A few suggestions on weed control in your garden

1. Weeds!!!
Bart Renner
North Carolina Cooperative
Extension service
May 6th, 2013

2. What is a weed?
• Plant growing in the wrong place
• Generally very aggressive/ reproduces quickly
• Responds well to disturbance

3. Why are weeds a problem?
• Rob our desired crops of nutrients, sunlight, water.
• Create home for undesirable
insects, fungus, snakes, rats, pests etc.
• Make harvest difficult

4. Weeds?
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3193/2464758679_7b99c6e2a2_z.jpg?zz=1

5. Weed?
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk17/kkozmins/volunteercornAug6-1.jpg

6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_b_MC5rbeRUc/TBqz2ESnPjI/AAAAAAAABe4/iqMyV943jeY/s1600/100_6085.JPG
An IPM approach to weed management
Weed
information
Herbicides
Hand pulling
Tillage Cover crops
Crop
rotation
Weed
free
periods

7. Hand pulling weeds
• Best for in between plants
• Understand when your weeds are beginning to
harm your crops
• Best done in the morning

8. Tillage
Positive
• It is a mechanical way to destroy weeds.
• Ploughing loosens and aerates the top layer of soil
which can facilitate the planting of the crop.
• It helps in the mixing of residue from the
harvest, organic matter (humus) and nutrients
evenly throughout the soil.
• Dries the soil before seeding.

9. Tillage
Negative
• Brings up weed seed buried in soil
• Soil dries faster
• Erosion of soil / Higher rate of fertilizer and
chemical runoff.
• Reduces organic matter in the soil
(Microbes, carbon
compounds, earthworms, ants, etc.).
• Destroys soil aggregates.
• Aeration and mineralization may cause
lower soil fertility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillage

10. Cover crops
http://www.waldeneffect.org/20110824covercrops.jpg

11. Rye
• Important to understand the difference between
ryegrass and cereal rye.
• Generally most cold tolerant cover crop.
• Produce allelopathic chemicals
• Can mine nutrients from deep in the soil

12. Cereal rye
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Ear_of_rye.jpg/800px-

13. Ryegrass
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Starr_001026-9002_Lolium_perenne.jpg/754px-Starr_001026-9002_Lolium_perenne.jpg
Cool season grass
Deep roots
Allelopathic

14. Vetch
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Vicia_orobus1_eF.jpg/417px
-Vicia_orobus1_eF.jpg
•Great nitrogen fixer
•Very effective at out
competing weeds
(once established).
•Good for the bees!

15. Cereal Rye and vetch
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/vetch%20and%20rye.JPG

16. Clover
• Cold tolerant, can be
planted in the fall or
spring
• N fixing
• Great for the bees!
• Needs a higher pH (6.5-
7)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Trifolium_pratense_0522.jpg/220px-Trifolium_pratense_0522.jpg

17. Clover
http://www.extension.org/sites/default/files/w/1/17/Crimson_clover_cover_crop_small.jpg

18. Buckwheat
• Rapid growth in the
summer
• Great for a smother
crop in between
spring and fall
plantings
• Rapid growth cycle

19. Brassicas
• Produce plenty of
biomass
• Have shown good
pest and
nematode control
• Good for the
bees!
• Deep rooted
http://www.extension.org/pages/18643/brassicas-and-mustards-for-cover-cropping-in-organic-farming

20. Synthetic Ground
covers
• Can be permeable
or impermeable
• biodegradable
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/images/Produ
ct/large/9302.jpg

22. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FQwY2pRG6O8/ShiGsswp8DI/AAAAAAAAAHg/71iqXYbP_Ng/s400/Tomatoes+mulched.JPG

23. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-IaFYVlbPM/TZL5vv5waeI/AAAAAAAAANY/Mz7uJ1PcIq8/s1600/100_5303.JPG

24. Timing of weeding
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/09-045wf1.jpg

25. http://www.nzdl.org/gsdl/collect/fnl2.2/archives/HASHd3b4.dir/p090.gif

26. Chemicals
• Round up-
Glyphsate
• Crossbow-
Tychlopyr, 2,4-D
• Dicamba-
broadleaf weeds
• Many more

27. Questions?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ranMxTMXrw0/TzG_0CbfpqI/AAAAAAAAAjc/vT_-khhblHo/s1600/weeding.jpg