IWMPRAISE, the Horizon 2020 project dedicated to Integrated Weed Management (IWM), has produced a series of ‘inspiration sheets’ over recent weeks. They present guidance on techniques such as inter-row hoeing in small grain cereals and improving crop diversification through the use of intercrops and subsidiary crops, alongside a series of inspiration sheets on the biology and management of a selection of weeds.
The five-year project was launched in June 2017 with the aim of demonstrating that “IWM supports more sustainable cropping systems that are resilient to external impacts and do not jeopardise profitability or the steady supply of food, feed and biomaterials”.
IWMPRAISE (full name: Integrated Weed Management: PRActical Implementation and Solutions for Europe) brings together 37 partners from eight different European countries, including universities and research institutes, SMEs and industrial partners, and advisory services and end-user organisations.
The weeds covered in the latest series of biology and management inspiration sheets include rat’s-tail fescue, common ragwort, hogweed, field bindweed and great bindweed, barren brome and other bromegrasses, ragweed and black-grass.
For each weed, the sheets offer information on their botany and ecology, control options and possible risks of confusion. For example, for bromegrasses researchers note: “Working the soil has always been a key tool in bromegrass control. The combined practices of working the soil and disking the field edges to eliminate seed production have almost relegated herbicide control to a secondary measure.”
In no-till systems, they note that black-grass densities can be significantly reduced by delaying the sowing date. They add that frequent inclusion of summer crops, such as soybean, maize and sunflower, in rotations helps reduce the seedbank and ensures good control.
Earlier in the year, another inspiration sheet examined the combination of roller crimpers and flaming for terminating cover crops. Researchers noted that in a project at the Universities of Pisa and Perugia in Italy, a 90% termination rate was reached after six weeks with roller crimpers combined with flaming immediately after rolling.
“A new prototype of a combined machine, which could simultaneously conduct rolling and flaming, would likely reduce operation costs and boost the large-scale adoption of this crop-management system,” they add.
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