Perennial weed control and nitrogen leaching in long-term organic crop rotation experiments for cereal production

Summary

Catch crops reduced nitrate leaching in both rotations at Jyndevad. The same tendency was seen in one rotation at Flakkebjerg. At Jyndevad, stubble cultivations decreased Elymus repens density in the treatments without catch crops. Application of manure decreased the E. repens density in one rotation. At Flakkebjerg, there was a lower infestation of C. arvense in the rotation with than without grass-clover, with least biomass in the crop the year after grass-clover. There was no significant difference between the biomass of C. arvense in the treatments with and without catch crop, in spite of the fact that stubble cultivations and row hoeing were carried out without catch crops. The reason was most likely that the nutrients retained in the topsoil by the catch crops benefited the crops, which became more competitive against the weeds. Yields of spring cereals were consistently increased after catch crops.
At sites with light soils and excess precipitation in autumn, stubble cultivations will most likely contribute to nitrogen leaching compared with growing catch crops in the same season. With stubble cultivations the following crop will be deprived of some important nutrition, and probably be less competitive against the weeds compared with the situation with catch crops. This is also indicated by the fact that manure applications in some cases reduced E. repens density. Our experiments show that although stubble cultivations reduce the E. repens infestation compared to the use of catch crops; the expected increase in the yield of the following crop may not be large enough to counter the negative effect of the nutrient loss.
The efficacy of direct control on perennial weeds in the succeeding crop interacts with nutrient leaching so that the yield effects may differ from what is expected. Experiments aimed solely at revealing efficacy of direct control measures may fail to describe the relationship between different treatments, which are very important in organic farming. Our results emphasize that long-term experiments are important for evaluating the effect of different measures.