Seed, Seed, Seed! Managing Weeds and Reducing Yield Loss ...
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Seed, Seed, Seed! Managing Weeds and Reducing Yield Loss in Flax Lena Syrovy and Steve Shirtliffe
Transcript of Seed, Seed, Seed! Managing Weeds and Reducing Yield Loss ...
Seed, Seed, Seed! Managing Weeds and Reducing Yield Loss in Flax
Lena Syrovy and Steve Shirtliffe
Part I – Cover Crops for Weed Control
Year 1 – Flax (without or with winter cereal)
Flax only (no cover crop)
Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Fall Rye
Flax + Winter Wheat
Photos: H.S.N. Duddu
Year 2 - Cereal
Flax only (no cover crop)
Flax + Winter Barley
Flax + Winter Wheat
Flax + Fall Rye
Weed Suppression
a
b
b
ab
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Flax Flax + Fall Rye Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Winter Wheat
Wee
d B
iom
ass
(g m
-2)
Year 1 - Flax “suppression”
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Flax Flax + Fall Rye Flax + Winter Barley Flax + WinterWheat
Year
1 F
lax
Yiel
d (
kg h
a-1)
- 46%
No cover crop vs cover crop: P = 0.04
Year 2 – Cereal Yield
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
Flax/SW Flax/SR Flax + FR/FR Flax + WB/SW Flax +WW/WW
Year
2 C
ere
al Y
ield
(kg
ha-1
)
Reduced Cover Crop Seeding Rates
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
0.0 0.5 1.0
Flax
Yie
ld (
kg h
a-1)
Cover Crop Seeding Rate (prop of recommended)
b
b
a
1x = 200 targeted plants m-2
0.5x = 100 targeted plants m-2
P = 0.02
Flax + Winter Cereal
Flax only (no cover crop)
Flax + Winter Barley Flax + Fall Rye
Flax + Winter Wheat
Photos: H.S.N. Duddu
Part II – Mechanical Weed Control
Slide credit: O. Alba
Slide credit: O. Alba
10” row cultivation organic hemp
Kroeker Farms/Poplar Grove Organics
Slide credit: K. Stanley
Flax crop 5-10 cm or taller
Pre-emergence or after flax crop rooted
Slide credit: O. Alba
Crop Seeding Rate vs Weeds
70 plants m-2 140 plants m-2
280 plants m-2 560 plants m-2
Redlick et al., 2014, Weed Sci. 65(4): 525-533
All Plots Herbicide Free
IWM for organic flax
+ +
Increased crop seeding
rates
Rotary hoe Inter-row cultivation
IWM for organic flax
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Flax
Yie
ld (
kg h
a-1)
Seeding Rate (targeted plants m-2)
Control
Rotary Hoe
Inter-row
Rotary Hoe + Inter-row
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Wee
d B
iom
ass
(g m
-2)
Seeding Rate (targeted plants m-2)
Control
Rotary Hoe
Inter-row
Rotary Hoe + Inter-row
2.2 x
22%55%
33%
Flax Tolerance to Rotary Hoe
250 plants/m2 2000 plants/m2
Control Rotary hoe
Inter-row Combined
2000 plants/m2 seeding rate at Goodale
Inter-row Combined
Control Rotary hoe
250 plants/m2 seeding rate at Goodale
Photos: Y. Shen
250 plants/m2 seeding rate at Kernen
Control Rotary hoe
Inter-row Combined
Rotary hoeControl
Inter-row Combined
2000 plants/m2 seeding rate at Kernen
Photos: Y. Shen
Acknowledgements• Technical & Research Staff:
– Agronomy Research Crew: Shaun Campbell, Taryn Zdunich & many others
• Graduate and Undergraduate Students
– Quentin Lebastard, Oleksandr Alba, Yanben Shen
