Manipulating weed seed production through phenology based weed control
Crop Types
- Whole Farm
Collaborating Locations
AAFC LethbridgeBackground
Canada is home to 76 unique herbicide-resistant weed biotypes. A new philosophy in weed control is mitigating weed seed returned to the soil. The heavy reliance of herbicides for weed management is likely to increase the population of weeds that have acquired resistance. The goal of this study is to identify how late can common weed species emerge and produce seed before the end of the growing season and identify when each weed species begin to produce seed. identifying these will help growers manage weeds and limit weed seed production.
Objectives
- Determine the timing of viable seed production for common weed species in western Canada.
- Determine how late common weed species can emerge and produce viable seed before the end of the growing season in western Canada.
- Determine the climatic and ecological drivers of weed phenology as it relates to viable seed production.
- Determine the critical period during which common weed species can be managed to limit weed seed production based on various thresholds.
Key Takeaways
Critical Period for Weed Seed Control (CPWSC)= the period of the growing season that weed management can sucessfully mitigate weed seed production. The CPWSC for the 7 weed speices studies are as follows: Wild Buckwheat=June 15-August 06, Wild mustard= June 27th-July 01, Kochia=July 12-August 06, Lambsquarters = July 16-August 05, Redroot pigweed= July 20-July 24, Green Foxtail=July 31-August12, non existant for wild oat.