Weed Control in No-Till Vegetable Systems

Japanese stiltgrass is an invasive grass that is typically seen in wooded areas. It likes shaded, wet areas and can easily take over the forest understory. Unfortunately, it can also creep into pastures and hay fields. The leaves of Japanese stiltgrass are wider and shorter than most of our common pasture grasses. There is also a distinctive silvery midvein that is slightly off-center from the middle of the leaf (Figure 1).

For our organic vegetable growers in the Mid-Atlantic the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s State Organic Program issued a STOP USE notice for W.O.W. (WHACK OUT WEEDS!) and ECOMIGHT-PRO products,manufactured by EcoMight LLC.

Weed control is a principal concern for vegetable growers. The adoption of sustainable agricultural techniques can reduce land managers' dependency on expensive or harmful chemicals, but may also result in increased weed presence. Weed control is not just a matter of preventing weed emergence or killing weeds that arise during the growing season. A good management strategy should include reducing the size of the existing weed seedbank. Adopting techniques that reduce the weed seedbank is a necessary step toward long term weed management solutions.

Offing Cover Crops for Weed Suppression: Featuring the Roller Crimper and Other Mechanical Contraptions

Organic vegetable growers have a hard time managing weeds, as there are no reliable Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) chemicals for controlling grass or broad leaf weeds. Most of the time growers depend on tillage for weed control, but excess tillage can lead to destruction of soil structure and the loss of carbon from the soil. No-tilling cover crops is a possibility, but has several problems, most notably being unreliable as a season-long weed control method.

Weed management in vegetable cropping systems typically consists of crop rotation, manual weeding, weed mats, herbicides, and cultivation. Herbicide options in conventional and organically grown vegetables are limited because of infrequent registration of new herbicides and product loss due to regulatory actions. Further, vegetable crops are sensitive to many herbicides and this limits the number of products that can be safely applied.

Common Groundsel: Identification and Management in Nursery and Landscape Settings