COVER CROPS AND MULCHES INFLUENCE WEED COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS IN STRIP TILLED TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicon L.)

Summary

The aim of this poster is to investigate the effects that cover crop species and their residues may have on weed community composition in a winter cover crop-tomato sequence. Experiments were carried out at the experimental farm of Tuscia University from 2011 to 2013. The treatments consisted in:
(i) 5 soil managements [three winter cover crop species (hairy vetch, phacelia, and white mustard), a winter fallow soil mulched with barley straw before tomato transplanting, and a winter fallow tilled before tomato transplanting (conventional)};
(ii) 2 levels of nitrogen fertilization applied on tomato [0 kg of N ha-1 (N0) and 100 kg of N ha-1 (N100)];
(iii) 2 levels of weed management applied on tomato [weed-free (WF) and weedy (We)].
Cover crop residues were arranged in strips and tomato seedlings were transplanted in paired rows into the mulch strips. In the weedy treatments the weeds were controlled with a rotary hoe only between the tomato paired rows. Weed species density and weed aboveground biomass were determined at cover crop suppression and at tomato harvesting.